Satyaranjan Mohanty

Getting water out of the thin air is now possible, thanks to a new technology.

'Drinking water can be extracted from the humidity in the air even in the desert or in the middle of a megacity,' thanks to a technology developed by the Fraunhofer Alliance SysWasser, Germany.

The principle behind it is a salt solution that runs down from a tower-shaped system and absorbs water from the air, known as hygroscopic brine. This brine is then pumped into a tank that stands a couple of metres high and contains a vacuum.

Then, energy from solar collectors heats up the brine and the evaporated salt-free water condenses over a distillation bridge. The brine concentrates again and flows down on the surface of the tower to absorb humidity in the air, according to a Fraunhofer statement.

This process is exclusively based on regenerative sources of energy such as simple solar collectors and photovoltaic cells, meaning that this method is completely energy self-sufficient.

That means that it functions in areas where there is no electrical infrastructure. This process is particularly well suited for extracting drinking water in arid and semi-arid areas where more water evaporates than precipitation falls.