2023-08-28 04:00:09
Access to drinking water is a major global problem. No less than 190 million children are deprived of access to drinking water in Africa, which causes the loss of a thousand children under the age of five each year. Various solutions have been considered to try to remedy this problem, this is particularly the case of the desalination of sea water (Sea water is salt water from the seas and oceans of the Earth.) for example but this solution is far too energy-intensive to be viable.
Image d’illustration Pixabay
The recovery of atmospheric water is complex, but is nonetheless at the heart of the news. We also mentioned a short time ago in this article, the discovery of a material (A material is a material of natural or artificial origin that man shapes…) capable of capturing water in the air in the middle of the desert (the word desert today designates a sterile area or one that is not very conducive to…). Another innovative solution was also recently published in the journal Nature Water: it consists in recovering atmospheric water even in the most desert regions, thanks to light (Light is the set of electromagnetic waves visible by the eye…) of the Sun (The Sun (Sol in Latin, Helios or Ήλιος in Greek) is the star…).
It is by using specific materials that the team of researchers from POSTECH and UC Berkeley succeeded in making this project a reality (A project is an irreversible commitment to an uncertain result, not reproducible to …): the Metallo-Organic Frameworks (MOFs). These materials, here characterized by tiny holes measuring 1 to 2 nm, are known to be porous, and can therefore be useful for capturing atmospheric water during the night. In this system that they have just invented, the water thus collected is then condensed into drinking water (Drinking water is water that must satisfy a certain number of characteristics making it…) thanks to sunlight for the day. This tool was built in the shape of a cylinder (A cylinder is a surface in space defined by a straight line (d), called…) in order to allow its surface (A surface generally designates the superficial layer of an object The term a…) to align perfectly with the trajectory (The trajectory is the line described by any point of a moving object, and…) of the Sun which evolves during the day , unlike the rectangular surfaces usually used.
Initial tests were carried out in the Berkeley desert as well as in the Death Valley desert, the driest and hottest region in the world (The word world can designate:) with temperatures that can reach 40°C at night and nearly 60°C during the day with humidity (Humidity is the presence of water or water vapor in the air or in a substance…) of less than 7%. The results were conclusive as the system managed to capture up to 285g of water in the first desert and 210g in the second.
Usually, recovering atmospheric water is complex because it is expensive in terms of the energy needed to condense the steam (). But this solar version managed to collect water in a place with barely 7% humidity. This solution, therefore using renewable resources, opens the way to sustainable solutions. In addition, the fact of recovering atmospheric water vapor allows a universal application, at any place of our planet (A planet is a celestial body orbiting around the Sun or another star of…).
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