2mo ago

Penn Engineers Discover a New Class of Materials That Passively Harvest Water from Air

blog.seas.upenn.edu

Penn Engineers Discover a New Class of Materials That Passively Harvest Water from Air - Penn Engineering Blog

25 comments

Cool, just have to go to Tosche Station to pick up some power converters first.
- You can waste time with your friends when your chores are done.
pull water from the air, collect it in pores and release it onto surfaces without the need for any external energy
If this is legit, it's going to be revolutionary.
- Yeah that was my thought too. I hope it makes it to actual use cases and not just lab proof of concept.
- Yeah now we can industrially extract all the remaining water from the air as well as the ground.
  edit: Sorry I thought it was obvious this was slightly tongue-in-cheek.
  
  You realize the amount of water is constant, right?
Recently I found a new class of passive water aggregators in my snack. I call it ,"DO NOT EAT, SILICA"
I have a long distance call from Arakis, the Fremen are on line 1....
Stillsuits incoming.
Please, the stretchy part of my sweatshirt sleeves have done this for years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog_collection ?
- I'd recommend reading the article before trying to make a comparison.
  When water condenses on surfaces, it usually requires either a drop in temperature or very high humidity levels. Conventional water harvesting methods rely on these principles, often requiring energy input to chill surfaces or a dense fog to form to collect water passively from humid environments. But Lee and Patel’s system works differently.
  
  Isorhermal (unpowered) water condensation from capillary action isn't the interesting part, (and the article title doesn't really make that clear), but the potential ease of water extraction after condensation is interesting - and the original paper makes it clear in the discussion that that part isn't done yet and isn't guaranteed
So, trees with more steps?
- Trees harvest it from the ground, not the air.
  
  Trees absorb MOST of their water through the soil, but are absolutely capable of absorbing water directly into their leaves. Google "Foliar uptake"

25 comments