Airdrop. Credit: Edward Linacre/James Dyson Foundation

This water extractor is able to extract water from the air in even in the driest of environments.

Even the driest deserts and drought-stricken regions contain some H2O in the air and with the help of this new invention, this water can be harnessed and used for agriculture.

Water From Air

The water extractor called Airdrop has been developed by Edward Linacre of the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia. It is designed to suck in air and then pump it underground, where the temperature is several degrees lower than on the surface.

The cooling of air makes the water condense and release droplets of water, this water can then be used to irrigate plants and to make crops grow in driest of desert regions, where water is essentially needed the most.

The entire system is powered by a small wind turbine and a solar panel. It needs a minimum amount of supervision and maintenance once deployed, making it indeed practical.

Ever Drier Australia

Since Australia is experiencing more and more prolonged droughts due to global warming. This fact is changing the ecosystem, making Australia slowly dryer and dryer.

This ever drier environment is harming wildlife and plant life. It has also wiped out farmlands and caused many farmers to go bankrupt. The need for technology such as Airdrop is, therefore, greater than ever.

1 Liter per Day

Airdrop can harvest 11.5 milliliters of water for every cubic meter of air in the driest of deserts such as the Middle East, Israel or Sahara in Africa. Regions with an average relative air humidity of around 50 percent (more humid during nighttime). A small scale prototype that Linacre installed at his parents’ house created about a liter of water a day, but further development is expected to increase the yield even more.

Linacre won the James Dyson Foundation award for 2011. The award is given each year to students of product design, industrial design or design engineering and anyone from around the world are welcome to enter the competition.

Below a video from the James Dyson Foundation and the 2011 winner of the James Dyson Award.

 

https://youtu.be/4jYyHpM9-TM

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http://www.jamesdysonaward.org/
http://www.edwardlinacre.com/airdrop.html
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