Harvesting Clean Water from Air.
But existing technologies generally require high moisture and a lot of electricity, which is expensive and often unavailable.
The team intends for its technology to overcome a notable problem with most materials capable of absorbing water from the atmosphere (such as the zeolites in humidifiers): aside from needing high humidity, they give up the trapped water only when heated substantially, which takes energy.
Berkeley group.
Beyond their versatility, MOFs’ great promise lies with their phenomenally large pores: the surface area inside is almost 10 times that of porous zeolites.
Taking a different tack, a start-up called Zero Mass Water in Scottsdale, Ariz., has begun selling a solar-based system that does not have to be hooked up to an electric grid or an existing water system.
A solar panel provides energy that both drives air through a proprietary water-absorbing material and powers condensation of the extracted moisture into fluid.
Cody Friesen, founder of Zero Mass Water and a materials scientist at Arizona State University, developed the system with the aim of having it work sustainably and easily anywhere in the world.
When most people think about solar, he adds, “they think about electricity.
Carbeck serves on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Advanced Materials.