With a portable freshwater harvester in development, up to 10 gallons of water could be harvested from the air every hour.
The researchers, led by Shing-Chung Wong, PhD, presented their findings during the 256th National Meeting & Exposition of the ACS, hoping to address worldwide water shortage.
There’s investment in wastewater treatment, but I thought that effort alone was inadequate,” said Wong.
Water scarcity inspired Wong and his group of researchers to focus on developing an alternative method of freshwater harvesting.
In their opinion, recycling waste water is expensive and does not meet the demand for water.
How does the portable freshwater harvester work?
Wong, together with his students from the University of Akron, say their device uses a nanofiber-based method of water collection where they employ the use of elctrospun polymers.
Through electrospinning, polymer fibers “ranging from tens of nanometers to 1 micrometre” are produced by the electrical forces.
By use of both hydrophilic and hydrophobic polymers, which attract water and discharge water respectively, the device can harvest 744 mg/ cm2/ h, which, according to Wong and his team, is 91 percent higher than similarly designed devices without nanofibers.
The portable freshwater harvester has a high chance of success due to the efficient ratio implemented into the design paired with its efficient minimal energy requirements.