Solar-Powered Water Harvester

This sponge-like device is capable of sucking water out from water vapour in the air, even in low humidity conditions. It can produce about three litres of water a day for every sponge-like absorber it contains, and researchers say that it can only get more efficient in the future. 

In the past, researchers have been able to acquire water from the atmosphere but never like this. Previous methods needed either too much electricity or areas of very high humidity. 

The team of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, led by Omar Yaghi, found a way to use crystalline powders called metal organic frameworks, or MOFs. These MOFs’ properties can be altered by chemists, dictating which gases bound them and the strength of their bond. In 2014, they synthesised a MOF that was adept at absorbing water, even in low-humidity.

 After synthesizing the new MOF (dubbed MOF-801), Yaghi reached out to Evelyn Wang from MIT and together they came up with the water-harvesting device. The device works by soaking up water vapour from the air at night, and using heat from the sun to condense the vapour to liquid during the day. This could be a huge breakthrough for places that suffer from drought.