Access to clean and reliable water sources is a constant challenge in most arid and impoverished countries.

According to UN data, 2.2 billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water services, and more than half of the global population lacks access to sanitation facilities.

Researchers at ETH Zurich look to address this by unveiling a groundbreaking solution that harnesses the power of fog to provide clean, drinkable water while simultaneously tackling the issue of atmospheric pollution.

This revolutionary instrument not only captures fog droplets for water harvesting but also purifies them, offering hope to regions grappling with water scarcity and pollution.

Converting Fog Into Drinkable Water

Fog water harvesting is not a new concept in areas where traditional water sources are scarce. People in foggy regions have been using nets to catch droplets of water, which then trickle down the mesh and are collected for drinking, cooking, and washing purposes.

Remarkably, even in areas with little rainfall or spring water, these fog nets can yield several hundred liters of water daily from a small area. Check out this similar endeavor started by MIT.

It is worth noting that a significant downside to this method is the presence of atmospheric pollutants in the collected water due to polluted air.

Purifying Fog Water

Enter the innovation by researchers at ETH Zurich. They have devised a method that gathers fog water efficiently and purifies it in the process.

TechXplore reports that this cutting-edge approach involves using a lattice of metal wire coated with carefully chosen polymers and titanium dioxide. The polymers facilitate the efficient collection of water droplets on the mesh, preventing wind-induced losses.

Simultaneously, the titanium dioxide acts as a chemical catalyst, breaking down organic pollutants present in the droplets and rendering them harmless.

Dr. Ritwick Ghosh, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, elaborates, "Our system not only harvests fog but also treats the harvested water, meaning it can be used in areas with atmospheric pollution, such as densely populated urban centers."

One remarkable aspect of this technology is its minimal maintenance requirement. Unlike conventional fog water harvesting methods, the new instrument does not demand substantial energy inputs.

A small dose of UV light is all it takes to reactivate the titanium oxide catalyst, and just half an hour of sunlight can sustain the reactivation for a full day, thanks to the property of photocatalytic memory.

Moreover, the reactivated catalyst remains active for extended periods even without sunlight, a boon for regions with limited sunshine. This attribute proves invaluable in places where fog is common but sunlight is not.

Promising Results

The team tested their innovation extensively in laboratory settings and a small pilot plant in Zurich.

The results were impressive-during tests involving artificially generated fog, they collected 8% of the water content and broke down a staggering 94% of added organic compounds. These compounds included fine diesel droplets and the hormone-disrupting chemical bisphenol A.

Ritwick Ghosh, who spearheaded previous research on water recovery from cooling towers, aims to explore marketable applications for this groundbreaking technology.

By tapping into fog and steam, often overlooked sources of water, the research team envisions contributing to the mitigation of water scarcity, a critical global challenge.

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