Extracting water out of thin air now possible
September 12th, 2010 - 4:57 pm ICT by IANSLondon, Sep 12 (IANS) Getting water out of the thin air is now possible, thanks to a new technology.
“Drinking water can be extracted from the humidity in the air even in the desert or in the middle of a megacity,” thanks to a technology developed by the Fraunhofer Alliance SysWasser, Germany.
The principle behind it is a salt solution that runs down from a tower-shaped system and absorbs water from the air, known as hygroscopic brine. This brine is then pumped into a tank that stands a couple of metres high and contains a vacuum.
Then, energy from solar collectors heats up the brine and the evaporated salt-free water condenses over a distillation bridge. The brine concentrates again and flows down on the surface of the tower to absorb humidity in the air, according to a Fraunhofer statement.
This process is exclusively based on regenerative sources of energy such as simple solar collectors and photovoltaic cells, meaning that this method is completely energy self-sufficient.
That means that it functions in areas where there is no electrical infrastructure. This process is particularly well suited for extracting drinking water in arid and semi-arid areas where more water evaporates than precipitation falls.
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Tags: arid areas, bridge, brine, desert, distillation, drinking water, electrical infrastructure, fraunhofer, free water, humidity, new technology, photovoltaic cells, precipitation, principle, salt solution, solar collectors, sources of energy, tank, thin air, vacuum