Company Creates Water Condenser That Requires No Energy, Capturing Drinkable Water 24 Hours a Day

Written by Fabio Lucas Carvalho

Published on 30/06/2021 at 23:00

Foto: ethz.ch

Be the first to react!

Swiss Researchers Design Device Capable of Condensing Drinking Water 24 Hours a Day Without the Need for Energy

Global warming has harmed the supply of freshwater around the planet. Coastal cities are opting for desalination plants, and the option to extract water from the air is growing worldwide. However, these options are expensive and consume a lot of energy, which means they are used only in certain places. However, researchers from ETH Zurich aim to help communities around the globe generate drinking water 24 hours a day, at low cost and without using energy.

The Swiss device consists of a coated glass panel that promises to reflect the sun’s reaction and also radiates its heat directly into space. Thus, the condensation equipment can stay up to 15 degrees below the ambient temperature. At the bottom of the equipment, the water vapor in the air condenses and generates drinking water.

The specialists coated the glass with a special polymer designed specifically for this purpose, capable of capturing drinking water 24 hours a day without using energy. The coating makes the glass emit infrared radiation in a window. The project also features a radiation shield shaped like a cone to deflect heat radiation.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Ability to Capture Drinking Water Without Energy

The project has the capacity to operate without any energy input. The device can produce up to 0.6 deciliters of water per hour per square meter of panel under optimal conditions: “This is close to the theoretical maximum value of 2.03 ounces (0.6 deciliters) per hour, which is physically impossible to exceed,” highlights Iwan Hanchler, a student at ETH Zurich.

The unique aspect of this project compared to others is that the condensed water needs to be removed from a surface, an action that requires energy. The researchers then applied a hydrophobic coating, allowing the water to drip and be collected.

The idea of the project is to invest in a device that can be used in countries with significant water scarcity, as well as in developing and emerging countries.

Company Creates Water Condenser That Requires No Energy, Capturing Drinkable Water 24 Hours a Day

Swiss Researchers Design Device Capable of Condensing Drinking Water 24 Hours a Day Without the Need for Energy

Ability to Capture Drinking Water Without Energy

With billions in loans, China is rebuilding Nigeria’s railway network from scratch, abandoning the British colonial tracks that have turned to scrap and creating a corridor of over 1,300 km to take the load off the roads of Africa’s largest economy.

A British company has installed in the middle of the ocean the world’s first floating platform that generates electricity 24 hours a day from the temperature difference between the surface and the depths of the Atlantic, without relying on wind or sun.

China is building an artificial island in the middle of the sea, covering 20 km², to construct the largest offshore airport in the world, the Dalian Jinzhouwan. This $4.3 billion project is anchored on more than 3,000 pillars embedded in the rock beneath the ocean and is scheduled to open in 2035.

Forget petroleum-based asphalt: a Scottish company transforms 684,000 plastic bottles into one kilometer of road that is 60% more resistant and up to 10 times more durable, and the technology has already started replacing traditional asphalt in more than 30 countries.

A robot named Walter does the work of five bricklayers per hour and can save the construction industry, where the average age of professionals is 46 years and almost no one wants to learn the trade anymore, in the United Kingdom.

Austrian engineers have developed an inflatable concrete technology that transforms flat slabs into domes using only air pressure, eliminating scaffolding and temporary forms, and potentially changing the way bridges, tunnels, and curved roofs are constructed worldwide.

The James Webb telescope spotted a planet 700 light-years from Earth with mornings full of sand clouds and nights with clear skies, the temperature difference between the two hemispheres reaches an impressive 170 degrees.

Brazil will harvest a record crop of up to 357 million tons of grains, but it does not have the capacity to store a large part of it. The storage deficit has reached the highest level in history and is equivalent to almost the entire production of Argentina.

Scientists considered detonating 213 nuclear bombs in the Sahara to create an artificial sea the size of El Salvador, with each explosion being a hundred times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, and the goal was to generate more energy than Egypt’s largest hydroelectric plant.

A new 3D printing technology promises to give robots muscles similar to humans.

