Water Bottle Fills Itself From the Air

mbstone writes "The Namib Desert Beetle generates water from water vapor via its shell, which has alternating hydrophilic and hydrophobic bumps which channel water droplets into its mouth. Scientists at MIT developed a self-filling water bottle using this technology, and have announced a contest for the best design of a countertop water-from-air generator."

Comments

Milsleading title (surprise!)

[John Bokma]

FTA: In the near future, it looks as if we’ll have water bottles that can capture drinkable water from the air as well.

Re:3L per square meter per hour @ 75 percent humid

[zill]

I did. It's roughly 0.7mL per hour for a 710mL coke bottle; takes around 40 days to fill it up.

Re:How broadly useful?

[drinkypoo]

How much of the world actually encounters regular airborne water but virtually no usable rain?

It's common for much of the year near coastlines but only in temperate zones, so it can only serve 40% or so of the world's population. Guess we should throw it over, like the electric car :)

Re:3L per square meter per hour @ 75 percent humid

[Formalin]

shit, 2pi r h, not 2 pi d h.

so it should be 244cm2, .024m2, producing 73ml/h. Still respectable.