From Basic Elements to Useful Technology

Raja Sekhar Malapati shares a piece on water technology that is not as popular or known in the quest for safe, accessible drinking water everywhere. A company known as Aqua Sciences developed a way to extract water not from the ground, but from the air – even in dry regions. According to a Wall Street Journal article published last year, “the technology uses a blend of salts to collect water, then employs a combination of heat, chemistry and mechanics to extract the water from the salts.” Employing a 40-foot trailer, the generator can produce about 1,200 gallons of water a day from moisture captured in the air.

Currently, the company’s products are in use by the U.S. government for emergency situations and troops in Iraq. Malapati wonders if this technology could be implemented in India, with its vast dry regions and serious water issues in rural areas. The 40-foot trailer may be a bit of an eyesore, but the technology is nonetheless exciting and certainly one to watch and see in which ways it can contribute to solving water challenges.