China pours concrete for 60 hours non-stop to form the largest caisson in the world on a highway bridge over the Yangtze and prepare the base that will support a 1,600-meter span over one of the most important rivers on the planet.

While thieves looted almost all the neighboring tombs over 2,600 years, an Etruscan chamber in Italy remained sealed and untouched all this time, and archaeologists have just opened it to find more than a hundred objects in the exact place where they were left.

Company Creates Water Condenser That Requires No Energy, Capturing Drinkable Water 24 Hours a Day

Swiss Researchers Design Device Capable of Condensing Drinking Water 24 Hours a Day Without the Need for Energy

Ability to Capture Drinking Water Without Energy

With billions in loans, China is rebuilding Nigeria’s railway network from scratch, abandoning the British colonial tracks that have turned to scrap and creating a corridor of over 1,300 km to take the load off the roads of Africa’s largest economy.

A British company has installed in the middle of the ocean the world’s first floating platform that generates electricity 24 hours a day from the temperature difference between the surface and the depths of the Atlantic, without relying on wind or sun.

China is building an artificial island in the middle of the sea, covering 20 km², to construct the largest offshore airport in the world, the Dalian Jinzhouwan. This $4.3 billion project is anchored on more than 3,000 pillars embedded in the rock beneath the ocean and is scheduled to open in 2035.

Forget petroleum-based asphalt: a Scottish company transforms 684,000 plastic bottles into one kilometer of road that is 60% more resistant and up to 10 times more durable, and the technology has already started replacing traditional asphalt in more than 30 countries.

A robot named Walter does the work of five bricklayers per hour and can save the construction industry, where the average age of professionals is 46 years and almost no one wants to learn the trade anymore, in the United Kingdom.

Austrian engineers have developed an inflatable concrete technology that transforms flat slabs into domes using only air pressure, eliminating scaffolding and temporary forms, and potentially changing the way bridges, tunnels, and curved roofs are constructed worldwide.

The James Webb telescope spotted a planet 700 light-years from Earth with mornings full of sand clouds and nights with clear skies, the temperature difference between the two hemispheres reaches an impressive 170 degrees.

At 4,400 meters of altitude in the Himalayas, where the air is so thin it makes breathing difficult, India’s state oil company drilled a thousand meters of rock to reach a 240-degree subsoil and set up the country’s first geothermal plant.

An “invisible” plant can transform rivers meeting the sea into electricity 24 hours a day: French startup uses nanotechnology to extract energy from the salt difference between fresh and saltwater, without sun, wind, dam, or fuel.

An “invisible” plant can transform rivers meeting the sea into electricity 24 hours a day: French startup uses nanotechnology to extract energy from the salt difference between fresh and saltwater, without sun, wind, dam, or fuel.

Scientists develop a low-cost alternative to generate green hydrogen on a large scale using an innovative chemical process; discovery could revolutionize energy infrastructure, heavy industry, and sustainable transportation systems around the world.

Forget common renewable energy: HydroWing prepares a 10 MW project in Indonesia to transform ocean currents into predictable electricity, using turbines installed on the seabed in a region where the funnel effect between islands increases tidal potential.

Brazil will harvest a record crop of up to 357 million tons of grains, but it does not have the capacity to store a large part of it. The storage deficit has reached the highest level in history and is equivalent to almost the entire production of Argentina.

Scientists considered detonating 213 nuclear bombs in the Sahara to create an artificial sea the size of El Salvador, with each explosion being a hundred times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, and the goal was to generate more energy than Egypt’s largest hydroelectric plant.

A new 3D printing technology promises to give robots muscles similar to humans.

China pours concrete for 60 hours non-stop to form the largest caisson in the world on a highway bridge over the Yangtze and prepare the base that will support a 1,600-meter span over one of the most important rivers on the planet.

While thieves looted almost all the neighboring tombs over 2,600 years, an Etruscan chamber in Italy remained sealed and untouched all this time, and archaeologists have just opened it to find more than a hundred objects in the exact place where they were left.