Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed a groundbreaking device that uses solar energy to harvest water out of thin air, even in dry or desert climates.
For the construction of their solar-powered water harvester, MIT scientists employed a special material, called metal-organic framework or MOF, which was developed by the University of California, in Berkeley.
The framework combines metals like magnesium or aluminium with organic molecules to create a rigid, porous structure ideal for storing gases and liquids.
The invention, with details published on April 13 in the journal Science, relies on ambient sunlight to pull water out of the air on a daily basis in low humidity conditions.
In collaboration with MIT’s Device Research Laboratory — run by Dr Evelyn Wang, the inventor of MOF — Omar Yaghi, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, synthesised a zirconium-based material that binds water vapour and transforms it into a water-collecting system.
The system absorbs condensed water at night-time and evaporates it again during the day, through a series of porous crystals that form continuous 3D networks. Under the heat of the sun, water molecules begin to vaporise again, eventually condensing into reservoirs designed to collect the water.
“This device is capable of harvesting 2.8 litres of water per kilogram of MOF daily at relative humidity levels as low as 20 per cent, and requires no additional input of energy,” states a DRL news release.
This was achieved in a span of 12 hours and by using 2.2 pounds of MOF, with the machine running continuously.
“There is no other way to do that right now, except by using extra energy,” says Yaghi.
According to Yaghi, the newly developed invention could pave the way for off-grid water supplies. In the future, the solar-powered harvester could provide water for entire households via ambient solar energy.
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