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: 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.