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Water From Wind

Posted by kdawson on from the and-power-too dept.

ghostcorps recommends a writeup in The Australian by columnist Phillip Adams about a new windmill design that extracts water from air. The article gives few details of how it works, because patent protection is not yet in place, but what is revealed sounds promising. "[Max] Whisson's design has many blades, each as aerodynamic as an aircraft wing, and each employing 'lift' to get the device spinning... They don't face into the wind like a conventional windmill; they're arranged vertically, within an elegant column, and take the wind from any direction... The secret of Max's design is how his windmills, whirring away in the merest hint of a wind, cool the air as it passes by... With three or four of Max's magical machines on hills at our farm we could fill the tanks and troughs, and weather the drought. One small Whisson windmill on the roof of a suburban house could keep your taps flowing. Biggies on office buildings, whoppers on skyscrapers, could give independence from the city's water supply. And plonk a few hundred in marginal outback land — specifically to water tree-lots — and you could start to improve local rainfall."

10 of 411 comments (clear)

  1. Interested.... by SQLGuru · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Things I would like to know:

    1. Does this design perform better than other windmill designs (for generation).
    2. What will this do to the atmospheric conditions?
    3. If everyone has one....will it no longer rain?

    Layne

    1. Re:Interested.... by SQLGuru · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Oh, and if you put the windmill high enough, can you also generate considerable electricity with the water as gravity brings it down to the ground?

      Layne

    2. Re:Interested.... by misleb · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'm guessing that it is more of a constant trickle. Doubt it would generate much electricity. Might as well try to build a dam at the curb of your street to generate electricity from teh water flowing into the sewers :P

      -matthew

      --
      "THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
    3. Re:Interested.... by danpat · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Another post already mentioned this, but it's all to do with pressure. See this:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airfoil

      when air moves over something like an airfoil, a low pressure area is created.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideal_gas_law

      Generally, when you drop the pressure, the temperature will also drop. A drop in temperature will likely lead to condensation, which this device puports to gather.

    4. Re:Interested.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I do not believe this is a scam - roughly 15 years ago or so a bunch of guys and me built a couple of scale models of vertical mills with aerofoil blades generating lift, the mill both faced windward in whatever direction the wind decided to come from as well as spun faster than a bat out of hell to put it mildly, quite a lot faster than the windspeed if built correctly is quite possible - These mills will basically blaze away!!!

      Unfortunately we never got around to putting any form of electricity generation equipment or water/warmpumps rotor concept onto them as we planned (maelstroems/turbolence in the water to extract the potential energy)

        - We have for years been putting off finishing the half built full size mill parked in the basement, maybe it's time to find the right bearings that can take the correct angle of pressure etc. and slam that hunk of junk together and start generating some $$$ from the savings as well as doing something right for the environment.

      And the neat thing is that we have independent witnesses from several countries who can back us up regarding what we built and the principles involved so there will be no patent BS to stop us from doing whatever we'd like with our concept.

      So No - I do not for one second believe this might be a scam, but I hope the guy simply decides to share his idea freely as his earnings will be far higher than mere money when the chips fall. Heck he could surely make quite some cash if he spoke to the right people - no need for patents - just get production started - If the concept is as revulutionizing as the article mentions then the need will far exceed production capabilities anyway - plenty to take from.

      He could in life as well as later be remembered as a pioneer - And if the concept is realized as a stroke of genious - people might just listen to the next thing he might hatch.

      Just my two cents...

  2. Free Dry Land! by nbannerman · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Excellent, so now anyone living near, but not in a city can enjoy a barren landscape when the rain no longer falls.

    Alright, sarcasm aside, surely there are bound to be some less-than-good effects on the surrounding enviroment if large amounts of water are 'sucked' out of the atmosphere prematurely?

    1. Re:Free Dry Land! by Aqua_boy17 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I was originally inclined to agree with you, until I thought about the fact that populated areas already interfere with the environment to a noticable degree. You have air conditioners making the outdoor air warmer and removing humidity. You have concrete and pavement that artificially hold heat way after sundown and much longer than normal soil would, and on and on.

      I can't see how a few hundred of these things, placed strategically would have any more of a negative impact than these factors. In fact, they could potentially be a sort of a civilization mitigator in a way. Someone please correct me if my thinking is wrong here.

      --
      What if the Hokey Pokey really is what it's all about?
    2. Re:Free Dry Land! by CodeShark · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Actually, this is most likely not true.

      Here's why: Assume for the sake of argument that you can remove 20% of the water vapor over the 2-1/2 or so Meters above your house in a given day. And that all the houses in the big city do the same thing. Most of the water will go where? down the toilet or sink eventually, or perhaps be put into a garden, etc. where much of the moisture will re-evaporate. Now then, a reasonable assumption is that what goes down the toilet or sink gets put through the local sewage treatment plant or into a local septic field -- where, guess what -- it re-evaporates.

      Secondarily, that 2-1-/2 meters of 20% more-dehumidified air is only maybe 1/100th of what is available under the weather, but even so, as the moisture re-distributes from the other 99%, assume it generates a little wind. Ultimately pulls say 1% more moist air in from the sea, soaks up some heat in the atmosphere, but if there is a constant drain that moisture will keep coming toward your city. Providing more wind energy to produce power and rain, etc. Not dry areas.

      Let me know what you think.

      --
      ...Open Source isn't the only answer -- but it's almost always a better value than the alternatives...
  3. Re:Something doesn't add up... by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So, condensing water from the air to water trees, from which some of the water will transpire back to the atmosphere, might improve local rainfall? Is that like the "lose money on every sale, but we make it up in volume" line? :)

    No, it's more that this windmill does what trees in a rainforest are already doing. Israel noticed this some time ago, and spent most of the 1960s and 1970s on something similar, though theirs was based on water pumped out of salinated lakes and the Medditeranian, and placed in desalination tanks. The fresh water was used for tree farms, that created more rainfall by cooling the air.

    Therefore, the windmill in this situation is just a placeholder for what the trees will do anyway once they're mature enough.

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  4. sum zero gain by jsepeta · · Score: 3, Interesting

    the article states that with these windmills, water will be replenished into the air from the oceans. how do we know this? how was this proven?

    and if the water content of oceans diminishes, the salt content increases proportionately. that would threaten to bring dramatic change to the fragile balance of the environment for marine life.

    when man plays with mother nature, we almost inevitably come out on the losing end.
    * drain the swamps in new orleans, then lose 60% of the land's ability to absorb water.
    * introduce pest-killing amphibians to the everglades, then they procreate without preditors and wipe out existing species.
    * water the deserts of nevada to make lush golf courses, then people in colorado go thirsty and firemen can't put out historically large forest fires covering hundreds of thousands of acres.

    --
    Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.