I had posted not too long ago about the Warka Water towers, used to condense potable water out of the air. MIT researchers have been working on developing a mesh that can do the same. From the Daily Mail:
MIT researchers have developed a special mesh that can extract the water from morning fog, channeling it into reservoirs.
They have already trialled the system in Chile, and say it could have a dramatic impact on the lives of remote communities.
Researchers at MIT's School of Engineering, working with colleagues at the Pontificial University of Chile in Santiago, are harvesting potable water from the coastal fog that forms on the edge of one of the driest regions on earth.
Using a simple system of suspended mesh structures, placed on hilltops in areas with persistent fog and prevailing westerly winds, local Chilean communities collect fog water for drinking and agricultural use.
'This water has been naturally desalinated by the sun, we are trying to build meshes to capture it straight out of the air,' said Gareth McKinley of MIT, who is leading the project.
Fog collecting technology is still in its infancy but laboratory experiments have shown that variations in the mesh spacing as well as the size and the wettability of the fibers in the mesh all affect the volume of water that can be collected each day.
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