Novel Composite for Atmospheric Condensable Gas Recovery
The growing lack of freshwater availability compels research into technologies that capture water vapor from the air. Water dispersed in the air as water vapor has the potential to provide fresh water to entire populations; however, many currently available scavenging techniques either consume an enormous amount of energy per unit of water recovered or only function in extreme humidity, and therefore aren’t viable solutions for underdeveloped or arid communities. To meet this need, researchers have designed a novel gel material that absorbs water from ambient air under a variety of humidity conditions that operates passively, without any external source of energy. The gel is easy to produce from materials that are safe and inexpensive and does not require special handling or disposal.
Description
This novel gel material readily absorbs water from the air and yields the liquid by simple mechanical pressure on the gel. Under typical atmospheric conditions the composite can recover from an ambient gas source nearly half of the water that would have been recovered had it been placed directly in liquid water. This process is passive and requires no external energy input. The gel is created from safe, cheap materials and is easy to produce, and disposal is environmentally and economically friendly. In addition to scavenging atmospheric water, future uses may include to extracting other condensable vapors from gas streams. This composite gel has the potential to revolutionize water access in an era of climate instability and unpredictably changing water supply.Applications
• Water capture• Water purification
Advantages
• The absorption process is completely passive and does not require external energy, special equipment, or any particular environmental conditions in order to absorb water.• The composite works well under a variety of environmental conditions.
• The process to manufacture and process the composite is simple, not energy-intensive, and easy to scale to industrial quantities.
• There is great potential for this technique to be modified in order to be utilized for the adsorption of other condensable vapors.