A solar-driven atmospheric water extractor for off-grid freshwater generation and irrigation.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39048551.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-50715-0 and PMC identifier 11269568.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Solar-driven atmospheric water extraction (SAWE) is a sustainable technology for decentralized freshwater supply. However, most SAWE systems produce water intermittently due to the cyclic nature, with adoption hindered by complex design requirements or periodic manual operations. Herein, a fully passive SAWE system that can continuously produce freshwater under sunlight is presented. By optimizing the three-dimensional architecture to facilitate spontaneous mass transport and efficient energy utilization, this system can consistently produce 0.65 L m<sup>-2</sup> h<sup>-1</sup> of freshwater under 1-sun illumination at 90% relative humidity (RH) and functions in arid environments with an RH as low as 40%. We test the practical performance of a scaled-up system in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia over 35 days across two seasons. The system produces 2.0-3.0 L m<sup>-2</sup> per day of freshwater during the summer and 1.0-2.8 L m<sup>-2</sup> per day of freshwater during the fall, without requiring additional maintenance. Intriguingly, we demonstrate the system's potential for off-grid irrigation by successfully growing cabbage plants using atmospheric water. This passive SAWE system, harnessing solar energy to continuously extract moisture from air for drinking and irrigation, offers a promising solution to address the intertwined challenges of energy, water, and food supply, particularly for remote and water-scarce regions.