Water From Thin Air

Rain water capture is a great way to take advantages from our skies. Cities all around the world ,where heavy rain is available, take advantage of this. However, is it impossible to capture water from a place in which there is actually no rain at all?

Lima, the capital of Peru, along with its outskirts, being a desert is plagued by a vicious drought which coupled with pollution and unsanitary water extraction methods, has made the water there stagnant, dirty and dangerous. Doing what they know best, engineers at Peru's University for Engineering and Technology (UTEC) have devised a resourceful system that sucks up the moisture out of the air and turns it into clean, drinkable water. To make sure the people were aware of this, they installed the system under the form of a double paneled billboard which is sure to highlight there is safe water to be found at the location.

The engineers had to think of a way to build a system that’s able to suck enough water from the air, while at the same time letting people know there’s water readily available. Engineers part of the project have installed five generators to suck moisture out of the air and convert it into liquid. The system requires at least 30% moisture in the air for it to be effective, something of the least worry since Lima and its vicinity are often soaked in an unbearably sticky 98 percent, despite the barren landscape where there is very little evident vegetation and not very much actual rainfall.

The whole system was then sandwiched  between two huge billboards which advertise the availability of the water. The system produces some 100 liters of water per day, and given the sounding success the Peruvian engineers are currently discussing ways to implement it through the city, country and even overseas.

The UN and other global leaders have recently called for greater solutions to the water crisis, as projections point to the fact that about 60 percent of the world’s population will be living in cities in the next eight years, adding more strain on sanitation systems and resources. In Lima, one million of the more than eight million people lack reliably clean water.

Sebastian