Sun-Powered System Supplies Energy as It Draws Water From the Air

The brand-new equipment could provide remote and dry regions both electricity and some water for drinking or crops

Clean water and energy. People require both. Sadly, millions of people worldwide have no reliable access to either. A brand-new system can give these resources– and should work anywhere, even in remote deserts.

Peng Wang is an environmental scientist that has been heading the new system. His childhood influenced its development. Growing up in Western China, Wang’s house had no tap water, so his family needed to fetch water from a village well. His new research could currently bring water and power to regions like where he grew up.

Wang works at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology or KAUST. It is in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. Wang is part of a group working to produce photovoltaic panels more efficiently. The team has created a water-based gel or hydrogel along the road. This new hybrid material can collect fresh water out of even seemingly dry air when combined with a salt.

Sun-powered system

Wang’s group utilized photovoltaic panels to capture the sun’s rays and make electricity. They backed each of those panels with the brand-new hybrid hydrogel. A metal chamber connected to the system stores moisture accumulated by the backing material. That water can be utilized to cool the photovoltaic panels, enabling the panels to produce even more power. Alternatively, the water can satiate the people’s thirst or crops.

Last summer, Wang and his colleagues tested the system under the hot Saudi sun in a three-month trial. Daily, the device accumulated approximately 0.6 liters (2.5 cups) of water per square meter of solar panel. Each photovoltaic panel was approximately 2 square meters (21.5 square feet) in size. A family would require about two solar panels to provide the drinking water needs for each person in its household. Growing food would certainly require even more water.

The group published its results on March 16 in Cell Reports Physical Science.

Absorbing sunlight– and water

Earth’s atmosphere is moist, even if it usually does not appear to be. The world’s air possesses “six times the water in all rivers in the world,” remarks Wang. That is a lot!

Many ways to use this water require the air to be damp, like in humid or foggy climates. Others operate on electric power. The brand-new KAUST system calls for neither. Like a paper towel soaks up water, its hybrid hydrogel absorbs water at night– when air is a lot more humid and cooler– and reserves it. The daytime sun that powers the photovoltaic panels also heat the hydrogel-based material. That heat drives the saved water out of the material and into the collection chamber.

New solar panel system

The new system can operate in one of two modes. The first mode utilizes the moisture it gathers to cool the photovoltaic panels. (Cooler panels can convert sunshine to electricity more efficiently.) Or, the gathered water can be utilized for drinking and crops. Opening or closing a chamber under each solar panel determines how it utilizes its collected water.

The photovoltaic panel– cooling mode “is similar to human sweating,” explains Wang. “We sweat to lower our body temperature in hot weather or when we work out.” The water in sweat drives away heat from our bodies as it vaporizes. Similarly, the water stored on the back of the photovoltaic panels can soak up some heat from the panels as it evaporates.

This mode cooled down the photovoltaic panels by as much as 17 degrees Celsius (30 degrees Fahrenheit). This improved the panels’ power output by 10 percent. A person would require fewer solar panels to satisfy their power needs in this mode.

In the system’s water-collecting mode, water vapor condenses out of the hybrid hydrogel as droplets that trickle into a storage chamber. This mode still boosts the photovoltaic panels’ power outcome, but just a little– by some 1.4 to 1.8 percent.

Throughout last summer’s trial, Wang’s team utilized their device to grow a water spinach crop. The researchers planted 60 seeds. Under appropriate conditions (the shade from the hot summer sun and daily water drawn from the air), nearly all the seeds grew into plants, 19 out of every 20.

The system indicates promise

“It is a fascinating project,” says Jackson Lord. He is an environmental technologist and renewable-energy consultant with AltoVentus in San Francisco, Calif. Previously in his career, he studied harvesting water from the air while working for X-The Moonshot Factory, located in Mountain View, Calif.

Lord remarks that it “can generate clean water anywhere, ” mentioning the brand-new system.” He thinks this kind of system is better suited for making drinking water than growing food. He explains that there is not enough water in the air of dry regions to grow large fields of crops.

Still, Lord includes, it is essential to build systems like this that use unused resources, whether drawing water from the air or harnessing excess heat to do valuable work. Furthermore, considering that the system boosts the power of a routine solar panel, he says its ability to gather water for drinking or growing crops could be considered a benefit to utilize when required.

Wang remarks that this invention is still in the early stages. He wishes to work with partners to improve the system and make it available worldwide.

Read the original article on Science News.

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