Even scorching desert landscapes have water molecules floating in the atmosphere. Until now, the technology required to extract them has required vast amounts of energy. But a scientific duo from MIT and UC, Berkeley has just prototyped a new machine employing an MOF, or metal-organic framework. Here, a thin MOF powder layer absorbs water vapor—and ambient sunlight then releases it into a basin within the device. The prototype used was quite small but one of the two scientists, Evelyn Wang, says a full-sized system could pull almost three quarts of water each day—quite literally extracting the liquid from thin air.
Extracting Water From Thin Air
