Produce drinking water from the air is already possible, and could save us from the drought

Certain compounds are mixed, removed, dried and a porous material named ‘MOF’ remains. For its driver, an American chemist, it’s like a crystalline sponge on a molecular scale.

But what is the novelty? With a kilo of this material, you could get almost three liters of drinking water by putting it in contact only with the air. Felipe Gándara worked several years on this project.

“They are a type of materials that have a structure with pores capable of absorbing water particles that are naturally present in the atmosphere,” says Felipe, a researcher at the Ramón y Cajal center at ICMM-CSIC. With this device, the air enters at night and the ‘MOF’ traps the water particles. Later, the sun heats the structure until the water vapor condenses in liquid water. A whole revolution, as they promise, against droughts.

“It has the potential to produce water in dry areas of the world, and also to purify water in areas where it may be contaminated,” says its promoter, Omar Yagui. In five years we could have in the market the first device to alleviate the shortage of water, a serious problem that suffers a third of the world population.

Source: www.agroalimentando.com