According to researchers, by 2025 more than half of the world’s countries will face fresh water shortages and 75% of the world’s population could face water scarcity by 2050. By introducing certain new technologies, this shortfall can be reduced. The growing international water crisis has made governments rethink how to value, use and manage water. Recycling water from old conventional methods like waster-water treatment, brackish groundwater, seawater and extracted mine water may not save the Earth from the water shortage.
Recently, research scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB in Stuttgart have come up with a new technology to solve the water crisis problem by extracting water from air humidity. In the future, such techniques will be beneficial to increase the freshwater resources.
The Principle
The basic principle of collecting water from air humidity is discussed in the diagram below:
More Innovative ways to collect potable water
Researchers are finding many different methods to collect water and to fulfill the demands of the people. Some of them are:
• Distilled water from volcanic steam vents: The residents of Masai have invented a new water harvesting method from the volcanic steam. Masai people have tapped the vents for steam and condensed it via long pipes that continuously pass into the drums. The vents are able to fill half a drum, approximately 30 liters per hour. The water collected is sweet and helps to feed hundreds of people and their cattle with fresh water.
• EcoloBlue Atmospheric Water Generators (AWGs): It draws water from the air and provides up to 7 gallons (28 lit) of fresh water per day. It is a stainless steel tank equipped with biodegradable plastic and a filtration system. AWGs work best at 50% humidity but can effectively work when the level of humidity is low, i.e. 30%. If the air is not humid, the best part of this is that you can hook it up to your tap water source and get filtered drinking water.
• AquaMaker AM 10: It’s a water generator that creates water from the air and purifies it to deliver fresh, clean water. The machine collects up to 5 gallons of water per day, which has the capacity to sustain approximately 10 people. It also has a recycle timer, which helps to keep the water fresh in the tank.
• The Dolphin/dragonfly T16: It uses the Aquovate technology to convert the atmospheric water vapor into filtered water. It is design with Air2Water ultrafilteration technology to provide 16 to 38 liters (4 to 10 gallons) of pure drinking water per day.
• Watermill: Helps to erase water shortages by capturing the moisture from the air. The water vapor is condensed as it flows across the metal coils. The condensed water is passed through a carbon filter and ultraviolet light sterilizes it. It can produce up to 12 liters of potable water per day.