CHEAP GEL DRAWS LITERS OF WATER A DAY FROM AIR

The Canadian prairie, parts of South America, and large swaths of Africa are in prolonged drought; the U.S. southwest is the driest it’s been in a century and the Ogallala Aquifer underlying the central U.S. is being pumped out faster than its water is being replenished.

In a drying world, where will our drinking water come from?

Some might come courtesy of an innovation from researchers at the University of Texas at Austin.

The scientists have made a thin gel by combining cellulose, which lets plants hold their shapes, and konjac gum, a traditional Asian remedy for high cholesterol.

This simple gel that doesn’t take much energy to make can pull liters and quarts of water a day out of even very dry air, the developers say.

The two ingredients are mixed, poured into a mold, and freeze-dried to hold a shape, then the gel is ready for business.

The fine pores in the konjac gum attract water, which condenses on them.

Under a little heat, the cellulose turns hydrophobic and sheds the captured water. 

Making the gel costs about $2 per kilogram, a little more than two pounds, and a single kilogram can deliver six liters of water—about a gallon and a half—daily from water with 15 percent humidity, drier than many deserts.

At 30 percent humidity, the yield rises to almost four gallons.

The research team is tinkering with ways to improve the gel’s yield and cut its cost.

TRENDPOST: The new gel sports a higher rate of water capture than any other common method proposed or deployed so far.

Cheap, lightweight, and easy to make, the technology can be commercialized rapidly and the gel shipped virtually anywhere.

A new gel can pull gallons of water a day from air.

Credit: University of Texas at Austin