Global water scarcity is intensifying due to climate change, population growth, pollution, and inefficient water management, threatening public health, food security, and economic stability worldwide. Capturing water from the air and converting it into usable water is a promising approach to reducing the safety hazards associated with limited water availability. This work supports safer, more resilient water access by creating new options in places where water supply is limited, disrupted, or costly to deliver.
Research Project
Atmospheric Water Harvesting
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TRL 3–5
Technology Readiness Level
TRL 3–5 Represents the transition from concept to early validation and prototyping
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Developing materials to capture water from air
Project Goals
Building resilience in water scarce communities
This project aims to advance materials-enabled approaches for extracting water from ambient air, including adsorbent-based concepts, with emphasis on performance under realistic humidity and temperature conditions. We are working to evaluate candidates using practical metrics such as water production rate, energy requirements, durability over cycling, and operational simplicity. The goal is to accelerate development toward deployable solutions that meet safety, reliability, and economic constraints.
Applications
- Off-Grid Drinking Water Supply: Enables decentralized water production in arid or remote regions by harvesting moisture from air, reducing reliance on transported or groundwater sources.
- Emergency and Disaster Response: Provides portable, self-contained water generation systems for use after extreme weather events or infrastructure failure, improving resilience and rapid response capacity.
- Industrial and Commercial Water Supplementation: Supports on-site water generation for facilities facing water stress, reducing demand on municipal supplies and improving operational sustainability.
Project Status
- TRL 3–5: Represents the transition from concept to early validation and prototyping
Why it Matters
Water scarcity is an escalating threat to communities, industry, and energy systems worldwide. Climate variability and infrastructure fragility are driving demand for resilient, decentralized solutions. By advancing adsorbent-based systems tested under realistic conditions and practical performance metrics, this project moves beyond lab-scale concepts toward deployable technology to enable reliable, efficient water production that strengthens resilience.
