In January of last year we talked about the Fontus bottle, and we had doubts about that project from the beginning. Time proved us right, but the idea of extracting water from air is not false, but requires a much more advanced development. That brings us to this project that combines the forces of MIT and the University of California at Berkeley. The result is a new passive device that runs on solar energy and collects almost three liters of water in twelve hours.
Hard as it is to believe, something as simple as turning on a tap and getting safe water makes us privileged. A third of the human population lives in arid regions with constant water scarcity. Climate change isn't helping at all, and what is needed are solutions of all kinds. However, when someone claims to have created a device that can extract water from air, it's logical to be suspicious. The good thing is that this time, the device was created by a group of scientists at MIT and UC Berkeley.
How the device works
Basically, what we have here is a platform based on a material called MOF (metal-organic frameworks) powered by solar energy, although this is not mandatory. Any basic source of heat is suitable for the device, even a campfire. With a precise adjustment of its chemical composition, the MOF surface becomes extremely hydrophilic, collecting water in humidity conditions as low as 20 percent. Performance tests indicate that one kilogram of MOF can extract 2.8 liters of water in a period of twelve hours. The only major intervention by the user (as long as they use solar energy) is opening the device and removing the liquid.
Next steps
The next step is to further optimize the MOF, which currently collects up to 25 percent of its own weight in water. The scientists believe it is possible to double that number, with efficiency levels that allow going beyond "water for one person", and thinking about water for entire families.
