2023-08-08 08:00:01
Water is a vital resource for life on Earth, but unfortunately, almost two-thirds of the world’s population faces severe water scarcity for at least one month of the year. Faced with this troubling reality, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has taken a significant step toward developing technologies that make it possible to harvest water from the air more effectively, even in desert conditions.
The MIT research team has created a superabsorbent hydrogel, capable of drawing moisture from the air more effectively than previous attempts. This material could have a wide variety of applications, from feeding the population to generating green hydrogen, a clean form of energy.
Hydrogel, a component known for its absorbency, has been combined with lithium chloride, a superabsorbent salt, to create an ingenious superabsorbent hydrogel. This material can capture water vapor from the environment and store it up to ten times its original mass in moisture. The combination of the properties of the hydrogel and the salt has proven to be highly effective, allowing greater efficiency in the collection of water.
The performance of the hydrogel is surprising; in the desert, at night, the material absorbs the little moisture present in the air, expanding with each capture. This invention can collect 0.06 ounces (1.79 grams) of water per gram of hydrogel, a 15% greater efficiency than previous attempts.
Other research centers are also pursuing the goal of collecting water from the air. Last year, the University of Texas presented a material capable of generating up to 6 liters of water from desert humidity for every kilogram of gel. In addition, the University of Melbourne has developed a technology to harness water collected from the air to produce green hydrogen in areas with water and electricity shortages.
The next step for the MIT team is to work on the large-scale manufacturing of this superabsorbent hydrogel. They are also focused on studying how to quickly recycle the material to recover the water and allow continuous collection 24 hours a day.
It is ingenious invention offers hope for many people facing water scarcity around the world. With its low cost and high performance, the superabsorbent hydrogel promises to make a big impact in the fight against the water crisis. Its versatility and potential to improve the efficiency of air conditioning and water collection make it a promising solution to meet future challenges related to our planet’s most precious resource.
Image credit MIT.
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