'Star Wars' Tech Not So Useful On Earth

Water-scarcity tech similar to the kind used on the desert planet Tatooine from the Star Wars saga, is being used here on Earth. The process of so-called "moisture farming" relies on new technological innovations to extract water from the air.

But is a flashy, new process, seemingly pulled straight from the silver screen, the best solution to drought in the West? Probably not, according to a recent report from Discovery News. Such gizmos and gadgets "may seem an appealing fix for water-starved California, but experts say a far better creative solution may lie in leveraging other technology that reduces water use and cleans and reuses wastewater."

A handful of companies have made major bets on moisture farming. "Aqua Sciences and PlanetsWater build and sell water-from-air units of all sizes that only need electricity to start capturing water from the atmosphere," the report said. The market also offers fog nets and technology mimicking the way plants capture water.

The problem is, in drought-plagued regions, there's not much water in the air. "Right now in California, where the April 1 mountain snowpack was just 5 percent of average, large-scale moisture farming is more the stuff of dreams," the report said.

Barton “Buzz” Thompson, Director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University, seemed pretty sure about this. “I don't think that [moisture farms] are important today,” he said, per the report. "The technology is somewhat like tidal power, he said: Interesting, but not yet viable on the large-scale."

He pointed to technology and conservation as vital to addressing the drought crisis.

“I sincerely believe that technology is part of the solution but areas have to think about how much water is available. We need to recognize that we're never going to have more water. So that means we are really focused on seeing if there are technologies that let us use types of water that are unavailable or use it in a more efficient, wiser fashion,” he said.

For its part, Stanford is investing in treatment technology. Starting in 2013, Stanford University researchers teamed up with chemists from the local sanitation district to test "a small-scale demonstration project that converts nitrogen found in wastewater into nitrous oxide gas through combustion with already collected methane gas. The reaction can create a powerful fuel source," the Contra Costa Times reported.

The project, called Coupled Aerobic-anoxic Nitrous Decomposition Operation (CANDO) aims to show that this technology can be used on a larger scale. The process was developed by post-doctoral researcher Yaniv Scherson.

"The impact of energy recovery from wastewater is significant, considering that the treatment and transport of wastewater imposes a 3% load on U.S. energy supply and approximately 3-5% in most countries around the world. In principle, CANDO is applicable to any high concentration ammonia streams including landfill leachates and industrial manufacturing processes," Scherson explained.

For more on water scarcity, visit Water Online's Water Scarcity Solution Center.