Atmospheric Water Harvesting

Where there is little access to precipitation, surface water, or groundwater, we must rip water directly from the air. Driven by the need for water at a remote facility, where construction activities have been ongoing through a years-long drought in central Texas, the development of alternative water supply technologies is underway. Under consideration are passive radiative systems and active thermoelectric systems.

The test rig shown below only produced a few mL of water due to failure on the first evening of the commercially manufactured dehumidifier EVA-2200. It is assumed that the fan shut off before the thermoelectric element, leading to overheating and failure. Future systems will have to be designed with scalable power consumption and additional thermal shutdown triggers.