New invention harvests water out of thin air
Featured story by: Alonso Enrique R. Africa
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed a device that pulls water from thin air. This is made from metal-organic framework (MOF) which is a material made in the 1990's. This machine can harvest water even at a humidity as low as 20%.
After teaming up with engineer Evelyn Wang form MIT, with a 1 kilogram of metal-organic framework, they were able to synthesize a solar powered prototype. It can harvest 2.8 liters of water in 12 hours. This invention uses MOF's made from zirconium and fumarate to bind water vapor. It is a breakthrough because there had always been a barrier in harvesting water in low humidity we weren't able to break through. The paper on the concept of this was first published in 2014 but it was not done in a real life environment.
The vision for this was to give people a personalized water device at home running on solar energy that harvests water to satisfy the needs of the household but this can be revolutionary because this can be used to help people living in areas of Africa who have little access to clean water.
Sources: Yang, S. Scientists Pull Water Out of Thin Air. Retrieved from http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2017/04/13/scientists-make-water-from-air/ on August 30, 2017.
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| Image Courtesy of Etsy.com |
HERE'S SOMETHING NEW... A NEW IDEA...
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed a device that pulls water from thin air. This is made from metal-organic framework (MOF) which is a material made in the 1990's. This machine can harvest water even at a humidity as low as 20%.
 |
| Image courtesy of Hyunho Kim/MIT |
After teaming up with engineer Evelyn Wang form MIT, with a 1 kilogram of metal-organic framework, they were able to synthesize a solar powered prototype. It can harvest 2.8 liters of water in 12 hours. This invention uses MOF's made from zirconium and fumarate to bind water vapor. It is a breakthrough because there had always been a barrier in harvesting water in low humidity we weren't able to break through. The paper on the concept of this was first published in 2014 but it was not done in a real life environment.
 |
| Image of an MOF structure. Image by UC Berkeley |
The vision for this was to give people a personalized water device at home running on solar energy that harvests water to satisfy the needs of the household but this can be revolutionary because this can be used to help people living in areas of Africa who have little access to clean water.
Sources: Yang, S. Scientists Pull Water Out of Thin Air. Retrieved from http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2017/04/13/scientists-make-water-from-air/ on August 30, 2017.
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