Turning Air into Water: How Atoco is Fighting Desertification with Transformative Atmospheric Water Harvesting Technology

Desertification is not simply deserts expanding naturally. It’s the result of human activity and climate change degrading once-productive land. The consequences are wide-reaching: food insecurity, forced migration, economic instability, and biodiversity loss.

Conventional efforts like reforestation and sustainable agriculture are crucial, but they depend on a consistent and reliable supply of water—something increasingly unavailable in many of the world’s most affected regions.

Water is the foundation of any solution to land degradation. Without it, trees can’t take root, soil can’t recover, and crops can’t grow. In arid and semi-arid regions, where groundwater is overdrawn and rainfall is unreliable, new methods of water sourcing are urgently needed.

That’s where Atoco comes in.

Atoco’s technology offers a transformative approach to generating water. Atoco’s AWH system uses reticular materials—novel, nano-engineered structures capable of absorbing water from even the driest air.
 
This process can be entirely powered by ambient energy: natural temperature differences between air and soil, between day and night or low-grade waste heat. No grid connection is needed. No fossil fuels. Just clean water from air, anywhere.
 
Key advantages include:
 

• Operates efficiently in ultra-low humidity environments

• Fully off-grid and decentralized

• Requires no external electricity beyond a small solar panel

• Scalable from individual farms to regional installations

Invented by Atoco founder Professor Omar Yaghi, reticular materials can be engineered at the molecular level to bind and release water vapor with minimal energy input. When paired with low-grade ambient thermal energy—such as heat from the ground, industrial waste heat, or daily temperature cycles—these materials can harvest water off the grid, even in the most remote regions.

This innovation opens up new possibilities for communities that have long faced water scarcity. And it does so without compromising the environment or placing further strain on dwindling resources.

Atoco’s atmospheric water harvesting technology unlocks the potential for:
 

• Reviving vegetation and soil health in degraded lands

• Enabling climate-resilient agriculture

• Supporting reforestation and biodiversity

• Reducing migration pressures driven by land and water scarcity

• Enhancing food security and rural economies

The environmental impact is just as significant. As vegetation returns, so does carbon sequestration, helping mitigate climate change. By restoring ecosystems, Atoco’s technology contributes to a positive feedback loop that strengthens both people and the planet.

With water scarcity affecting billions and land degradation threatening food systems and stability worldwide, scalable solutions are no longer optional—they are essential.

Atoco’s approach—using ambient energy and nano-engieered reticular materials to harvest water from the air—offers a resilient, sustainable path forward. It decentralizes water access, empowers vulnerable communities, and provides a critical tool in the global response to desertification.

This is how we turn the air into water—and degraded land back into opportunity. Find out more about this in our white paper focusing on how we tackle desertification: Fighting Desertification With Atmospheric Water Harvesting – Atoco

Atoco is a leader in climate technology and was founded by Professor Omar Yaghi, the inventor of Reticular Chemistry. Atoco utilizes reticular materials such as Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) and Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs) to develop breakthrough solutions for carbon capture and atmospheric water harvesting. These technologies, designed with atomic precision, are engineered to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges: climate change and water scarcity.