Fancy futuristic ideas leave us all in awe, but it's sometimes low-tech solutions like the AirDrop that can solve the problems we face today. The AirDrop is an irrigation system designed to take advantage of the process of condensation to produce water out of air. According to its creator, Australian Edward Linacre, it was inspired by the Namib Desert beetle that can subsist in arid conditions by collecting very small amounts of water from the air around it.
AirDrop uses a turbine to push air into its network of pipes underground, which is quickly cooled to soil temperature, thereby creating an environment with 100% humidity. Condensation then takes place naturally, and water produced from the air is collected in a tank that's kept underground to prevent evaporation in hot areas. Crops are watered by pumping water directly from the tank. AirDrop is completely self-sufficient, and needs no external source of energy to work. During especially breezy times, the winds propel the turbine that drives the air into the tubes. But during calm days without winds, a solar panel collects the energy needed to move the turbine.
Linacre designed AirDrop (that recently won the 2011 James Dyson Award) because of the long-standing Australian drought that caused a number of farmer suicides in the country. He built a prototype of the system in his mother's backyard that produces a liter of water per day. But even if he's only been able to test it in a small-scale setting, he believes AirDrop can be implemented on a larger scale in the future as the no-frills, low-tech system is, in his own words, "perfect for rural farmers."
AirDrop irrigation
[via Gizmag, Inhabitat](Source)
This article was written by Mariella Moon and originally appeared on Tecca
More from Tecca:
eric church martina mcbride sara evans lionel richie cma awards cma awards christmas tree tax
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.