Bio-inspired fog nets for sustainable water resources in arid near coastal regions

Fog harvesting from fog nets has been intensively investigated to utilize untapped fresh water resources. Atmospheric water like fog constitutes approximately 0.04% of the earth's fresh water. If fog is harnessed appropriately, it has a huge potential to alleviate fresh water shortages due to depleting watershed and groundwater resources NBD Nanotechnologies, Inc. is proposing a research program to commercialize a proprietary surface coating for fog net applications to exploit underused fresh water resources in fog-laden areas. The proposed coating consists of a proprietary blend of superhydrophobic coatings to which NBD has exclusive licensing rights, and uses a one-step dip process that is very amenable for mass-manufacturing and scale up. Also, an embedded drainage design and multi-layered fog nets can promote significant enhancement of water collection from the fog nets. During USDA SBIR Phase I, NBD has shown that by modifying the surface texture and chemistry of a fog net with a superhydrophobic coating, and optimizing the mesh structure, the fog collection efficiency of a system can be enhanced five-fold.Fog nets with enhanced water collection efficiency would provide an ecofriendly and low-cost solution towards reducing the strain on the fresh water supplies in drought-affected areas as well as providing an effective method of delivering water for onsite crop irrigation. If successfully implemented on a commercial scale, the enhanced fog harvesting abilities of the proposed fog nets will reduce the strain on watershed resources in drought afflicted regions, and provide a valuable source of fresh water in isolated rural communities.