Startups Are Racing to Make Water Out of Thin Air
Materials that are bigger on the inside than the outside provide a futuristic solution to supply water to an increasingly arid planet.
Omar Yaghi is the founder of Atoco and a chemistry professor at the University of California at Berkeley who pioneered materials that can harvest water from air.
Image courtesy of Atoco
At a laboratory in a Southern California warehouse, scientist Heng Su unveils what could be a world-changing solution to the global water crisis. The small handheld object looks unremarkable, consisting of stacked white fins that resemble a miniature old-fashioned apartment radiator. But when Su puts the device on a scale, it silently gains weight within seconds. As the minutes pass, it gets heavier and heavier. That’s because the gadget is invisibly gathering water molecules from the surrounding air.
A few feet away, four of the water harvesters sit inside a plastic enclosure shaped like a transparent birdhouse. The warm air inside dislodges the H2O molecules from the harvesters and a condenser transforms the water vapor into liquid, which is dripping into a beaker. The technology, called metallic organic frameworks (MOFs), doesn’t require electricity and can produce water with just ambient sunlight. It’s Irvine-based startup Atoco’s vision for how to provide water in an increasingly arid world.