Does anyone have any details about their actual technical implementation? I'm sure it is interesting. I imagine it doesn't look too similar to a Tatooine moisture farm.
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The Water Abundance XPrize winner makes water from air
31–40 of 133 posts
Re: The Water Abundance XPrize winner makes water from air
#32It’s an overpriced dehumidifier. Pulling humidity out of the air. It’s not magic. It’s not new. There is water vapor in the air, every middle schooler knows this. They are in Hawaii. An outdoor dehumidifier will work great in a water abundant area. How well do you think a dehumidifier will work in a low humidity area? The places that need water the most. It’s not making water, it’s pulling out the humidity. This is s…
This reminds me of desert water collectors. There are so many that it's hard to find any specific one. Here are a few examples.
http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Architecture/wind.htm
https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-technology/sophistic...
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/this-tower-pulls-d...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_well_(condenser)
Re: The Water Abundance XPrize winner makes water from air
#33It’s an overpriced dehumidifier. Pulling humidity out of the air. It’s not magic. It’s not new. There is water vapor in the air, every middle schooler knows this. They are in Hawaii. An outdoor dehumidifier will work great in a water abundant area. How well do you think a dehumidifier will work in a low humidity area? The places that need water the most. It’s not making water, it’s pulling out the humidity. This is s…
I think the key difference is that "Skywater machines use a patented Adiabatic Distillation Process, where water vapor is reduced to liquid without a gain or loss of heat." so it's a little different than just a regular dehumidifier.
It also seems to be able to pull a lot more water than a normal dehumifiier? "Skywater machines are ranging from Skywater 30 (up to 30 gallons of water each day) to Skywater 300 (up to 300 gallons of water a day)."
You are right we should be more skeptical though. Like how much energy does this thing use?
Re: The Water Abundance XPrize winner makes water from air
#34It’s an overpriced dehumidifier. Pulling humidity out of the air. It’s not magic. It’s not new. There is water vapor in the air, every middle schooler knows this. They are in Hawaii. An outdoor dehumidifier will work great in a water abundant area. How well do you think a dehumidifier will work in a low humidity area? The places that need water the most. It’s not making water, it’s pulling out the humidity. This is s…
I think the approach is a bit more novel than normal dehumidifiers. Instead of just collecting water dripping of the condenser coils, they use the cooler air to make a "rain chamber". The website talks about "maintaining a dew point within a condensation chamber".
Re: The Water Abundance XPrize winner makes water from air
#35I might be way off base here but is that Jim Mason - Founder of All Power Labs? In that case it hints that gasification could be part of the solution.
Photo for reference: https://goo.gl/images/33dpUM > In rural conditions Bio- Gasification has proved to be very productive and efficient in creating a micro-grid. That from the FAQ here http://www.skysource.org/faq/ .
Yup. I think this confirms it.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mbddw8/artificial...
They are able to use the waste head and humidity in the exhaust to increase the amount of water extracted.
Re: The Water Abundance XPrize winner makes water from air
#36I might be way off base here but is that Jim Mason - Founder of All Power Labs? In that case it hints that gasification could be part of the solution.
As I understand it, it is basically the skysource water extraction device hooked to an all-power labs gassifier, which produces electricity from gassifying organic material. Allpower's product uses the gassifier output in a conventional engine, in turn using that to power a generator. The great part here is - uses locally generated biomass, and produces a waste stream of biochar, which can be used for argiculture, essentially putting the carbon back into the soil. Pretty, it isn't, but carbon neutral it is.
Re: The Water Abundance XPrize winner makes water from air
#37It’s an overpriced dehumidifier. Pulling humidity out of the air. It’s not magic. It’s not new. There is water vapor in the air, every middle schooler knows this. They are in Hawaii. An outdoor dehumidifier will work great in a water abundant area. How well do you think a dehumidifier will work in a low humidity area? The places that need water the most. It’s not making water, it’s pulling out the humidity. This is s…
I think the approach is a bit more novel than normal dehumidifiers. Instead of just collecting water dripping of the condenser coils, they use the cooler air to make a "rain chamber". The website talks about "maintaining a dew point within a condensation chamber".
This sounds like Persian Wind Catchers.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windcatcher
There's a similar type of building which uses temperature difference to generate condensation within a building, creating a pool of water. The name escapes me at the moment.
Re: The Water Abundance XPrize winner makes water from air
#38It’s an overpriced dehumidifier. Pulling humidity out of the air. It’s not magic. It’s not new. There is water vapor in the air, every middle schooler knows this. They are in Hawaii. An outdoor dehumidifier will work great in a water abundant area. How well do you think a dehumidifier will work in a low humidity area? The places that need water the most. It’s not making water, it’s pulling out the humidity. This is s…
I think you are wrong. This gives more details about how it works. They are using gasification both as power and as an additional source of water. I think that's pretty clever and I'm confident that the x-price people wouldn't have awarded the prize if it didn't meet the requirements.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mbddw8/artificial...
Re: The Water Abundance XPrize winner makes water from air
#39I might be way off base here but is that Jim Mason - Founder of All Power Labs? In that case it hints that gasification could be part of the solution.
As I understand it, it is basically the skysource water extraction device hooked to an all-power labs gassifier, which produces electricity from gassifying organic material. Allpower's product uses the gassifier output in a conventional engine, in turn using that to power a generator. The great part here is - uses locally generated biomass, and produces a waste stream of biochar, which can be used for argiculture, es…
Yup, that's what I got from it. But also the engine is producing CO2 and Water from the biomass. Which can in turn be fed into the water extractor. I think that is the novel step.
Re: The Water Abundance XPrize winner makes water from air
#40It’s an overpriced dehumidifier. Pulling humidity out of the air. It’s not magic. It’s not new. There is water vapor in the air, every middle schooler knows this. They are in Hawaii. An outdoor dehumidifier will work great in a water abundant area. How well do you think a dehumidifier will work in a low humidity area? The places that need water the most. It’s not making water, it’s pulling out the humidity. This is s…
The runner-up is in Hawaii. The $1.5M winners are in California.