Thursday, September 20, 2012

Harvesting Water from Air: A Possible Solution to Drought

Drought is a common phenomenon in several areas of world. This is bad for the farmers as well as for us in general because the production of food is adversely affected.  The ideal solution for drought since there’s no rain is to create a source of water. And we know that air holds water when it is humid. Therefore we can get water from air. However, harvesting water from thin air sounds like a crazy idea. But a young Melbourne-based inventor was able to make the crazy idea work. 

Edward Linacre invented an equipment that actually able to do it. He was able to show that his air drop irrigation concept can produce significant amount of water through his pilot setup at the back of their house. Moreover, he was able to prove that it can also work in large scale. His work made him the winner of the James Dyson Award 2011 and he received US$14,000 as a prize as well as sponsorship for his design school faculty.



His invention seems high-tech but actually he was just able to transform an ancient cooling technique into a new sub-surface irrigation system that can be used in farms. His design only uses the simple process of condensation to harvest water from the air. He was able to make air channels through an underground network of piping that rapidly lowers the air temperature near to the soil temperature. This process creates a system of 100-percent humidity, from which water can then be harvested. The harvested water is then collected in an underground tank which can already be pumped out via sub-surface drip irrigation hosing. 


So let's hear from Edward himself how he created his awesome air drop irrigation concept.


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