MIT engineers converts air into drinking water using 'window' panel

Window-sized device Converts air into fresh drinking water

MIT engineers have fabricated a window-sized device that can convert vapor from air into safe drinking water using hydrogel. The panel, which is about the size of a window, stands upright, and around it, there’s a hydrogel, which can absorb water vapor from air. All of these are within a glass box equipped with a cooling layer. The hydrogels here resemble black bubble wrap because they have bumps on them. When they soak up water vapor from the air, the bumps inflate, and as the water evaporates, they shrink back down, similar to folding paper.

The water vapor that comes off the hydrogel then converts into liquid on the cool glass. Then, the safe drinking water trickles down and out through a tube, ready for consumption. With the invention, the MIT engineers want to make it easier for people to produce clean drinking water in places where there’s no river, lake, or well, and where the only source accessible to them that can be converted into water is air. This atmospheric water harvester then ‘pulls’ the vapor from the air and converts it into drinking water, even in dry places like deserts.

all images courtesy of MIT and the researchers

No electricity, solar panels, or batteries needed

The window-sized device that can convert air into drinking water works on its own. It doesn’t need any electricity, solar panels, or batteries, which makes it different from the existing systems that need a power source before they can produce water. The researchers ran a test for over a week in Death Valley, California, considered the driest place in North America. After their trial, they found out that even if the air is dry here, the device was able to capture and convert 160 ml of drinking water from the air every day, which is equivalent to two-thirds of a cup.

The researchers, then, believe that being able to set up multiple panels of the window-sized device next to each other can help convert and collect enough drinking water from air for a household, even if the home is in the desert. They may even be more ideal in places with more humidity, including cities with mild or tropical climates, since the device would convert and produce even more drinking water from air. The published study documents the science behind the invention, and at the present time, the researchers are looking into developing a new version of the hydrogel to speed up the vapor absorption and water production.

MIT engineers have fabricated a window-sized device that can convert vapor from air into safe drinking water