NUS creates aerogel that converts air into drinking water

The National University of Singapore (NUS) announced that it has created a type of aerogel, which can extract drinking water from air without any external power source.

The NUS team that created the aerogel / Photo credit: National University of Singapore

The NUS researchers published their creation in the Science Advances journal in October last year and are now looking for industry partners to scale the product for domestic or industrial use.

The aerogel, a solid material which the researchers claim “weighs almost nothing,” was created by a team led by professor Ho Ghim Wei from the NUS Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The team claims that one kilogram of the material can generate enough drinking water to meet a household’s daily needs.

Under the microscope, the aerogel looks like a sponge, and it does not need a battery to function. In a humid environment, the substance is capable of producing 17 liters of water everyday, the university said in a statement.

The team claims that the water extracted from the aerogel also meets World Health Organization’s standards for drinking water.

“Given that atmospheric water is continuously replenished by the global hydrological cycle, our invention offers a promising solution for achieving sustainable freshwater production in a variety of climatic conditions at minimal energy cost,” said Wei.

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NUS is Singapore’s flagship university, with a focus on Asian perspectives and expertise. Researchers from the university focus on themes that include energy, environmental and urban sustainability, treatment and prevention of diseases, active aging, advanced materials, and risk management and resilience of financial systems, among others.

Earlier in November 2019, Antler and NUS announced plans to invest US$177,000 in an executive program to nurture more deep-tech startups.