Water touches every aspect of human life. We drink it, cook with it, bathe with it, and rely on it for health and hygiene. However, according to global estimates, more than 2.2 billion people around the world lack reliable access to safe drinking water at home. Access to clean water is especially difficult in dry areas where there are no pipes or old infrastructure. Scientists have long been looking for new ways to obtain clean drinking water that doesn’t just come from wells, rivers or treatment plants. One idea scientists are working on is getting water directly from the air. There is always some moisture in the air, even in dry places. If water could be quickly collected and converted into clean water, it could help millions of people who don’t have enough water. Evelyn N. Wang, a mechanical engineer and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is leading the research. Her work focuses on creating technology that could one day allow households to make their own drinking water from the air around them.
Who is Evelyn N. Wang? what is her research
Evelyn Ning-Yi Wang is an American mechanical engineer. She holds the Ford Professorship of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and, starting in 2025, will serve as the university’s vice president for energy and climate. Her research covers heat transfer, solar energy and materials engineering. An important focus of her work is atmospheric water harvesting, a process that captures moisture from the air and converts it into liquid water.Professor Wang and her team study energy, heat flow and water systems in their MIT lab, Device Research Laboratory. Their goal is to find solutions to real environmental problems. One of their projects is using solar energy and new materials to create a device that can extract moisture from the air, even when it’s dry.
What is atmospheric water harvesting
Atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) is the process of collecting water vapor already in the air and converting it into liquid water that can be stored and used. The air contains large amounts of water in the form of vapor, and this water is found all over the world. You can use AWH technology to obtain this resource.There are several scientific methods for extracting water from the air:
- Traditional condensation methods cool the air below the dew point, which causes the moisture to turn into water droplets, much like morning dew forms.
- Fog collection is the process of collecting water droplets from dense fog using a net or mesh.
- Wang’s work uses an adsorption-based approach that relies on materials absorbing water molecules from the air and then releasing them as a liquid when heated or exposed to sunlight.
The adsorption-based approach has attracted attention because it can work even in low-humidity conditions where relative humidity may be as low as 20%, such as in deserts and arid areas.
How Wang’s device works
Professor Wang’s team built devices that combine special adsorption materials with solar heat to extract water from the air. In an early proof-of-concept system the team tested with researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, water vapor was adsorbed into the porous material at night. During the day, the heat of the sun releases water vapor, which then condenses into a collecting reservoir. This setup requires no power input; it runs on heat from the sun.The porous materials used in these devices are sometimes chosen for their ability to retain many water molecules on their surfaces. These materials are engineered to attract water vapor even when the air is dry. When the water gets too hot, they drain it and then collect and clean it.In the lab and in the field, prototypes created by Professor Wang and her team have shown that this method can obtain measurable amounts of water, even in very dry desert conditions. At a test site in Arizona, the device operates with no mechanical moving parts and is powered solely by sunlight.Because the materials and device design require no electricity to operate, the researchers believe future versions could be low-cost and scalable. The goal is to create systems that can operate on ambient heat sources such as sunlight, allowing deployment in homes, rural communities and areas with limited infrastructure.
Why this research is important
The World Health Organization and the United Nations say water shortages are a big problem around the world, especially in arid regions and places with rapid urban development. Water shortages can lead to health problems, economic problems and social stress when people have to travel long distances or rely on unsafe drinking water sources.Traditional methods of producing clean water, such as desalination or building large new treatment facilities, can be costly and energy-intensive. In contrast, atmospheric water harvesting technology provides a decentralized water source that can operate without a grid. This makes it particularly suitable for households in rural or remote areas where infrastructure is limited or unreliable.If technology continues to improve, it could eventually be possible to manufacture and install smaller home devices, much like solar panels on your roof. Over time, such systems can help communities and households replenish their water supplies without having to rely on large, centralized systems.
what will happen in the future
Researchers around the world are still working on atmospheric water harvesting to make it more efficient, reduce costs and make the system work better in different climates. In recent years, new prototypes using alternative materials and technologies have shown higher performance and faster production speeds. For example, an experimental approach that uses ultrasound to release water droplets trapped in an adsorbent is much better than a passive approach that uses heat to accomplish the same task. This is a new direction for future home devices.Professor Wang’s research and similar projects are part of a larger scientific effort to find new solutions to global water problems. People don’t often use this technology in their homes yet, but the progress made so far suggests that it may be possible to use air to produce water in the home in the future, especially in places where water is hard to find.
