patrick.net

#fogharvestingFoggy Harvest
Access to water isn’t easy for people living in arid climates.

Despite the water scarcity, some of these regions – including Morocco and parts of southern and east Africa – lie in coastal areas prone to fog, where people are potentially able to obtain fresh water through fog-harvesting.

It’s a very cheap and clean method, but fog harvesting technology is still in its infancy, Cosmos Magazine reported.

Now, scientists are learning how to design better fog harvesting by studying how a certain beetle species can gather water from fog in the desert.

In their study, researchers wrote that the Namib desert beetles of southern Africa leaned their bumpy body against the fog-laden breeze in order to collect water droplets.

Observing the beetle’s unique body, the team developed several grooved and bumpy surfaces and blew fog past them in a wind tunnel.

They reported that bumpy surfaces were the best at collecting water droplets, but argued that they still needed to “play around” with it.

At the moment, the authors plan to develop fog harvesters for small-scale endeavors, such as camping equipment that collects fog water.

On a larger scale, the technology could be used to make fog-collecting tents for use in refugee camps, where clean water can be scarce.

SHARE 2fd6d7dd-806a-4bc8-a7d3-60b126cd8ba3.png