MIT engineers have developed a pioneering device to generate drinking water from air. This breakthrough offers hope to over 2.2 billion people worldwide who lack access to clean water.
MIT engineers have introduced a groundbreaking device that could provide a crucial solution to global water scarcity by extracting drinkable water directly from the air. With over 2.2 billion people around the world lacking access to safe drinking water — and 46 million facing water insecurity in the United States alone — this innovation holds immense promise.
The newly developed atmospheric water harvester captures water vapor from the air and converts it into safe drinking water. Unlike other solutions, this device operates without any external power source, making it ideal for deployment in areas with limited resources.
“We have built a meter-scale device that we hope to deploy in resource-limited regions, where even a solar cell is not very accessible,” Xuanhe Zhao, the Uncas and Helen Whitaker Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT, said in a news release.
The device features a window-sized vertical panel constructed from a unique hydrogel material encased in a cooling-glass chamber. The hydrogel, resembling black bubble wrap, absorbs water vapor and then releases it through an evaporation-condensation cycle, delivering clean and drinkable water.
Caption: MIT engineers test a passive water harvester in Death Valley, CA. The window-sized setup is made from an origami-inspired hydrogel material (black) that absorbs water from the air, and releases it into tubes where researchers can collect the moisture as pure drinking water.
Credit: Courtesy of the researchers; MIT News
In a real-world test conducted over seven days in Death Valley, California — the driest place in North America — the device harvested up to 160 milliliters of water per day.
The system’s efficiency is projected to increase in more humid environments, which could revolutionize water access, particularly in arid regions.
The core of the innovation lies in its use of hydrogels, a material known for its exceptional water-absorbing properties. By integrating glycerol into the hydrogel, the team prevented salt from leaking into the collected water, addressing a key challenge faced by similar water-harvesting technologies.
“This is just a proof-of-concept design, and there are a lot of things we can optimize,” added first author “Will” Chang Liu, a former MIT postdoc who is now an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS). “For instance, we could have a multipanel design. And we’re working on a next generation of the material to further improve its intrinsic properties.”
The idea is to deploy these panels at scale in regions where water scarcity is a critical issue.
“Then you could have many panels together, collecting water all the time, at household scale,” Zhao added.
The research, published in the journal Nature Water, showcases the potential of this innovation to provide a sustainable and scalable solution to the water crisis affecting millions globally.
Co-authors of the study include Xiao-Yun Yan, Shucong Li and Bolei Deng from MIT and collaborators from NUS, The University of Hong Kong and Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco.