Billboard makes drinking water out of air —Kul wahad!

Frank Herbert would've been proud.

 

Peru’s University of Engineering and Technology (UTEC) has developed a billboard that extracts potable drinking water from out of the air, taking advantage of the area's high levels of atmospheric humidity.  

 

“Each generator captures the air humidity and from there it goes to a reverse osmosis system. Each tank stores about 5.28 gallons of water. These 5 generators purify the vital liquid and its total is gathered in one tank,” a UTEC engineer told the Latin American Herald Tribune.

 

The Herald Tribune pointed out that, although atmospheric humidity in Lima and surrounding areas in Peru is as high as 98%, the rain in the coastal desert region "is almost zero."

 

Many people suffer from a lack of potable water, the article added.

 

"Most of us draw water from the well. It’s not nice and it’s polluted," said Francisco Quilca, a resident of the Bujama district.

 

But the billboard, which was part of a publicity stunt to attract college applicants to the UTEC, offers a novel solution that has long been the stuff of science fiction.

 

In the science fictional universe of Frank Herbert's Dune novels, the inhabitants of the desert planet Arrakis use similar technology called "wind traps" to harvest water from the air.

 

Over a period of three months, the UTEC project was able to produce almost 2,500 gallons of drinking water —equal to "the water consumption of hundreds of families per month," according to the Tribune.

 

However, as one commenter pointed out, the university did not mention if the project is commercially feasible. — GMA News