3 ms·

Collecting fog electrostatically is 2x more efficient than desalination. It works by ionizing the droplets in the air and collecting them on wire meshes: https:

Collecting fog electrostatically is 2x more efficient than desalination. It works by ionizing the droplets in the air and collecting them on wire meshes: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aao5323 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aao5323. The technique also doesn't produce tons of salt waste that you have to dispose of. It's a potential solution for towns/cities next to the ocean. Desalination is cheap enough already if we get desperate. It won't be cost or technical feasibility that prevents us from solving the drought problem.

scoofy 4y ago
this is really interesting, i live in the bay area, are there any consumer product for this, or is it typically only economically feasible at scale?
- cgreerrun 4y ago
  I'm not aware of a consumer product. The authors of the paper started this company: https://www.infinite-cooling.com/ https://www.infinite-cooling.com/. It looks like it's targeting industrial processes (cooling towers) where the collection efficiency is really high. Makes sense, why do B2C when you can do B2B w/ million dollar contracts... I'm personally looking into making something that can continually top up something like a 500 gallon water tank every night (when humidity is high) on a residential property. These tanks are prevalent in the drought-stricken, coastal community I live in. You need about 2200 gallons/person/month, of which only 15 gallons/person/month is used for drinking water. So if you can continually collect water throughout the month and have the space for a tank (about the size of a truck bed) then it should be possible to supply most of your water usage off the grid and in a way that isn't draining reservoirs.
danaris 4y ago
The difference with this is it reduces the water available to fall further downwind, and could thus cause other issues: it's effectively zero-sum on moisture, while desalinating ocean water is positive-sum (though, yes, it has a waste issue).
- cgreerrun 4y ago
  Will it reduce the water available? I'm not sure either way. I've been imagining it like you're sucking the evaporated water out of the top of a half-full glass of covered water. The evaporated water is in equilibrium with the liquid water, and if you suck out evaporated water, then more liquid water evaporates. But that's just my dumb mental model.

scoofy 4y ago

this is really interesting, i live in the bay area, are there any consumer product for this, or is it typically only economically feasible at scale?

cgreerrun 4y ago
I'm not aware of a consumer product. The authors of the paper started this company: https://www.infinite-cooling.com/ https://www.infinite-cooling.com/. It looks like it's targeting industrial processes (cooling towers) where the collection efficiency is really high. Makes sense, why do B2C when you can do B2B w/ million dollar contracts... I'm personally looking into making something that can continually top up something like a 500 gallon water tank every night (when humidity is high) on a residential property. These tanks are prevalent in the drought-stricken, coastal community I live in. You need about 2200 gallons/person/month, of which only 15 gallons/person/month is used for drinking water. So if you can continually collect water throughout the month and have the space for a tank (about the size of a truck bed) then it should be possible to supply most of your water usage off the grid and in a way that isn't draining reservoirs.

danaris 4y ago

The difference with this is it reduces the water available to fall further downwind, and could thus cause other issues: it's effectively zero-sum on moisture, while desalinating ocean water is positive-sum (though, yes, it has a waste issue).

cgreerrun 4y ago
Will it reduce the water available? I'm not sure either way. I've been imagining it like you're sucking the evaporated water out of the top of a half-full glass of covered water. The evaporated water is in equilibrium with the liquid water, and if you suck out evaporated water, then more liquid water evaporates. But that's just my dumb mental model.