We are excited to announce the launch of a new collaboration with Agua de Sol (ADS), a French startup, on an innovative research project!
One million plastic bottles are purchased every minute around the world. Although this is a serious environmental concern, for some bottled water is the only option to access safe drinking water. But what if there was a different way for these individuals to access drinking water without harming our planet? This is where our project comes into the picture.
Together with ADS we will apply, test and optimize a novel solar-powered panel that captures moisture from the air and produces clean drinking water every day. This panel has an absorbent bed, a condensation window, and a solar-energy-powered fan. When temperatures drop at night and humidity rises, the panel traps water vapour in its absorbent bed. Then, the solar energy releases the water vapour to be condensed by cooler air during the day, producing drinking water.
By harnessing the sun’s power, the panel runs off abundant energy sources and utilises existing moisture from the air, thus it is highly sustainable – both financially and environmentally. It is a unique example of how ecological engineering can provide sustainable and cost-effective solutions with positive impacts.
For this project, 6 pilot panels will be constucted, installed and monitored at the Technical University of Crete in terms of design characteristics, installation parameters, water production rate and water quality, while the clean water will further be tested in crop irrigation, as a smart solution for small-scale farming in areas suffering from water scarcity. Our laboratory will also supervise and monitor the data from installed water panels in 7 more countries and 15 sites.
In addition, in a further collaboration with the Aegean Island of Nisyros, we will collaborate on the installation and monitoring of a 50 pilot panels. This is a perfect example of the impact of the novel 'water panel' on the provision of safe drinking water in areas like the Mediterranean islands where climate change already affects the limited availability of freshwater resources. This pilot implementation will end in formulating a model, which can be used by many small municipalities and islands in the world to address fresh water scarcity, especially in summer, when tourism reaches its peak.
This project is the next step of collaboration between LEEM and ADS. Last year, Prof Stefanakis was the selected mentor of ADS in the InnoWise Scale pitching competition that was organized by the Climate-KIC, EIT Digital, EIT Food, and the EIT Manufacturing, closing the 6-months programme "Water Scarcity in South". ADS won the 2nd prize in the competition of solution providers for the problem-holder (Municipality of Nisyros, Greece), and the special prize for a pilot implementation of the system in Nisyros.
