Thursday 2 January 2020

Beetle’s bumps key to harvesting water from fog

Fog harvesting has long been known as a source of fresh water in foggy coastal deserts.

Current methods rely on nets and meshes, which are now commonly used in places like Chile and Morocco, among many others.

The design was drawn from fog interception methods used by trees and can typically collect about 53 gallons of water on an average day.

Fan Kiat Chan, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, believes studying the Namib desert beetles can increase the water harvest of nets.

These insects use the irregular surface on their backs to gather fresh water from desert fog. Chan has been studying how bumps and flat areas can improve the amount of water collected.

"Similar principles could perhaps be used to design water bottles that are capable of collecting fog, enabling a more portable source," said Chan.

Chan believes these collectors, combined with mesh-based designs, can provide an additional opportunity for freshwater harvesting in areas with limited rainfall.

"The water content and frequency of fog formation may vary depending on the location and the season," he said. "While precipitation may be infrequent in some regions, it is, however, important to realize that fog is nonetheless a predictable and, hence, reliable water source."