this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2026
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/59925291

The system can function in air with 20% humidity or less. But these 1,000 liter a day machines are not small, at around shipping container size.

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[–] cout970@programming.dev 4 points 2 hours ago

Oh no, the same scam again, when will people realize that putting dehumidifiers in the desert, where there is little to none humidity in the air does not produce significant quantities of water.

You can claim that your solution produces thousands of liters of water, but in practice its obvious that you cannot extract more water than what's already im the air, once you extract it, there is nothing left, it may work at first, but is not going to work continuously forever.

This is another example of a promised technology scam, pay me for the development and once it doesn't work, disappear with the money. People keep falling for it for some reason.

[–] kalkulat@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Here's a back-up, science paper on MOF from Nature with measured numbers. 8 liters per KG per day isn't 1000 gallons until you get to 2 tons ... but it's about 200 liters per out of 25 KG ... easily carried.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-58405-9

"The effects of temperature, relative humidity, and powder bed thickness on the adsorption-desorption process are explored for achieving optimal operational parameters. We found that Zr-MOF-808 can produce up to 8.66 LH2O kg−1MOF day−1, an extraordinary finding that outperforms any previously reported values for MOF-based systems.... "

[–] TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 4 hours ago

There have been so many of these devices promoted in Kickstarter, dragons den, etc.

I'm highly sceptical, as so far scientists have told me there simply isn't that much moist in the desert air to get even one liter of clean water per day. You simply cannot create water out of nothing.

[–] GenosseFlosse@feddit.org 17 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

This has been debunked before. To get 1000liter of water out of the air, the air needs to hold that much water.

[–] Slashme@lemmy.world 10 points 2 hours ago

This is a bit more serious than the old, frequently-debunked "dehumidifier in the desert" stuff, because it doesn't depend on cooling the air to get the water out, but using a molecular sponge. If you pump enough air over that, you'll eventually fill it up, and you can drive the water out by heating it up.

The guy behind this is a serious organic chemist, and his Nobel prize was actually for pioneering and developing these molecules, so it's not a case of "Nobel prize winner does daft stuff about a subject he's not an expert in", either.

I'm still reserving judgement on whether this will be economically sensible, but I'm not dismissing it immediately, either.

[–] homes@piefed.world 19 points 9 hours ago (1 children)
[–] 69420@lemmy.world 160 points 17 hours ago (3 children)

Finally, I can achieve my dreams of becoming a moisture farmer.

[–] mushroommunk@lemmy.today 60 points 16 hours ago (6 children)

Hope you enjoy a whiny nephew

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 35 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I swear to god if that kid brings up the academy one more time, just kill me

[–] mushroommunk@lemmy.today 14 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

But crying about not getting to go to Tashii station is okay?

[–] DonGirses@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

power converters over there are pretty mediocre anyway

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 20 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Shut the FUCK up we have a shed literally full of power converters, your friends are absolute trash anyway and come on what kind of name even is "Biggs Darklighter" it sounds like his parents were from a Flash Gordon ripoff

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[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 13 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Peaceful living as a smoldering skeleton

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[–] MolochHorridus@lemmy.ml 38 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (5 children)

Yet again, nobody seems to be giving a thought what this means to organisms that are living in the desert. This water is necessary for life and we’re taking it.

[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 7 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (2 children)

If you plan on drinking the water, or cooking with the water, it's going right back into the air after you pee or sweat and the water evaporates. Literally no damage done.

You cannot make the water actually disappear unless you use it in some kind of chemical reaction, and even then it may end up returning to water eventually.

[–] KaChilde@sh.itjust.works 7 points 4 hours ago

I would think that ripping 1000L of water out of an environment in a day is going to have more immediate impacts than you eventually pissing on a cactus is going to fix…

Sure, the water isn’t “destroyed”, but it is being removed from an ecosystem that has evolved to use every last bit of water it can find to survive. It may not be immediately obvious, but it sounds just as damaging as removing 1000L of water a day from a lake and thinking the ecosystem will be fine because you’re going to sweat next to the dry lakebed.

[–] SuspciousCarrot78@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

...Science?

A WITCH! A WITCH!

BURN THE WITCH!

[–] Spaceballstheusername@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

You can't really consume water especially if you take it out of the air. Worst case you temporarily barrow it till it evaporates again it's not like the water is suddenly gonna be pumped out to the ocean or something.

