Condensation of Moist Air on Mesh-like Surfaces

Abstract

Water scarcity is one of the crucial problems especially in hot, humid, arid and drought prone regions of the world. In these vulnerable regions, Earth’s atmosphere water is the main source for getting potable water. In this work, a water harvesting device from moist air is designed and fabricated. The condensing substrate is mesh-like on which condensation of moist air is achieved by flowing cold water through the capillary tubes from solar based cooling unit. However, an outer surface of capillary tubes of mesh-like surface is coated with hydrophobic coating. From this device, water from atmospheric air is collected approximately 800 ml/m² in four hours at atmospheric temperature, relative humidity and degree of sub-cooling 32 °C, 80% and 5 °C respectively. This type of substrate is suitable to solve the water crisis for improving mass transfer rates and higher water yield during moist air condensation in the coastal, hot and humid area worldwide.