Solar-powered handheld WaterDrop produces cool drinking water in the desert

This conceptual design by inventor, Ap Verheggen, allows people to collect solar heat during the day and use it to cool the air inside the mechanism, ventilating and creating water droplets.

Verheggen acknowledges the device seems like science fiction, but also that the technology is advancing so rapidly that it could become a reality very soon.

“If temperatures rise, the air contains more water,” he says in his blog.  “Normally, higher temperatures also mean more sunshine. So, why not focus on harvesting water out of the air, powered only by renewable solar energy? In this way drinking water and water for agriculture become available in most dry parts of the planet.”  He adds, "we are still in the process of refining the physical principles of this new idea."

Solar panels on the outside of the droplet collect heat, which in turn is used to cool the inside of the device.  The energy is also used to power a fan which will ventilate inside and the breeze will cause condensation.  There is a carbon filter at the spout and Verheggen suggests adding rocks inside for mineralization of the water.

 

Verheggen is also responsible for creating the SunGlacier, a giant sculpture that will sit in the desert and produce ice by collecting solar power and freezing the collected water underneath.

 

 

http://inhabitat.com/solar-powered-handheld-waterdrop-produces-cool-drinking-water-in-the-desert/