Atmoswater Research Blog by Roland Wahlgren

Nature Water Editorial: Converting air moisture to water

13/9/2023

Water-from-air technologies are attracting serious attention as shown by a recent editorial in the journal Nature Water. Highlights from the editorial include:

Materials science is fostering advances;
Globally, there are relatively few commercial installations;
The energy cost of water-from-air remains an obstacle;
Desiccant technologies coupled with renewable energy sources are likely to be a versatile path forward;
Relevant markets are remote arid regions with little or no conventional water supplies;
Energy efficiency depends on a deep understanding of water properties; and
Although water-from-air has "unique advantages" being "accessible anywhere" and readily used with renewable energy its "role in providing freshwater is still open for discussion".

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Need for water-from-air technologies stated by University of Illinois researchers

16/12/2022

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Peer-reviewed articles, even about water resources, can be a dry read. But not so for the recently published Open Access article, Increasing freshwater supply to sustainably address global water security at scale. Let me share four excerpts from the paper to inspire and energize us in the water-from-air community. The excerpts show we do indeed have a crucial role in improving access to drinking water.

- "...reducing and managing [water] demand are proving inadequate as population and economic growth quickly absorb any capacity that is created through these measures."
- "Recycling and reuse of water...have limited scalability because they are fundamentally constrained by the available supply."
- "Effective solutions to increase the [fresh water] supply are at present limited, or they are practically non-existent since all resources are being exploited beyond sustainable capacity or rapidly dwindling due to climate change."
- "Desalination is not only energy intensive; it also creates concentrated brine and other byproducts that create significant environmental challenges with the cost of disposal."

The authors proceed to outline their proposal for a system for siting water vapor collection systems above the surface of the ocean and then transporting the vapor to condensation systems on the nearby shore. They discuss the water vapor resource, the insignificant impact of climate change on viability of their system, the negligible environmental impact, and the financial feasibility. The research trio also claim their ocean-based system will benefit from a higher moisture flux compared to land-based water-from-air installations.

The merits of the system outlined in the article remain to be validated but the important learnings from the article for those of us in the water-from-air industry are the quotations about the continuing inability of conventional water resources to provide global water security---thus giving incentive to our industry leadership to continue working diligently to prove the value of developing and commercializing water-from-air technologies.

Reference
Rahman, A., Kumar, P. & Dominguez, F. (2022). Increasing freshwater supply to sustainably address global water security at scale. Sci Rep 12, 20262 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-24314-2. This is an Open Access article.

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Atmospheric water generators could be a gap-filler for California's water supply strategy

12/8/2022

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Click on image to go to State of California website with link to full text.

Click on image for details about contents.

California's Water Supply Strategy (19-page document; click on the image above to read it) was published in August 2022. The strategy includes:

Storm water storage
Recycling and reuse
Efficiency of use and conservation
Desalination
Modernization of water systems
Improving water management (data, forecasting, administration of water rights)
Groundwater recharge expansion
Reservoir expansions
Dam rehabilitations
Demand reduction
Groundwater supply stabilization
Improve flexibility of water transportation

The use of atmospheric water generators (AWGs) is not mentioned in the document. But, AWGs can be effective drinking water supply gap-fillers in site-specific situations. Examples include:

off-grid residential or commercial applications,
high quality water for beverage or food manufacturing,
retrofitting water dispensers into buildings lacking sufficient plumbing infrastructure, and
alternative to bottled water coolers in homes, offices, and factories.

Intriguingly, the Strategy document says, "Rising temperatures evaporate more water, but more of that water stays in the air." (page 1 of 16). AWG's can recover that sequestered water.

The knowledge-base for using atmospheric water generators in California includes:

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#Water Scarcity Atlas

5/11/2018

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Picture of home page of the Water Scarcity Atlas

Water Scarcity Atlas by Aalto University—click on image to visit home page of the atlas

Today, I learned about Aalto University's Water Scarcity Atlas from The Water Network. The atlas is a useful and credible resource for learning about various aspects of the water supply challenges facing humanity. For those of us in the water-from-air community it is definitely worth visiting and bookmarking. The atlas is a useful guide to the regions on which to focus water-from-air research and development efforts.The data & code section of the atlas website had a link to the City Water Map Initiative whose data source was

McDonald and others (2014). Water on an urban planet: Urbanization and the reach of urban water infrastructure. Global Environmental Change 27, 96–105.

This paper gives the results of the first global survey of the water sources for the world's largest cities. Table 2 in the paper lists the largest cities enduring water stress. The cities (in order of population) are Tokyo, Delhi, Mexico City, Shanghai, Beijing, Kolkata, Karachi, Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, Istanbul, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Lima, London (UK), Wuhan, Tianjin, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.

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Nature Water Editorial: Converting air moisture to water

Need for water-from-air technologies stated by University of Illinois researchers

Atmospheric water generators could be a gap-filler for California's water supply strategy

#Water Scarcity Atlas

Roland Wahlgren

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