Water Machine Followup

Last year I ran a story on a machine that can produce water out of thin air. I remember several people on the blog (logically, I might add) questioned it was real. Well, here’s more info. Apparently, it is.

Amazing. A gizmo which sucks the air in, then sucks the water out of the air, and then spews out clean fresh water. 500 Gallons of it – a day. Every off-grid home should have one. Only problem is it’ll set you back a cool $500,000 . FEMA have already bought two, and the US Army is said to be on the verge of buying many, because getting our boys pure water is one of the key logistics requirements of any operational planning.

The box o’ tricks is from Aqua Sciences Inc, and the company says the high cost is justified because in the end it “only costs you $0.25 per gallon.” For those of us without an entire battalion at our command, however the price is still a little steep. The makers are working on a consumer model, but it won’t be out any time soon.

Its precise workings aren’t public, but they use a chemical process similar to the one that causes salt to absorb moisture from the air (and clump up your saltshaker). The water-harvesting technology was originally the brainchild of the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which sought ways to ensure sustainable water supplies for U.S. combat troops deployed in arid regions like Iraq.

That’s amazing. I’m still trying to figure out how you can pull 500 gallons of water out of the air without affecting the local humidity, as they claim.

Posted by Paul T  on  01/15  at  06:32 PM

Well, the atmosphere is full of two things besides water vapor. Hydrogen and oxygen, the two atoms that create water when combined. Maybe they have found a reverse osmosis method.

Posted by James Hudnall  on  01/15  at  07:51 PM

The atmosphere is mostly nitrogen and oxygen, with water vapor anywhere from 1 to 4%. Free hydrogen levels are actually pretty low: http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7a.html.
I think you’re right about the reverse osmosis process, they must find some way to pump hydrogen into the mix and fuse it with the ambient oxygen to create water.

Posted by Paul T  on  01/15  at  08:29 PM
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