Same caveat as other types of water harvesting: you have to have water in your air to extract. Arid regions need not apply.
vessenes•47m ago
Sahara desert average air humidity is .. I think 25%?
As far as I know most air trap type humidity stuff works in the desert, just not as quickly as in, say, the jungle.
defrost•43m ago
The assertion in the article is that:
Even in desert conditions, there exists some level of humidity that, with the right material, can be soaked up and squeezed out to produce clean drinking water. In recent years, scientists have developed a host of promising sponge-like materials for this “atmospheric water harvesting.”
The number returned by Google (for what that's worth) is:
The Sahara Desert has an average relative humidity of 25 percent.
In the part of the world with driest air and least rainfall ... you could always melt the ice underfoot.
vessenes•48m ago
Boy I'd like to see some hard numbers here - there are lots of estimates of more efficiency, but the press release didn't have any experimental results. Which is too bad, because anything that lowers energy burden of water harvesting in arid areas is awesome.
imglorp•59m ago
vessenes•47m ago
As far as I know most air trap type humidity stuff works in the desert, just not as quickly as in, say, the jungle.
defrost•43m ago