Water, Literally Out of Thin Air. In the Desert.

A team at MIT, led by mechanical engineering Professor Evelyn Wang, has developed a unique system to remove drinkable water from desert air. According to an ASME article, the system uses a new class of materials called "metal-organic frameworks," or MOFs. Water molecules from air get trapped in the matrix of this exciting new material. In fact, this new class of materials was developed by another professor at MIT, chemistry Professor Mircea Dinca, for a totally different application, "supercapacitors" for storing electrical energy. We may be hearing a lot more about MOFs in the future.

Once the water molecules are in the MOF matrix, sunlight causes the water to be released and then condensed into drinking water.  So far, in tests in Arizona, they have only collected small amounts of water, but they believe the concept is scalable to where it could be life-saving for a great many people who live in desert regions.

When I was in the Navy, we were shown in desert survival training how to dig a hole, put something to catch water at the bottom of the hole, cover the hole with a piece of our parachute, put a small rock in the center of the piece of parachute, and over the course of the day water vapor would collect on the underside of the piece of parachute and drop into the cup.  It would give you enough water to survive until you could be rescued. However, I like Dr. Wang's MOF-based system much better and wish her team success. It could indeed change the lives of millions of people. - Dr. Tom

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