Hello everyone!
This week we talk about solar water purification, beetle skin, Israeli pioneers of a different kind, silver nano-particles and more.
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Water from Air Innovations
Watergen showing the way to Israeli-Palestinian cooperation
We have talked in a much earlier edition about how cool Watergen’s tech is, but during this covid-19 pandemic, the Israeli clean water tech company has taken the big step of helping out their Palestinian neighbours in Gaza. Staying out of geo-political issues, Watergen have installed one of their atmospheric water generators (AWG) on top of a children’s hospital in Gaza to help one of the most water scarce regions in the world.
A bit about the technology Watergen’s AWG functions like a dehumidifier, extracting moisture from the air and converting it into drinking water. The device typically runs on electricity, but because of frequent power outages, the machine in Gaza will soon be connected to solar panels. In the winter, the device can be hooked up to conventional power supplies. The machine sent to the Gaza hospital is a medium-sized model and generates about 800 liters, or over 200 gallons, a day. This is not their first project in Gaza with them having done a pilot back in February in a municipal building there. May their tribe Grow!
Desert Beetle based paint to extract water from air
In a paper published in Royal Society of Chemistry journal RSC Advances, a research team at the Southeast University, China, discovered they could create a simple paint that mimics the way a desert beetle's skin both attracts water and then repels it towards its mouth – allowing it to hydrate in even the most arid of environments.
By coating two facing surfaces with this paint, condensed water in the air can be 'bounced' together into droplets, resulting in them falling into a collection vessel below. To us the best part of this proposed system is that it is passive - it doesn’t need power to run this water extraction and collecting process. The scale is currently being figured out but stands to be a great benefit to drought stricken regions.
More Efficient water from air using Brine
While the Watergen type device works as a reverse air-conditioner and as such is not very energy efficient, professors at Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology have come up with a more energy efficient water from air machine. Their machine which is unlike any existing technology, is based on a two-stage process - first, moisture is separated from the air by absorption using a highly concentrated saline solution, and second, the moisture is removed from the saline solution under sub-atmospheric pressure conditions.
Wood to Energy & then Water from Air
Skysource, a social impact enterprise based in California focused on creating ready to deploy water solutions that could be used in emergencies and where power isn’t readily available. They came up with WEDEW - Wood-To-Energy Deployable Emergency Water system which is a self-contained machine that extracts the moisture created during the biomass gasification process and can make up to 2,000 litres of water every day.
Gasification is a process by which green feedstock like agriculture crop residues (such as corn stover or wheat straw), forest residues etc. is converted into biochar or fertilizer, at high temperatures (>700°C), without combustion, with a controlled amount of oxygen and/or steam being passed through it. The WEDEW will feed on this stream and pull out the moisture as shown in the schematic above.
Solar water disinfection just needed some vitamins
Colin Speaker, a junior at Greenwich High School, Connecticut designed an easily-constructed Solar Water Disinfection system (SODIS), which purifies water based on a combination of UV-radiation, and the addition of 0.1 percent riboflavin, or Vitamin B. This student found that the addition of 0.1 percent riboflavin increased the antibacterial efficiency of the UV-based SODIS, so that virtually all bacteria is inactivated in only minutes of passing through his system.
Existing solar water disinfection systems can remove harmful bacteria from water supplies, however the application of these systems are limited, as they are quite large, and their overall efficiency at removing bacteria is often inadequate. If his research holds true, with a little bit of vitamin B (which is naturally found in our bodies) that will no longer be the case!
Water Filtration with silver nanoparticles
Researchers at the Tuskegee University have been granted a patent for their improved water filtration system. The system is a combination of two components — silver nanoparticles immobilized on a porous carbon solid matrix and calcium carbonate silver nanoparticles.
While there is a fair bit of detail on how they create both these components, the crux of the research is that this team have created a low-environmental impact water filtration system that removes unacceptable levels of chemicals — including petroleum contaminates, bacteria and salts in a water source or supply.
GoSun’s portable, solar-powered water purification system
Cincinnati, Ohio based GoSun is a manufacturer of solar-powered outdoor gear. They have now released what they claim is the world's first portable, solar-powered water purification & sanitation system. The GoSun Flow is small enough to fit into a backpack, uses solar energy to filter 99.99% of pathogens from water.
They say the GoSun Flow is more than just a water purifier, it also has a set of upgrades available with which, it can be converted into a portable shower with hot water. The all-in-one unit includes a faucet, pump, filter, powerbank, and solar panels. It can also be powered by a USB outlet. This is GoSun’s eighth solar product and it too like the previous seven is being crowdfunded. Pretty amazing stuff all around.
That’s all for this week folks, as always thoughts, feedback, and especially shares most welcome.
Stay safe! And have a great weekend!