Making Water Out of Air

[longknife]

This could change dynamics all over the world. Read more @ The 'magic mesh' that can make water out of thin air | Mail Online

Sorta goes along with another, simply system I found and posted some time ago – just can't remember where.

 

[Politico]

Getting water out of air is nothing new.

 

[Steven_R]

Well, if we can get water out of air efficiently, then that might be one solution to the problem of getting clean water to folks, but it does beg the question of what happens to the climate if massive amounts of water is pulled out of the water cycle.

 

[indiajo]

Well, first this is a stone old process technology used to get vapours out of exhaust systems, or to get a reflux in distillation columns.
Second, it gets no moisture out of the air. It is used as the article states in foggy conditions, and fog is no air moisture. It is already condensated water. What means, the real relative air mlisture is at 100%, otherwise the fog would evaporate.
Third, in consequence the system is absolutely useless in condirions where the relative moisture is below 100%, which is the case in most dry areas. In deserts, when it becomes pretty cold at night however, you can get condensation as dew on surfaces. But this is pretty well known and a thin plastic foil or similar with a slope is enough to harvest the water.
Actually even the pygmies in Africa know how to do that since thousands of years, I wonder for what somebody would need the MIT here.

 

[eagle1462010]

How to Make Water in the Desert: 15 Steps (with Pictures)

 

[editec]

A very useful application in very limited circumstances.

It's not going to help most drought-stricken areas of the world.

 

[longknife]

A very useful application in very limited circumstances.

It's not going to help most drought-stricken areas of the world.

As humans are, by far, the biggest consumers of the world's fresh water, any things that will supply that usage will ease pressures on streams and rivers.

It's just nice to come up with inexpensive methods of producing fresh water,

As to "making" water in the desert, an even simpler method is to dig the hole, place a receptacle at the bottom, cover it with some impervious material [American Indians used cured hides], place a hole in the middle and weigh it down with stones.

Works every time even in the driest desert.

 

[waltky]

African babies dying for lack of clean water...

Wateraid in Tanzania: The babies who die for want of clean water
3 Nov 2014 ~ At a clinic in rural Tanzania, we meet mothers who have lost infants to easily preventable illnesses caused by dirty water and lack of access to basic latrines

In a bare clinic room overlooking a stretch of parched red earth, Aisha Mkude is telling us about the loss of her fourth child, a boy, in January. The baby died within a week of the birth after contracting an umbilical cord infection, she says in her native Swahili. Aisha is convinced her baby’s fatal illness was caused by dirty water, dug from beneath a dried-up riverbed by relatives, and transported in jerrycans to the clinic’s delivery room for the birth. It was used to wash the baby, herself, her clothes and the bedsheets. This is Mlali Health Centre, in Tanzania’s Morogoro region – a scenic sprawl of bush and palm trees lying at the foot of the country’s verdant southern Highlands. Chickens wander in, while outside, a woman attempts to sweep away the dust with a broom made of twigs. In the dry season it coats everything – cars, shoes, clothes, hair.

Mothers and children wait at a postnatal clinic held at the Mlali Health Centre, Tanzania

The circumstances in which Aisha gave birth here are unimaginable for most Westerners. Early one morning, she had travelled from her village to the clinic by motorbike taxi, stopping repeatedly on the unmade road because of the pain of labour. Arriving at the tiny delivery room, she was told by midwives that the clinic had no water: she would have to bring in her own supply for the birth. For Aisha, 38, this wasn’t entirely unexpected. The same thing had happened at the births of her other children [three girls, aged eight, 13 and 16], when relatives fetched water from a nearby river. But last January, she recalls, things were even worse: the water situation was “very bad”. Two companions – a sister-in-law and a neighbour – had to dig down into the riverbed to get to water, using shovels and buckets.

Esther Mongi, a midwife at Mlali for 10 years, uses the "Tippy Tap" hand washing system

The birth itself went smoothly but two days later, back home in the village, the baby developed a high fever; on day three, back at the clinic, he was found to be discharging foul smelling water from the umbilical cord. Antibiotics failed to save his young life. Mlali serves a rural population of some 10,000 and houses not only a maternity ward but also antenatal, paediatric and vaccine clinics, a dentist, a laboratory (still under construction) and an adult ward. Yet incredibly, until last June, this simple, one storey building with mosquito screens but no glass at the windows, had no regular supply of water. When the water was piped through, usually once a week, staff stored it in buckets as best they could, but there was never enough.

Clean water comes out of a tap leading from a water storeage unit at the Mlali Health Centre

Women who came here to have their babies, often travelling from distant villages, often in advanced labour, were told to bring in their own supply, usually from nearby rivers or village wells, or other unprotected sources. Each woman would need about 40-60 litres – two to three jerrycans - to wash themselves, their hands, their newborns, their clothing and their bedding. Esther Mongi, a midwife at Mlali for 10 years, says she has often seen women in labour carrying buckets and jerrycans of water, sometimes for miles. In this area, most people are farmers, growing maize and other crops for subsistence or to sell in local markets. “Sometimes a woman goes into labour straight from the fields; she will need to wash but there will be no water in the clinic for a shower or bath.” If they have money, a woman’s relatives might buy water privately, from the trucks which regularly stop here but for many of the rural poor this is unaffordable.

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[Delta4Embassy]

This could change dynamics all over the world. Read more @ The 'magic mesh' that can make water out of thin air | Mail Online

Sorta goes along with another, simply system I found and posted some time ago – just can't remember where.

Common sci-fi plot element. Star Trek: Voyager featured it in season 1 offering the technology to some of the first Delta quadrant aliens they met. "We'd be interested in aquiring the technology that makes water from thin air." If I recall.