Atmospheric Water Generator: To Meet the Drinking Water Requirements of a Household in Coastal Regions of India

Abstract

Water scarcity is one of the burning issues of today’s world. Though water covers more than two third (about 70%) of the Earth’s surface but still fresh water which can be used for drinking and carrying out everyday chores remains scarce (only about 2.5%). The acute problem of water shortage, is mainly faced by the countries with long coastlines and the island nations, which do not have adequate fresh water sources like rivers and ponds. As a result most of these countries meet their water demands by desalination of sea water which is a very costly affair. Also it may so happen that these desalination plants may fail which will cause acute water shortage. This is what just recently happened in Maldives. So there is an urgent need for countries like Maldives and others, who depend solely on desalination plants to meet their water requirements, to find alternative methods to generate water in order to meet their water security needs. India also needs to work forward in this direction in order to address this issue. Even though it has a very large coastline but still people face water scarcity. Till now India has not devised any way by which water from sea can be used to provide drinking water to the people. This project aims to solve this problem. In the coastal areas the relative humidity is quite high (around 70-80%). So, the air in coastal areas can be used to meet the water needs of people by using a dehumidifier unit. Further the solar insolation is quite high in these areas round the year. This can be used to provide necessary power to the dehumidifier unit. Thus drinking water can be obtained from the atmosphere by harnessing solar energy. Such a device is called Atmospheric Water Generator.