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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.
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