Water availability, as we all know, has been a grim issue for ages now. Everyone talks about it but only a few have bought a viable solution.
One such sustainable solution is WEDEW (Wood-To-Energy Deployable Emergency Water), a technology developed by Skysource in collaboration with ALL Power Labs. They made a technology which produces fresh water from the air!
The Invention
WEDEW is a mobile generator that converts biomass or agricultural waste into water and biochar and sequestering would-be greenhouse gases in the ground. Users dump discarded plant and animal materials, such as wood chips or nutshells, into the machine, which WEDEW heats up, releasing water vapor into the air in the process. Then the generator condenses the vapor into drinkable water.
The Three R’s
- Climate Resilience
WEDEW helps communities plan for and respond to global climate change by providing reliable energy and water, which works no matter how volatile the environment becomes.
2. Self-Reliance
WEDEW is a point-of-use system, meaning vulnerable communities are no longer beholden to infrastructure for their water and power. The sustainable exchange of biomass for water around WEDEW can become the cornerstone of local economies.
3. Emergency Response
WEDEW contains everything needed for aid work in a secure, transportable container. It can provide on-demand water and power during emergency events in addition to refrigeration, cooling, and communication.
WEDEW runs on biomass gasification, which operates at less than 1/10th the cost of solar PV while occupying the area of a single panel. Biomass fuel is available in many parts of the world for little or no cost as the by-products of agriculture, forestry, and natural disasters. Biomass gasification has competitive advantages when compared to alternative sources of power for an atmospheric generation, possessing the convenient benefits of diesel gensets (a combination of engine, converts chemical energy of a fuel to mechanical energy and; an alternator, converts the mechanical energy to electrical energy) without the harmful effects.
In areas where biomass is less available, the system can run on solar and battery power rather than biomass, for about twenty pennies a day.
Advantages
WEDEW works without regard to the weather, infrastructure, or a hostile government.
Biomass can be used in forests devastated by drought and pests which will reduce future fire dangers.
It can provide on-demand water and power (25kWh) during emergency events in addition to refrigeration, cooling, and communication, acting as a microgrid solution. The next-generation WEDEW will be even more energy-efficient and produce more power and/or water per day.
“It’s a carbon-negative technology,” says David Hertz, a California-based architect who helped lead the project. “I think the future of technologies is going to be moving to this restorative, regenerative model that helps to repair the damage we’ve done.”
Published by
Maitree Joshi