Water harvesting from fog using building envelopes: part I

Abstract

New sources of clean water are currently being researched and implemented, to face global water shortage. Techniques such as desalination or cloud seeding can have a high yield but present problems such as excessive energy consumption or consistent environmental impacts. Fog harvesting stands out for being considerably simpler and inexpensive compared to the previous. In the last decades researchers have developed detailed studies and numerical models, supported by a number of successful examples located mainly in arid or seasonally arid climates. This study surveys existing methods to collect water from fog, such as drop coalescence on vertically placed meshes, chemical absorption and desorption and radiative condensers. Yields from different collectors are compared and some considerations on influencing climatic factors are discussed, suggesting that radiative systems may be applied on building envelopes as collection devices. A follow‐up paper will present experimental results on applying radiative collection systems in buildings.

Exploring The Application of Atmospheric Water Harvesting Techniques in Enhancing the Building's Performance Through the Building Envelope: A Systematic Review

“…In this way, in two successive papers, Luisa Caldas (2018) and her team explained their analysis of a set of novel experiments on radiative condensers, suggesting a promising system for harvesting fog and collecting water [63]. This system can be applied horizontally or tilted to building roofs and toward or against dominant wind orientations, working in both arid and cooler humid climate zones [64].…”

Exploring The Application of Atmospheric Water Harvesting Techniques in Enhancing the Building's Performance Through the Building Envelope: A Systematic Review

“…In this way, in two successive papers, Luisa Caldas (2018) and her team explained their analysis of a set of novel experiments on radiative condensers, suggesting a promising system for harvesting fog and collecting water [63]. This system can be applied horizontally or tilted to building roofs and toward or against dominant wind orientations, working in both arid and cooler humid climate zones [64].…”

Droplet Transportation on Janus Harp Wires for Enhanced Fog Harvesting

“…2𝜌 water vr fog 2 9𝜇r wire (5) where 𝜌 water , 𝜇, and r wire are the water density, air viscosity, and wire radius, respectively. r fog is the radius of the fog droplets, which was 10 μm in the experiments (See Supporting Information, S2).…”

A Nature-Inspired Green–Blue Solution: Incorporating a Fog Harvesting Technique into Urban Green Wall Design

“…In fact, the collectors should be oriented perpendicularly towards the main wind direction, and generally, more wind speed implies more water collection [72]. Considering the vertical development and lightweight nature of the traditional fog collector, there is contemplation regarding the integration of this device into a smart membrane facade [76]. For this integration to be feasible, the fog collector's structure needs to be designed to harmonize with building architecture.…”

Exploring The Application of Atmospheric Water Harvesting Techniques in Enhancing the Building's Performance Through the Building Envelope: A Systematic Review

“…In this way, in two successive papers, Luisa Caldas (2018) and her team explained their analysis of a set of novel experiments on radiative condensers, suggesting a promising system for harvesting fog and collecting water [63]. This system can be applied horizontally or tilted to building roofs and toward or against dominant wind orientations, working in both arid and cooler humid climate zones [64].…”

Droplet Transportation on Janus Harp Wires for Enhanced Fog Harvesting

“…2𝜌 water vr fog 2 9𝜇r wire (5) where 𝜌 water , 𝜇, and r wire are the water density, air viscosity, and wire radius, respectively. r fog is the radius of the fog droplets, which was 10 μm in the experiments (See Supporting Information, S2).…”

A Nature-Inspired Green–Blue Solution: Incorporating a Fog Harvesting Technique into Urban Green Wall Design

“…In fact, the collectors should be oriented perpendicularly towards the main wind direction, and generally, more wind speed implies more water collection [72]. Considering the vertical development and lightweight nature of the traditional fog collector, there is contemplation regarding the integration of this device into a smart membrane facade [76]. For this integration to be feasible, the fog collector's structure needs to be designed to harmonize with building architecture.…”

Exploring The Application of Atmospheric Water Harvesting Techniques in Enhancing the Building's Performance Through the Building Envelope: A Systematic Review

“…In this way, in two successive papers, Luisa Caldas (2018) and her team explained their analysis of a set of novel experiments on radiative condensers, suggesting a promising system for harvesting fog and collecting water [63]. This system can be applied horizontally or tilted to building roofs and toward or against dominant wind orientations, working in both arid and cooler humid climate zones [64].…”

Droplet Transportation on Janus Harp Wires for Enhanced Fog Harvesting

“…2𝜌 water vr fog 2 9𝜇r wire (5) where 𝜌 water , 𝜇, and r wire are the water density, air viscosity, and wire radius, respectively. r fog is the radius of the fog droplets, which was 10 μm in the experiments (See Supporting Information, S2).…”

A Nature-Inspired Green–Blue Solution: Incorporating a Fog Harvesting Technique into Urban Green Wall Design

“…In fact, the collectors should be oriented perpendicularly towards the main wind direction, and generally, more wind speed implies more water collection [72]. Considering the vertical development and lightweight nature of the traditional fog collector, there is contemplation regarding the integration of this device into a smart membrane facade [76]. For this integration to be feasible, the fog collector's structure needs to be designed to harmonize with building architecture.…”