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Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and MIT have created a solar-powered device that can condense up to 2.8 liters of water out of the air daily:
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 setup works so well that it pulls 2.8 liters of water out of the air per day [DOI: 10.1126/science.aam8743] [DX] when run continuously, the Berkeley and MIT team reports today in Science.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @08:07AM
Or its physical dimensions. Or its rate of degradation.
Depending on those factors you can start calculating out the required device volume to provide adequate water, as well as the lifetime and potential material waste at the end of the usable lifetime, all of which are important factors in determining if these devices make sense outside of a science lab.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by lx on Saturday April 15 2017, @08:22AM (2 children)
...A device to make "Tattooine planets" around double stars habitable.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @08:52AM
Ah, yes! Moisture Farmers! But will they have to drink blue stuff?
(Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Thursday April 20 2017, @01:23PM
They'll never take on. They have to be programmed entirely in binary.
(Score: 4, Informative) by anubi on Saturday April 15 2017, @08:35AM (4 children)
It appears they are focusing on optimizing the hydrophilic properties of Zeolite.
This will be worth following.
Many functional air conditioning systems have used Zeolite for both cooling and humidity control by using the thermodynamic properties of water and driven by sunlight.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Saturday April 15 2017, @10:36AM (3 children)
I wonder if this can be achieved cheaper with deliquescent salts on a cellulose wool/cotton substrate - e.g. zinc chloride has 5 states of hydration [wikipedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by anubi on Saturday April 15 2017, @11:16AM (2 children)
Interesting point, c0lo! I had worked with some lithium bromide in a absorption refrigeration chiller at Chevron. Its how we kept our LNG tanks cold.
That was some very deliquescent salt with some quite interesting thermodynamics, but was corrosive as all getout.
I was not aware of zinc chloride used as such, thanks! Some in-depth study of the thermodynamic uses of these deliquescent salts will likely bring some very useful ways for us to maintain comfortable lifestyles without bankrupting our environment to do it. Both zinc and chlorine are quite abundant.
After reading what they were doing, I believe in these guys at Berkeley and MIT. I think they are onto something; I am aware of what I have known as the baseline of pretty crude undeveloped technology of absorbents, and see quite a future as to where they can take this technology.
I wish them the best.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday April 15 2017, @11:54AM
So cheap I might give it a try... sometime.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 5, Informative) by c0lo on Saturday April 15 2017, @12:50PM
Looks like the Epsom salt [wikipedia.org] (MgSO4 heptahydrate) can be completely dehydrated at 250C [sciencemadness.org] - requires concentrated solar and good condenser to dissipate the heat and recover the water; on the plus side, the substance is cheap and not corrosive (ZnCl2 is acidic and dissolves cellulose).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Informative) by Pax on Saturday April 15 2017, @09:14AM
will Phil Mason AKA Thunderf00t rip it apart?? like he did with Water seer?!?!?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVsqIjAeeXw&t=19s [youtube.com]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @02:05PM
...it'll make scuba gear obsolete.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Saturday April 15 2017, @09:37PM (2 children)
This reeks of unintended consequences. What happens to the ecology when you drop the humidity 99% from sucking all the water vapor out of the air? Hell if I know, but I'm sure it's not pretty.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @11:46PM
Water vapor is a stronger greenhouse gas than is carbon dioxide. Ice age time again!
(Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Thursday April 20 2017, @02:09PM
Unless you are forever sequestering the water then it will return to the atmosphere one way or another. The only thing holding all that water in the oceans is the rate of evaporation vs the rate of precipitation and the relative humidity. If you start pulling it out of the air in one place, it will shift about and pull it from somewhere else, no?
I'm no meteorologist, so anything I say is pure conjecture.