According to research, the Earth’s atmosphere contains a massive amount of water existing in the form of water vapor, enough to fill the Great Salt Lake in Utah, USA, 800 times over. Extracting a portion of this moisture is considered a promising solution to provide clean water for billions of people worldwide.
However, modern technologies for atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) face numerous disadvantages related to size, cost, and efficiency.
The device uses adsorbent panels made from aluminum fumarate to capture water molecules (Photo: SD).
In a newly published study, engineering researchers from the University of Utah (USA) have provided insights that could improve efficiency and bring the world a step closer to harnessing air as a source of clean water, even in arid regions.
The device is designed to be compact and is based on adsorbent materials, allowing it to extract water molecules from humid air and then apply heat to release those molecules in liquid form.
To create it, the lead author of the study, Sameer Rao, used aluminum fumarate to form the moisture-absorbing material. Rao likens them to “Lego blocks”, which can be rearranged to build various structures.
What is special about this material is its extremely high surface area, enabling it to absorb a massive number of water molecules.
According to Rao, just one gram of aluminum fumarate can achieve a surface area equivalent to two standard football fields. Therefore, a very small device can extract a significant amount of water from the air.
Professor Sameer Rao (right) describes the device for harvesting fresh water from the atmosphere (Photo: SD).
The device offers a practical civil application, providing each household with clean drinking water daily, regardless of their living environment.
According to the research team, the prototype has achieved the goal of producing 5 liters of water per day for each kilogram of adsorbent material. Thus, in just three days under real conditions, this device will outperform traditional bottled water models.
“This technology surpasses conventional methods of producing clean water in arid conditions, although it still condenses best in high humidity,” Rao emphasized.
From a military perspective, the device could enable troops to generate drinking water without the need to carry heavy loads. The technology could also be more broadly applied in the field of space research.
