MIT researchers pull water out of desert air

By Barry Eitel

SAN FRANCISCO (AA) – Researchers announced Thursday that they have created a new device that can harvest water out of the air in the desert.

The solar-powered gadget, developed by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, can pull liquid water out of the air in some of the driest environments on earth.

Current methods for extracting water from the air require a significant amount of energy and can only pull water out of air that has at least 50 percent relative humidity. The new MIT device can draw drinkable water out of air with just 10 percent relative humidity.

The Mojave Desert spanning across California and Arizona has an average daytime relative humidity of 10 to 30 percent.

The invention uses a type of material with a very expansive surface area called a metal-organic framework (MOFs). MIT scientists outlined a proposal for the device last year. After building it, the researchers tested it in the arid conditions of Tempe, Arizona.

The research was published Thursday in the Journal Nature Communications.

The creators note that the field-tested device is still an early prototype. The test device could yield roughly a quarter-liter of water per every kilogram of MOF, the study said. The scientists estimate that the yield could be tripled if more research went into creating the most optimal MOF.

Though still in its early stages, the inventors believe the device could bring much needed water in populous yet dry regions that often have to deal with water shortages.

“This provides a new approach to solving the problem of water scarcity in arid climates,” Yang Yang, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles who was not involved in the study, said in a statement about the device. “This technology, if one can further increase its production capacity, can have a real impact in areas where water is scarce, such as southern California.”