Harvesting Water From Air: Building Water Resilience In Remote Arid Regions Is Science, Not Science Fiction

By Magnus Bach

In Frank Herbert’s seminal science fiction novel Dune, survival on the arid planet Arrakis depends on the ingenious ability to harvest water from the atmosphere. Using devices like windtraps and dew collectors, the inhabitants of this desert world extract precious moisture from the air. Today, as the global water crisis worsens, scientists and engineers are making strides in developing real-world atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) technologies, transforming speculative fiction into practical solutions.

Water scarcity is one of the most pressing challenges of our time, exacerbated by regional population growth, urbanization, and climate change. Traditional water sources — such as rivers, lakes, and aquifers — are increasingly strained, while arid regions face the growing threat of desertification and land degradation. Meanwhile, the Earth's atmosphere holds a vast and renewable reservoir of water vapor, approximately seven times the volume of all the world’s rivers combined. This untapped resource offers a pathway to mitigating water scarcity, particularly in regions where conventional water infrastructure is impractical or unsustainable.

Tapping Into An Atmospheric Reservoir

The concept of harvesting water from the air has existed for decades, and to an increasing extent, Atmospheric water generation (AWG) technologies based on cooling-condensation or desiccants have demonstrated value in environments where the relative humidity (RH) levels are medium to high and where there is access to electricity. Such environments are typically found in urban settings.

The existing technologies, however, have often been challenged in environments, where relative humidity is below 30%, particularly because energy consumption tends to go up as humidity levels drop. Cooling-condensation-based technologies, for instance, generate water by reducing the temperature to the dew point before harvesting commences. As the dew point in arid air is very low, such technologies typically require a significant amount of energy to generate water. In arid or semi-arid regions, this would make cooling-condensation-based technologies inefficient, impractical, and costly to operate. The same could be argued for desiccant-based AWG technologies. While performing well in medium-humidity environments, the desiccants will need to be heated up to release the water molecules from the material. Again, it is an energy-intensive process that effectively rules out off-grid applications in remote areas.

With that in mind, there are reasons to argue that atmospheric water generation does not have a role to play in arid, remote regions — that we will need to transport water from far away or unsustainably deplete whatever scarce water resources are available locally.

Next-Generation Atmospheric Water Harvesting?

While cooling-condensation and desiccant-based AWG technologies might struggle in remote arid regions, new technologies are being introduced, specifically designed to operate efficiently in the harsh conditions of arid lands. Rather than relying on incremental improvements of existing AWG technologies, this technology — based on nano-engineered reticular materials — rethinks the approach entirely, aiming to enable a more transformational leap forward, in terms of both efficiency and application.

Reticular chemistry — a field of science originally established by Atoco founder and Professor of Chemistry at University of California, Berkeley, Omar Yaghi — is described as “stitching molecular building blocks into extended structures via strong bonds.” These ultra-porous crystalline structures, designed at the nanoscale, provide an immense internal surface area. In fact, just one gram of this material can display an internal surface area equivalent to a football field. Since water molecules are adsorbed onto the surface within the pores of the reticular material, the resultant larger surface area means more water can be retained. The materials demonstrate remarkable selectivity and tunability, which allow them to specifically target water vapor, even in environments with ultra-low humidity levels (below 20% relative humidity). Reticular materials have also proven to be extremely stable, durable, and robust, repeatedly undergoing cycles of adsorption and desorption.

The Key To Off-Grid Atmospheric Water Harvesting: Ambient Energy

Nikola Tesla, the visionary inventor, dreamed of harnessing natural energy sources such as thermal gradients and electromagnetic fields to power sustainable solutions for humanity. While his dream of free, wireless electricity has not yet been realized, modern technological advancements are bringing his ideas closer to reality. Now, also in the area of atmospheric water harvesting.

