To counteract the ongoing drought in California, a design engineer at Tsunami Products, Ted Bowman, created the Atmospheric Water Generator — a machine that uses cooling to collect water out of the air. The latest drought has been going on since early 2020, with hardly a break from the previous one that took up almost all of 2018. This earlier one was less severe but came hot on the heels of a chronic 2012-2017 drought, for which a statewide drought emergency was declared. This had only happened once before then, for its immediate predecessor in 2007-10.
According to the National Integrated Drought Information System, the severity of the current drought is almost up to its highest levels to date, for which the latter half of 2014 still holds the record. Over 45% of California is affected by a stage four drought — "exceptional drought," characterized by very costly fire seasons, barren fields and low yields, and widespread death of wildlife — while almost 88% of the state is in stage three, "extreme drought." Due to the severity of the current situation, reservoirs have been depleted and Californians have been urged to conserve as much water as possible.
In response to this, some homeowners have begun purchasing Tsunami's machines to provide their gardens and houses with water. The machines range from tall air-conditioner size to 24-foot shipping container size and cost between $30,000 and $200,000, with the smaller units having the ability to run on solar power. This way, despite the large amount of energy needed to run these machines, homeowners with solar panels on their roofs can cover their own operations.
Moisture Farms Come To Earth
The machines function basically like air conditioners or, for Star Wars fans, the moisture vaporators used on moisture farms. Filtered fans suck in the surrounding air and cool it by running it through condensing coils. This converts the air to drops of water, which are run through a "patented extraction chamber" and several stages of filtration before finally being collected in a storage tank. However, Tsunami claims their technology differs greatly from regular air conditioners and dehumidifiers because it's much more efficient at producing water and uses food-grade materials that make the water safe to drink.
While the company claims that water from air is a renewable source of drinking water — with science to back it up — some concerns already exist. One of the biggest issues is that the company fails to acknowledge the cost of the power used to run their machines. The larger models, in particular, are designed to run on diesel, a form of fuel the car industry has been working hard to cut down on. While the technology itself could show promise for accessible drinking water for everyone, some believe it may be better to focus on fighting climate change to prevent droughts in the first place.
Source: AP News, Tsunami Products