Atmospheric Water Harvester

Providing clean water to the warfighter is a significant challenge, especially in arid and desert climates. According to the US Army Combined Arms Support Command Force Development Directorate’s Water Planning Guide, the warfighter requires 12.5 liters of water per day for sustained operation.  TDA Research proposes to develop a lightweight, portable, energy efficient atmospheric water harvester to reduce the logistical burden of supplying drinking water to the warfighters.  TDA’s system will be highly compact, lightweight and will easily fit into the transport vehicles used by the U.S. Marine Corps.  The harvester will be capable of generating 24 gal/day potable water from ambient air at relative humidities ranging from 20-99%.  The water generator captures the water in the air using a high capacity sorbent and employs an innovative heat integration system to produce high purity potable water with very low energy consumption. The unique heat management system enables the capture, release and recovery of the adsorbed water by only consuming 3 kW (electric). In Phase I, we will carry out the development of a structured adsorbent and carry out proof-of-concept evaluations in a breadboard unit to demonstrate the technical feasibility of the new technology.  Based on experimental data, we will complete the detailed design of the atmospheric water harvester and accurately estimate the system size, weight and energy consumption.  In Phase I Option, we will test the long-term durability of the system components and finalize a Phase II development plan with performance goals, key technical milestones and technical risk reduction for a higher fidelity prototype.  In Phase II, we will fabricate a full-scale prototype water harvesting system and demonstrate its performance over a range of operation conditions.  The technology will reach TRL 6 by the end of Phase II.