The Catalyst Review May 2024 - 7

SPECIAL FEATURE
The Great Lakes in the US and Canada contain 21% of the world's surface fresh water, corresponding to 22,881 km3
2.30E+16 in liters. This is enough water to cover the forty-eight contiguous states (US) to a uniform depth of 2.9 m.
, which is
The creation of the dams was one of the most important inventions to produce electrical power and freshwater production. Dams
are an integral part of avoiding massive flooding in many regions around the world, but beyond this benefit, dams are also used to
generate green electricity. In fact, a significant part of the total electricity being produced in the world is now done by power plants
built across dams. Additionally, water distribution is not even across the world, but dams enable us to distribute water to all parts of
the world.
Conventional atmospheric water generation (AWG) and new technologies.
In many places around the world, there is an abundance of water in the air. In these places, water vapor can continue to be
extracted from the atmosphere without impacting the planet's hydrologic cycle. On the left side of Figure 2, a thermal energy
system is shown that takes water from the atmosphere and turns it into liquid water by condensation. One only uses an external
energy source, which could be solar or wind electricity to cool water below the dew point temperature at the location of the water
generation site. Various companies are active in this market, such as Watergen, Skywater, EcoloBlue and Airowater (see References).
Figure 2. Atmospheric Water Generation.
Source: Jamiri et al. 2020; Lord et al 2021; Raveesh et al. 2023.
1500 - 1600 m3
.
Using solar energy and metal-organic framework materials.
Scientists of UC Berkeley have been assessing their newest prototype Water Harvester in the Arizona desert (Kim et al. 2018;
Almassad et al. 2022). They were evaluating a novel approach to draw water out of the desert air without any power other than
sunlight using a new dehydration material. During the night, the material installed in the box shown in Figure 3 absorbs water from
the air, which can subsequently be desorbed during the day using sunlight.
/year at $0.02/liter
Figure 3. Dew water system
using solar energy.
Source: Kim et al. 2018;
Cordava et al. 2022.
The Catalyst Review
May 2024
7

The Catalyst Review May 2024

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