Making Water from Thin Air

[ecoli]

New technology funded by DARPA can extract water vapour from the atmosphere and turn it into usable drinking water, even in arid climates. The exact method is being kept a secret, but it employs the use of salts. The machine produces no toxic byproducts, and can turn out 600 gallons of water per day. It's currently being contracted for the use of the armed forces in Iraq.

Currently, the transportation costs of fresh water to troops can cost up to $30 a gallon. This new technology will allow the costs lowered to 30 cents per gallon.

What's more, is that the machine only requires 14% humidity.

 

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71898-0.html?tw=wn_index_2

[Organism]

At a time of melting icecaps and rising sea-levels, is making water from the air really something we should be doing? I say leave it there, we have enough!

[Klaynos]

At a time of melting icecaps and rising sea-levels, is making water from the air really something we should be doing? I say leave it there, we have enough!

 

Rain.

[Organism]

This new technology will be the death of us all.

 

Mark my words.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

It's just extracting water that's already there. It would have precipitated in the form of rain eventually.

[ecoli]

This new technology will be the death of us all.

 

Mark my words.

Words are marked and discarded. This technology could be key to ending water shortage problems in the middle east. People can drink the water, and when they urinate, the water will evaporate back into the atmosphere.

 

Obviously, this wouldn't be the best solution if were talking about using this technology for industry, large scale agriculture or something that consumes vast quantaties of water. But it seems like a good idea for simple survival purposes.

[Gilded]

"Making Water from Thin Air" makes this sound so grandeur anyway. I'd prefer "Extracting Water from Humid Air" (as Capn already partially stated)

[SkepticLance]

I remember staying at Coral Bay in Western Australia. We were there as tourists to snorkel with Whale Sharks, which we did.

 

This area is classified as desert, which it is. The land is parched. However, we stayed in cabins with steeply inclined corrugated iron roofs. Every morning, there was a massive puddle of water under the edge of the roofs. Water from the air condensed on the cold iron, and flowed down and off the roofs. No-one bothered to collect it, and it left a puddle on the concrete floor.

 

Even in deserts, there is water in the air. It is there to be used. It is up to human ingenuity to determine how to extract it and use it.

[Klaynos]

I recall seeing footage of people in some LEDC which used whater where basically sheets with big pots under them for collecting moisture in the air...

[JesuBungle]

In hunter safety they taught us how to do a similar thing. I forgot since I haven't gone hunting in like 5 years, but it was something to do with digging a hole and putting plastic wrap over the top and a cup in the bottom...maybe

[insane_alien]

jesu, that would work, if you have a sone sitting in the tarp above the cup then you get more water as itsl less likely to drip off before the apex.

[Bluenoise]

They say it uses salts? Well it likley uses some salt that adsorbs water forming a hydrous complex. Afterwhich the salt is likely moved into a smaller camber where is it heated producing very humid vapour that can be quickly condensed.

 

That's just a guess anyways.

[weknowthewor]

Several systems on the market can create water through condensation, but the process requires a high level of humidity.

 

Any how it's a working m/c in Iraq so no probs in recent future we will be having it for us...

[Genecks]

Could it be used to extract pollution?

 

I've always wondered if people could create a type of self-sustaining robot that could fly into the atmosphere, extract pollution, and dispose of the pollution. I assume the weight of the robot would come into concern. However, I'm sure having a ton of the light-weight, pollution-extracting robots could do some good.

 

Imagine toy helicopters in the sky disposing of polution.

[ecoli]

Could it be used to extract pollution?

 

I've always wondered if people could create a type of self-sustaining robot that could fly into the atmosphere, extract pollution, and dispose of the pollution. I assume the weight of the robot would come into concern. However, I'm sure having a ton of the light-weight, pollution-extracting robots could do some good.

 

Imagine toy helicopters in the sky disposing of polution.

 

well, engineers have designed theoretical CO2 sinks, but they would be too expensive to be feasible, esp. right now.

[GutZ]

Is this the same techinque with the beetle?

 

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/06/14/beetle_tec.html?category=technology

 

Something to do with hydrophobic *other technical mumbo jumbo* stuff.

[chem1a]

i saw something on discovery about what was known as "the dryest city on earth" using suspended wires of sorts to do just this ...i cant for the life of me remember where it was, just that it was near the ocean but that high cliffs seperated it from the water & that none/very little of the humidity ever precipitated as rain. ../. this "wire" condensation system supplied the entire town's drinking water.

[weknowthewor]

Humidous, a generator that produces water from the atmospheric air, was launched by Esjaypee Mercantile & Marketing (P) Ltd, Chennai, India May 9. The water produced from the air is pure and safe for drinking. It produces up to 28 litres of pure water per day from air.

 

It does not require external piping and the water produced by the unit has been tested in the laboratory of the Public Works Department of the Government of Tamil Nadu (lab. No CON 1161) for its quality and purity.

 

Tanya Parmar, ED, Esjaypee, said the technology used in Humidous works on the condensation principle and generates pure drinking water directly from air. The technology is eco-friendly, cost-effective and uses humidity in the air. Atmospheric moisture exists in pure form and so the water condensed from air is also free from physical, harmful chemical and bacterial impurities.

[CanadaAotS]

uh, dont they already have "pollution catchers" (so to speak), built into smoke stacks?

 

Or air scrubbers of some kind...

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Essentially.

[KURDISH-BOY]

hahahhaahhaahah

 

water in the air is naturaly able to be converted ino water.

image the rain.

 

but the thing that i found very exciting is that i have never seen anyone who is be able to convert the air in the atmosphere to water by technology!

[Pangloss]

Actually nearly everyone in my country has a device in their home that converts air in the atmosphere into water. It runs on electricity, and the conversion is a byproduct of its main purpose....

[D H]

Actually nearly everyone in my country has a device in their home that converts air in the atmosphere into water. It runs on electricity, and the conversion is a byproduct of its main purpose....

 

I have one of those! We once had a fouled drain on said device, in August, in Houston. The water soaked our carpeting.