MIT researchers have created a high -tech “bubble packaging” capable of collecting drinking water directly directly from the air – even in the death valley, the driest desert in North America.
The new water harvesting is a major step towards the supply of drinking water safe and accessible to people of the world Natural water.
The water harvesting is made from hydrogel (a very absorbing material of water) which is enclosed between two glass layers – a bit like a window. At night, the device absorbs water vapor from the atmosphere. During the day, the water condenses on the glass thanks to a coating that keeps fresh glass. Liquid water then flows into the glass and is collected in a tube system.
Hydrogel is formed in a special form, a series of domes resembling a bubbling sheet that swells when absorbing water vapor. The domes increase the surface of the material, which increases the amount of water it may contain.
The researchers tested the new device for a week Death valleyA single desert valley extending in certain parts of California and Nevada. It is the hottest place in the world and the driest place in North America.
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It produced about a quarter to two thirds of a cup of water per day (57-161.5 milliliters). In more humid areas, the device should produce even more water. This design is much more effective than certain previous attempts to collect drinking air water, all without the need for electricity to supply it, said MIT representatives statement.
Researchers have also solved another long -standing problem with the quality of the water collected using hydrogel designs. Lithium salts, added to hydrogel to increase water absorption, normally disclose water in similar conceptions, which makes dangerous water to drink without further treatment. This new design includes a salt stabilizer called glycerol which reduces the leak less than 0.06 ppm, the US Geological Survey estimate For how many lithium salt can be present in groundwater before it is dangerous to drink.
Although a panel may not produce enough water to support an entire household, they do not take up much space – which means that several panels could be set up for a single household. The researchers believe that the use of eight panels of 3 feet per 6 feet (1 m by 2 m) could be sufficient to provide households wherever there is no easy access to drinking water. Compared to the costs of bottled water in the United States, the device could afford in less than a month and last at least a year.
“We imagine that you could one day deploy a painting of these panels, and the imprint is very small because they are all vertical”, Xuanhe ZhaoOne of the authors of the newspaper and professor of mechanical engineering and civil and environmental engineering services of the MIT, said in the press release. “Now people can build it even larger or make parallel panels to provide people with people and get a real impact.”
The team plans to test the panels in limited additional resources environments to learn more about the performance of the device under different conditions.