[–] KaChilde@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Do you think they are condensing 1000L of water to then just splash it on the ground where it was farmed? That water is going to people (or more likely companies) that are going to leave the ecosystem.

[–] Tja@programming.dev 3 points 2 hours ago

Yes, they are going to fly away in a penis shaped rocket with all the water on board.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 39 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

As someone who has thought about it, could you provide the data that you used to come to the conclusion that the amount of water being extracted from the air has any appreciable effect on local life?

From my thinking...

Death Valley covers 7800km^2.. Atmospheric moisture is typically contained in the first 10km of air. So there is somewhere around 2.5 quadrillion cubic feet of air containing 114 billion gallons of water.

The average Atmospheric Water Vapour Residence Time is around 8 days The median is 5 days and Death Valley's topography is a valley which would trap more moisture, but we'll use the average instead.

This represents a moisture turnover rate of about 625,000 Liters/second (or 1.45x10^10 gallons/day).

So, one of these devices would consume .000185% of the moisture that enters Death Valley every day.

[–] besmtt@lemmy.world 7 points 6 hours ago (1 children)
[–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 6 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

ground water is a completely different beast. This device harvests moisture from the air.

[–] KaChilde@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 hours ago

You are assuming that there will only be one device used by a careful and considerate individual.

I can think of many companies that would 100000% set up a moisture farming complex if it was financially feasible. Who gives a fuck about the environment? It’s basically free water from nothing, right?

[–] dukemirage@lemmy.world 7 points 12 hours ago

Well the damage is done and now we need that water.

[–] Eccowave@feddit.org 57 points 16 hours ago (2 children)
[–] criss_cross@lemmy.world 6 points 10 hours ago

We need to harness Desert Power!

[–] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago

Came here to say this but knew in my heart that it had already been brought in.

[–] HowAbt2day@futurology.today 41 points 16 hours ago (4 children)

That water was in its way to somewhere, though. What is that other area gonna look like now that this device intercepts the water?

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 4 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

same could be said about every shower you take and every toilet you flush

[–] D_C@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

🎶And every bond you break, every step you take
I'll be watching you!!🎵

[–] Steve@startrek.website 8 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Dooooom

Someone is going to drink it then sweat it back into the air. I doubt its going to get bottled and shipped somewhere else.

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[–] SweatyFireBalls@lemmy.world 38 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Sounds like that other area needs to pull up on those bootstraps and make a water machine for its needs then.

This comment is brought to you by the sigma water machine, buy yours today and lock your grindset on hydration!

(Hopefully obvious but /s)

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[–] Hoimo@ani.social 10 points 13 hours ago

Eventually all that dry air will end up above the ocean and absorb more water to balance the system. I don't think it's really an issue, we weren't getting rain clouds from the Sahara anyway.

[–] Zwiebel@feddit.org 32 points 16 hours ago (3 children)

Atoco harnesses the power of AI to bridge the gap between scientific discovery and real-world implementation, transforming innovative research into scalable solutions. By integrating machine learning and AI with reticular chemistry, we dramatically reduce the time needed to develop, optimize and scale our novel nano-engineered reticular materials for carbon capture and atmospheric water harvesting.

Bruh.

[–] thatsTheCatch@lemmy.nz 38 points 16 hours ago

This is likely not the Generative AI, LLM-slop type of AI you're thinking of.

I hate generative AI. But other forms of AI and machine learning have been used for much longer and haven't facilitated the building of ecologically harmful datacenters.

For example, AlphaFold, which is an AI program that can predict how proteins fold and is an incredibly useful tool.

I expect that the use of AI here would be similar: something trained for a specific purpose, not just generic generative AI tech like ChatGPT

[–] ghost@slrpnk.net 13 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Reading that felt like my brain was trying to chew glue

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[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 17 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

shipping container size

That’s far smaller than I expected. I also don’t imagine it will be cheap. If they manage to make it less than $100,000 then I’ll be baffled. Less than $500,000 and I’ll be excited for the possibilities in my lifetime.

[–] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 5 points 13 hours ago (1 children)
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[–] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 12 points 16 hours ago

Yaghi’s mechanism can do this without a power source. It uses the wind and air for water input, then the sun to drive condensation and evaporative action.

Really interesting. This could totally transform many places on Earth.

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