Atmospheric water harvesting systems based on reticular materials can operate in both active and passive modes. Thus, rather than relying on external power supply, the passive AWH systems can source its power 100% from the ambient thermal energy, naturally occurring in the environment, exploiting the temperature differential between two sources of ambient energy, such as cold soil versus hot air (or vice versa). The temperature differential can be as low as 7° C (13° F) to power the water generation process. This also means that the technology can generate water all year round, either by leveraging temperature deltas between hot air and cold soil, or — if this falls below the threshold of 7° C — between day and night temperatures.

Because the required temperature differential is so low, the system can tap into low-grade resources of ambient energy, either from nature or alternatively from industrial processes. This low-grade energy, often in the form of heat at 35–40° C, mostly goes to waste and is not capitalized upon, neither by utilities nor by society at large.

If you think about it, such technology can have a profound impact on remote areas facing water scarcity and stress. Essentially, this AWH technology based on reticular materials enables us to sustainably harvest clean water from air, an inexhaustive but widely untapped resource of water, and to power the generation process entirely on ambient energy, a widely underutilized energy resource. The fact that the system can operate off-grid at utility scale, even in ultra-dry and arid environments, means we can decentralize water generation. This could, for instance, supply water to remote communities or plantations, without depleting already scarce surface reservoirs or underground aquifers. This will, in effect, relieve the stress on utilities to supply local communities and businesses with water.

By converting the Earth's latent ambient energy into usable water, these AWH systems are not just an innovative response to a pressing global challenge, but also a practical realization of Tesla’s ethos of sustainable and resourceful innovation. As we begin to harness the untapped potential of ambient energy, AWH technology promises to play a vital role in providing clean water to those who need it most, while minimizing our environmental footprint.

Decentralized Applications In A Thirsty World

The potential applications of atmospheric water harvesting are vast and varied, addressing challenges in both developed and developing regions.

In areas affected by desertification, next generation AWH technologies provide a crucial lifeline. By capturing moisture from the air, these systems can rehydrate soils, enable vegetation growth, and restore degraded ecosystems. Revitalizing arid lands not only improves agricultural productivity but also combats erosion, enhances biodiversity, and helps mitigate climate change by increasing carbon sequestration.

Remote communities, often excluded from centralized water infrastructure projects, can also benefit. Decentralized AWH systems offer a reliable, off-grid water supply, reducing dependency on pipelines, trucking, or groundwater extraction. This resilience is particularly critical in the face of climate-related disruptions, such as prolonged droughts or flooding.

Even urban and industrial centers stand to gain. Cities grappling with strained water supplies can deploy AWH systems to supplement their reservoirs, while industries generating underutilized, low-grade waste heat can use it to power water harvesting. This creates a closed-loop system that maximizes resource efficiency.

Reimagining Water Access For The Future

As climate change accelerates and traditional water sources become increasingly unreliable, next-generation atmospheric water harvesting offers a transformative solution, particularly for the most difficult use-cases. By combining advanced reticular materials with Tesla-inspired principles of ambient energy utilization, these systems have the potential to decentralize and democratize water access while reducing dependence on finite natural resources, thereby building a more resilient supply of clean water.

Instead of relying on centralized infrastructure to transport water over long distances, reticular-material-based AWH systems allow for clean water to be generated directly where it is needed, whether for agriculture, drinking, or industrial use. This decentralization reduces logistical costs and environmental impacts, paving the way for a more sustainable and resilient future.

From Science Fiction To Science

The parallels between Herbert’s Dune and next-generation atmospheric water harvesting technologies are striking. What was once confined to the realm of speculative fiction is now becoming an increasingly practical solution to one of humanity’s most urgent problems. Likewise, Tesla’s dream of leveraging the natural forces of the Earth to address global challenges is finding new life in the context of AWH.

Prof. Omar Yaghi once said, “It won’t be something big, but actually something pretty small that can transform our planet … If the problem is in the air around us, so is the answer.” As the world faces the twin crises of global warming, caused by emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and water scarcity, partially driven by global warming and climate change, it seems prudent to look for answers in the air around us.

Magnus Bach is Vice President of Business Development for Atoco.