Pulling drinkable water out of dry air
157,213
Published 2017-04-13
That future may be around the corner, with the demonstration this week of a water harvester that uses only ambient sunlight to pull liters of water out of the air each day in conditions as low as 20 percent humidity, a level common in arid areas.
The solar-powered harvester, reported in the journal Science, was constructed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology using a special material — a metal-organic framework, or MOF — produced at the University of California, Berkeley.
The prototype, under conditions of 20-30 percent humidity, was able to pull 2.8 liters (3 quarts) of water from the air over a 12-hour period, using one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of MOF. Rooftop tests at MIT confirmed that the device works in real-world conditions.
For the full story, visit: news.berkeley.edu/2017/04/13/device-pulls-water-fr…
Video by Roxanne Makasdjian and Stephen McNally
MIT photo by Hyunho Kim
Music: "New Phantom" "Midnight" "Solar Flares" by Silent Partner
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All Comments (21)
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we studied mofs in university and its actualy amazing to see them in real aplications!
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its awesome how he condenses years of research into you pour this into this, mix it, and take the water out of it
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I like how there are people in the comments who know more about MOFs than a person who has been researching them for nearly three decades
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MOFs are wonderful ensembles! The potential uses are limited only by our imaginations.
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good, Berkeley is always good at chemistry and physical sciences, show us more of the videos
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+Thunderf00t, where are you?
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awesome !!! ,guys make it available for everyone ! you guys are changing the world ! making it a better place
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Thanks Mr yaghi
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This might be great for sailboats, etc, on long ocean voyages!
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amazing!
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It is something like the combination of liquid and solid desiccants. Despite having thrived for several years, the efficiency in term of recycling is still desperate. Supposing that they would break this hurdle thanks to the MOF.
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can you buy this material
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This is still a standard Peltier dehumidifier with a little add-on MOF layer that might make it easier to take the liquid out of the air. So when a normal dehumidifier would struggle getting any water out of 30% humidity this will get some drops. There is 1kg (2.2 lbs) of MOF needed to get 2.8 liter of water. Looking at the size of this device there is maybe some grams, lets day 5g, of MOF on one of these devices, so you would still need 200 of these little boxes to get 2.8 litres of water. I don't think that will solve any water problems in the near future.
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Uncle Owen would be proud.
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While I appreciate new discovery and do think this will eventually advance to be successful I have to say it is not workable yet. Having to have water and liquids in the first place to make MOF, then take the MOF to the desert is a chore. There are many ways to pull water in the desert with basic tools now which are far more practical. But in the future of MOF could be a great advancement. I was military water procurement which involved high volume delivery systems, trust me we have them in much simpler forms.
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it's a catcher
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Alguien sabe donde se puede acceder a ese MOF-303?
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Moisture Farming on Mars will be a thing
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How do you get the water out of the MOF? I assume the answer has something to do with the sunlight you mentioned. Would sunlight also be used to remove CO2 or natural gas from one of the other kinds of MOF?
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"Phil: I can write a program that’s triggered by an acid buildup. A sort of acid interface, or “ass face” for short. Lem: I’m not sure these abbreviations are really worth the time they’re saving." I miss Better Off Ted. Also, great invention!
