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New Solar-Powered Device Can Pull Water Straight From the Desert Air (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit quotes a report from Science Magazine: You can't squeeze blood from a stone, but wringing water from the desert sky is now possible, thanks to a new spongelike device that uses sunlight to suck water vapor from air, even in low humidity. The device can produce nearly 3 liters of water per day, and researchers say future versions will be even better. That means homes in the driest parts of the world could soon have a solar-powered appliance capable of delivering all the water they need, offering relief to billions of people. To find an all-purpose solution, researchers led by Omar Yaghi, a chemist at the University of California, Berkeley, turned to a family of crystalline powders called metal organic frameworks, or MOFs. Yaghi developed the first MOFs -- porous crystals that form continuous 3D networks -- more than 20 years ago. The networks assemble in a Tinkertoy-like fashion from metal atoms that act as the hubs and sticklike organic compounds that link the hubs together. By choosing different metals and organics, chemists can dial in the properties of each MOF, controlling what gases bind to them, and how strongly they hold on. The system Wang and her students designed consists of a kilogram of dust-sized MOF crystals pressed into a thin sheet of porous copper metal. That sheet is placed between a solar absorber and a condenser plate and positioned inside a chamber. At night the chamber is opened, allowing ambient air to diffuse through the porous MOF and water molecules to stick to its interior surfaces, gathering in groups of eight to form tiny cubic droplets. In the morning, the chamber is closed, and sunlight entering through a window on top of the device then heats up the MOF, which liberates the water droplets and drives them -- as vapor -- toward the cooler condenser. The temperature difference, as well as the high humidity inside the chamber, causes the vapor to condense as liquid water, which drips into a collector. The findings were published in the journal Science.
If nothing else, it has the advantage over vaporators in that Imperial stormtroopers won't kill your family.
Ezekiel 23:20
There have been a few, let's say, shady promises about extracting water from air, mostly coupled with crowdfunding campaigns (gee, why could that be?). Those that actually delivered a product were mostly ridiculous, provided you were not one of those duped into backing it. Then it was more a reason for anger and disappointment.
Most actually never delivered. Which reminds me, wasn't Fontus due to deliver right now in April? Any backers here, did they actually deliver? Because, let's put it careful, I'd really, really love to see that!
So don't get me wrong when I don't hold my breath. I have been promised easy water from thin air before. And what has been delivered so far, if anything, was ridiculous. Either it didn't work, didn't scale past proof-of-concept scale or only worked if the humidity was high enough that rain was more the rule than the exception, rendering a system that extracts water from the air redundant: A bucket would do.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
But are they easier to maintain? Can you use a droid that's worked with binary loadlifters like you can with vaporators, or do you need a specialized droid? Those can get expensive out in the desert.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
If you give a man a fish- he can eat for a day. If you teach a man to fish, better hope he doesn't live in the desert.
I don't know where you're getting the cost of $1000 solar panel. For one appliance it's not going to cost that much. It's probably not going to cost anything in the same range as that. Even if it did. Yes, $1000 can buy a lot of water if you live near a water source. If you have to keep shipping water hundreds of miles then the costs are going to go up.
Wouldn't it be better to ship one time to a location rather than having to ship continuously for years? Also, if you have your own means of getting water you don't have to worry about- what if guerrillas take out the delivery man and steal my water? What if the shipment never arrives? You're more independent. In the end, we all want our fate and future as much in our own hands as possible.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
>> Imperial stormtroopers won't kill your family
Said no one actually living in the Middle East in 2017.