{"id":14774,"date":"2018-03-23T07:03:51","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T07:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=14774"},"modified":"2020-05-27T06:04:23","modified_gmt":"2020-05-27T06:04:23","slug":"in-field-tests-device-harvests-water-from-desert-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/in-field-tests-device-harvests-water-from-desert-air\/","title":{"rendered":"In field tests, device harvests water from desert air"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIT-developed system could provide drinking water even in extremely arid locations<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Researchers at MIT have developed a new device that is able to extract moisture from very dry air.
Courtesy of the researchers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CAMBRIDGE, Mass, — It seems like getting something for nothing, but you really can get drinkable water right out of the driest of desert air.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even in the most arid places on Earth, there is some moisture in the air, and a practical way to extract that moisture could be a key to survival in such bone-dry locations. Now, researchers at MIT have proved that such an extraction system can work.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new device, based on a concept the team first\u00a0proposed last year<\/a>, has now been field-tested in the very dry air of Tempe, Arizona, confirming the potential of the new method, though much work remains to scale up the process, the researchers say.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new work is reported today in the journal\u00a0Nature Communications<\/em>\u00a0and includes some significant improvements over the initial concept that was described last year in a paper in\u00a0Science<\/em>, says Evelyn Wang, the Gail E. Kendall Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, who was the senior author of both papers. MIT postdoc Sameer Rao and former graduate student Hyunho Kim SM \u201914, PhD \u201918 were the lead authors of the latest paper, along with four others at MIT and the University of California at Berkeley.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s paper drew a great deal of attention, Wang says. \u201cIt got a lot of hype, and some criticism,\u201d she says. Now, \u201call of the questions that were raised from last time were explicitly demonstrated in this paper. We\u2019ve validated those points.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The system, based on relatively new high-surface-area materials called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), can extract potable water from even the driest of desert air, the researchers say, with relative humidities as low as 10 percent. Current methods for extracting water from air require much higher levels \u2013 100 percent humidity for fog-harvesting methods, and above 50 percent for dew-harvesting refrigeration-based systems, which also require large amounts of energy for cooling. So the new system could potentially fill an unmet need for water even in the world\u2019s driest regions.<\/span><\/p>\n

By running a test device on a rooftop at Arizona State University in Tempe, Wang says, the team \u201cwas field-testing in a place that\u2019s representative of these arid areas, and showed that we can actually harvest the water, even in subzero dewpoints.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The test device was powered solely by sunlight, and although it was a small proof-of-concept device, if scaled up its output would be equivalent to more than a quarter-liter of water per day per kilogram of MOF, the researchers say. With an optimal material choice, output can be as high as three times that of the current version, says Kim. Unlike any of the existing methods for extracting water from air at very low humidities, \u201cwith this approach, you actually can do it, even under these extreme conditions,\u201d Wang says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not only does this system work at lower humidities than dew harvesting does, says Rao, but those systems require pumps and compressors that can wear out, whereas \u201cthis has no moving parts. It can be operated in a completely passive manner, in places with low humidity but large amounts of sunlight.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Whereas the team had previously described the possibility of running the system passively, Rao says, \u201cnow we have demonstrated that this is indeed possible.\u201d The current version can only operate over a single night-and-day cycle with sunlight, Kim says, but \u201ccontinous operation is also possible by utilizing abundant low-grade heat sources such as biomass and waste heat.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The next step, Wang says, is to work on scaling up the system and boosting its efficiency. \u201cWe hope to have a system that\u2019s able to produce liters of water.\u201d These small, initial test systems were only designed to produce a few milliliters, to prove the concept worked in real-world conditions, but she says \u201cwe want to see water pouring out!\u201d The idea would be to produce units sufficient to supply water for individual households.<\/span><\/p>\n

The team tested the water produced by the system and found no traces of impurities. Mass-spectrometer testing showed \u201cthere\u2019s nothing from the MOF that leaches into the water,\u201d Wang says. \u201cIt shows the material is indeed very stable, and we can get high-quality water.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The team also included graduate student Eugene Kapustin at the University of California at Berkeley; graduate student Lin Zhao and postdoc Sungwoo Yang at MIT; and professor of chemistry Omar Yaghi at Berkeley and at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, in Saudi Arabia.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MIT-developed system could provide drinking water even in extremely arid locations CAMBRIDGE, Mass, — It seems like getting something for nothing, but you really can get drinkable water right out of the driest of desert air. Even in the most arid places on Earth, there is some moisture in the air, and a practical way […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":14775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MIT-Water-From-Air_0.jpg",639,426,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MIT-Water-From-Air_0-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MIT-Water-From-Air_0-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MIT-Water-From-Air_0.jpg",639,426,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MIT-Water-From-Air_0.jpg",639,426,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MIT-Water-From-Air_0.jpg",639,426,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MIT-Water-From-Air_0.jpg",639,426,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MIT-Water-From-Air_0.jpg",639,426,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MIT-Water-From-Air_0.jpg",639,426,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MIT-Water-From-Air_0.jpg",600,400,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MIT-Water-From-Air_0.jpg",600,400,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MIT-Water-From-Air_0.jpg",639,426,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MIT-Water-From-Air_0.jpg",540,360,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MIT-Water-From-Air_0.jpg",95,63,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MIT-Water-From-Air_0.jpg",639,426,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MIT-Water-From-Air_0.jpg",96,64,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MIT-Water-From-Air_0.jpg",150,100,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Research<\/a>","tag_info":"Research","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}