New Solar Energy Technology Can Extract Water From Air Even in Dry Climates

Written by Valdemar Medeiros

Published on 06/11/2020 at 10:24

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Meet The New Device That Uses Solar Energy to Extract Drinking Water Even From The Driest Air

A new solar-powered device developed by a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology can extract and condense clean water from dry air, without relying on electricity.

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The solar-powered device works by using temperature differences to transfer water molecules to adsorbent materials, where water is condensed using the sun’s heat before being moved back into a container.

When there is no sunlight to heat the thermal plates that condense the water, the molecules can be collected on the materials before being harvested the next day.

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MIT Tries to Overcome Water Scarcity Situations Using The Power of Technology

According to IFL Science, this is not the first time a solution involving solar energy technology like this has been proposed, but the device from the MIT team seems to be the most effective attempt to use this process so far.

While previous versions were seen as very limited in their use, this time the researchers added a second adsorption-desorption stage to increase capacity and also shifted from specialized materials to use more widely available options – likely cheaper solar panels.

The scientists working on this new solar technology believe it could work in locations where humidity is as low as 20%, while similar devices currently in use in some desert regions require air with at least 50% humidity to produce water.

At the moment, the solar technology has the capacity to produce 0.8 liters of water per day. This is quite impressive, but considering that the human body requires about 2.5 liters per day to survive, it is likely that researchers will need to increase the device’s output before it can be deployed as a realistic solution to water crises.

New Solar Energy Technology Can Extract Water From Air Even in Dry Climates

Meet The New Device That Uses Solar Energy to Extract Drinking Water Even From The Driest Air

Read Also

MIT Tries to Overcome Water Scarcity Situations Using The Power of Technology

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New Solar Energy Technology Can Extract Water From Air Even in Dry Climates

Meet The New Device That Uses Solar Energy to Extract Drinking Water Even From The Driest Air

Read Also

MIT Tries to Overcome Water Scarcity Situations Using The Power of Technology

Seen from space, an image taken by an astronaut shows an unlikely oasis in the Saudi Arabian desert, protected by a terrain that slows the advance of sand, surrounded by green circles, remnants of an extinct lake and nearly 10,000 years of preserved history.

While the U.S. still faces limitations in deep space, China is developing unprecedented technology with strategic satellites that maintain communication with the far side of the Moon and aims for dominance by 2030.

In Botswana, a salt flat of up to 16,000 km² that was once an African megalake spends months as an absolute white desert, but during the rainy season it transforms into a shallow sea that reappears from nowhere and can be seen from space in the middle of southern Africa.

The Blood Falls of Antarctica hide a living ecosystem trapped under the ice for over 2 million years, where microbes survive without light, without oxygen, and without ever having seen the Sun.

Bavarian archaeologists unearthed a medieval skeleton that had an articulated iron hand in place of its left arm, and the discovery reveals that doctors were already creating sophisticated prosthetics over 500 years ago.

The CEO of Honor in Spain says that smartphones will change with AI, foldables, and even robot phones; the component crisis is making cheap models more expensive in 2026 and shifting the focus to premium.

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Scientists warn that Earth’s oxygen has an expiration date and that the Sun itself will be responsible for ending the air we breathe by making photosynthesis impossible in about one billion years.

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