Exceptional water production yield enabled by batch-processed portable water harvester in semi-arid climate

Abstract

Sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting has the potential to realize water production anytime, anywhere, but reaching a hundred-gram high water yield in semi-arid climates is still challenging, although state-of-the-art sorbents have been used. Here, we report a portable and modularized water harvester with scalable, low-cost, and lightweight LiCl-based hygroscopic composite (Li-SHC) sorbents. Li-SHC achieves water uptake capacity of 1.18, 1.79, and 2.93 g g−1 at 15%, 30%, and 60% RH, respectively. Importantly, considering the large mismatch between water capture and release rates, a rationally designed batch processing mode is proposed to pursue maximum water yield in a single diurnal cycle. Together with the advanced thermal design, the water harvester shows an exceptional water yield of 311.69 g day−1 and 1.09 g gsorbent−1 day−1 in the semi-arid climate with the extremely low RH of ~15%, demonstrating the adaptability and possibility of achieving large-scale and reliable water production in real scenarios.

A Hygroscopic Composite Backplate Enabling Passive Cooling of Photovoltaic Panels

“…A freshly synthesized hydrogel contains a lot of water, while it will be lost within a few days when exposed to the ambient environment (Figure S2), unless the surroundings are extremely humid. Thus, it is essential to add a sorbent component such as metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) or hygroscopic salts. − In this study, we loaded the PAm/alginate hydrogel with CaCl 2 by immersing the fully dried hydrogel in a highly concentrated salt solution. Although CaCl 2 has slightly weaker hygroscopic performance compared to the LiCl counterpart, the much lower price makes it a cost-effective option .…”

Hygroscopic Porous Polymer for Sorption‐Based Atmospheric Water Harvesting

“…In this case, 6–8 batch processes could be performed per day, with high time and energy utilization as well as large water yield. [ 78 ]…”

Pathways to Energy‐efficient Water Production from the Atmosphere

“…Most developed countries located in the high‐altitude regions with low solar irradiation, and low‐altitude developing countries received higher irradiation but suffer from severe water crises. Assuming a practical average solar irradiation of 600 W m −2 for 8 h and the total cost is below $2000/m 2 (which is promising for commercial fabrication [ 61 ] ), the payback of AWH is drawn in Figure 5c , compared with the moderate price of bottled water ($0.3/L), revealing that reducing cost (trajectory A–B) is more sensitive than reducing SEC (trajectory A–C), while the effect of reducing these two factors at the same time is more significant (trajectory A–D).…”