Water Online: Harvesting Water From Air

This article by Magnus Bach, VP of Business Development for Atoco, was originally published on Water Online on Dec 6th, 2o24.

In Frank Herbert’s seminal science fiction novel Dune, survival on the arid planet Arrakis depends on the ingenious ability to harvest water from the atmosphere. Using devices like windtraps and dew collectors, the inhabitants of this desert world extract precious moisture from the air. Today, as the global water crisis worsens, scientists and engineers are making strides in developing real-world atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) technologies, transforming speculative fiction into practical solutions.

Water scarcity is one of the most pressing challenges of our time, exacerbated by regional population growth, urbanization, and climate change. Traditional water sources — such as rivers, lakes, and aquifers — are increasingly strained, while arid regions face the growing threat of desertification and land degradation. Meanwhile, the Earth’s atmosphere holds a vast and renewable reservoir of water vapor, approximately seven times the volume of all the world’s rivers combined. This untapped resource offers a pathway to mitigating water scarcity, particularly in regions where conventional water infrastructure is impractical or unsustainable.

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