Scientists Turn Air Into Drinking Water With Device Powered Solely by Sunlight.
Scientists have created a device that can pull drinking water from the air using only the power of sunlight.
That could change the lives of the 4 billion people around the globe who lack access to safe drinking warer for at least one month per year.
The technology is based on a material called a metal-organic framework (MOF), first developed by Yaghi more than 20 years ago.
Recently, he and Wang, a mechanical engineer, teamed up to develop an MOF device that could collect water.
This was in conditions with just 20 to 30 percent humidity.
Wang tells Newsweek that at the moment, the device is not viable as a commercial product.
We can then think about clever designs of how to stack these layers into the system by which you can enhance the transportation of the vapor molecules and the production of the water.” The plan is to create a 30-liter system, about the size of a carry-on suitcase, which would be able to provide drinking water for a family of four each day.
Certainly, there are many techniques for capturing water at high humidity but all those don’t work at low humidity as this MOF device does.
“This is the first material and device capable of water capture and delivery under such conditions, making it potentially possible to water those areas where water is scarce.