Faster drinking water from air with vibrating ceramic ring
MIT engineers design a system that uses a vibrating ceramic ring to produce clean drinking water from humid air in several minutes. There are already existing designs of the same kind, but they rely on heat from the sun to evaporate water from the materials and condense it into droplets, so this step can take hours or even days. With the one developed by the researchers at MIT, clean water-making can take a few minutes versus the tens of minutes or hours required by thermal designs. In their system, the engineers use ultrasonic waves to shake the water out of the material that can absorb moisture from the air.
This said material is an ultrasonic actuator made of a flat ceramic ring, which receives the electricity during vibrations. In their research, the team learned that this vibration can break the weak connection between the water molecules and the sorbent, so when the waves hit the flat ceramic ring and the system, the water inside it loosens and falls out as droplets, producing clean drinkable water in a few minutes instead of hours. Around the ceramic ring is another ring that has many small holes, which guide the water droplets into collection containers placed above and below the device. When the sorbent sits on top of the ring, the ultrasound moves through the material and forces the water downward into the holes, pooling into water that users can drink right away.
all images courtesy of Ikra Iftekhar and MIT
Small solar cell can power the water-extraction device
To test the system, the MIT engineers used small pieces of the sorbent the size of a coin. They placed each into a humidity box set at different humidity levels so the material could absorb water. When the material became full, they placed it on the ultrasonic actuator. When it was switched on, the vibrations pushed out most of the stored water within minutes, and after this test, the sorbent pieces were dry and ready to repeat the cycle. The team measured the efficiency of the new design by comparing it to the normal method of heating the sorbent with sunlight. Their calculations showed that the ultrasonic method is forty-five times more efficient than the heat method, making it possible for the material to collect water and release water many times during the day.
The device needs a small amount of power, so the team believes that a small solar cell could power the ceramic ring. They also suggest that the same solar cell could monitor the moisture in the sorbent and could then turn on by itself when it is full, allowing continuous cycles of absorbing and releasing drinking water during the day. The researchers think that a real-life version for homes could be the size of a window: a panel of sorbent that would take in moisture and convert it into drinkable water. When this happens, the upgraded water extraction system from air could help communities that don’t have reliable access to drinking water because it does not rely on lakes, rivers, or the sea.
MIT engineers uses a vibrating ceramic ring to produce clean drinking water from humid air
the engineers use ultrasonic waves to shake the water out of the material that can absorb moisture from the air
the water inside the ceramic ring loosens and falls out as droplets, producing clean, drinkable water
the researchers think that a real-life version of the system for homes could be the size of a window
project info:
name: High-efficiency atmospheric water harvesting enabled by ultrasonic extraction
researchers: Ikra Iftekhar Shuvo, Carlos D. Díaz-Marín, Marvin Christen, Michael Lherbette, Christopher Liem, Svetlana V. Boriskina
study: here
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