Luckily in Scotland, water is an abundant resource and we rarely have to worry about if there is enough to go round. Unfortunately however this isn’t the story everywhere and as our impact on the environment worsens, so does the frequency and scale of droughts.
Of all of the water on the surface of the planet, only 3% is fresh water. Half of this 3% is trapped in ice leaving only 1.5% of the earth’s water as drinkable. 0.22% of this water is atmospheric, this doesn’t sound like much but it is actually 37.5 million billion gallons meaning that there is more water trapped as vapour in the air than is in all of the rivers in the world.
Sky water is a unit developed by SkySource that is able to condense water vapour in the air into a sustainable water supply. The units use a patented adiabatic distillation process which which replicates the condensation of water in nature. A condensation chamber uses heat exchangers to maintain a dew point temperature allowing water vapour to be extracted from the air into clean water even in places of low humidity although the higher the temperature and the humidity, the more water the unit will be able to collect. Ozone is pumped into the water as it is collected in order to improve the taste and to prevent the growth of harmful microorganisms.
There are several size options available to cater towards the needs of the user. These range from smaller units for individual households to larger ones for local water production farms and emergency water relief efforts. The increase of self-reliance and localisation of the water production could mean that soon houses won’t require water pipes at all.
Clearly the units require power sources however due to the nature of water scarcity, drought often occurs in climates where solar energy is both reliable and strong enough to fully power these SkyWater units meaning it can be a completely renewable water generation solution.
Sources:
Jess Vinnels' Design Blog 