Creating Water from Thin Air

www.ozy.com [OZY]() Your World. Bold & Bright The newsletter to fuel — and thrill — your mind. Read for deep dives into the unmissable ideas and topics shaping our world. Mar 27, 2022 Today “You asked for it,” Ap Verheggen says in a low, scratchy voice when I ask about the painting on the wall behind him. He proceeds with a Skype tour of his apartment, which is filled with his surrealist sculptures and a coffee table with metal legs modeled after his wife’s face. Today, the 54-year-old Dutch artist-slash-inventor is blending art, science and technology to help mitigate the [world’s growing thirst](. Today’s Daily Dose explores just how he’s taking on that seemingly impossible feat. —with reporting by by Tafline Laylin A UNIVERSAL PROBLEM Human Ingenuity The trajectory of Verheggen’s career shifted in the wake of a 2010 [Arctic experience](. Working on a personal art project in Uummannaq, Greenland, he set two GPS-equipped sculptures adrift on an iceberg he planned to track for years — only it melted within weeks. Galvanized, Verheggen initiated a more ambitious project, creating what he calls “an icon of human ingenuity” intended to draw attention to climate change. What started as the SunGlacier conceptual art project has evolved into the patent-pending Droppler technology, which uses solar power to pull water from the driest air — and could help some of the 5 billion people the United Nations projects [will face water shortages]( by 2050.  Solar Powered Water After the SunGlacier — designed to make ice in the desert — received considerable publicity, the Nevada Museum of Art asked Verheggen in 2012 to create a design capable of making water instead. The result? [Desert Cascades](, Verheggen’s blueprint for a solar-powered cube that converts humidity into waterfalls. “This was beyond the limit of what’s possible,” Vergheggen says, adding that he hoped his improbable ideas would trigger technological advances. It wasn’t until 2015 that he started constructing water-harvesting devices that put his art to the test, and it took years and more than 50 prototypes to get it right. Use It if You’ve Got It Verheggen and some friends started making iterations based on existing technology. One design — a 16-foot fountain that uses a store-bought dehumidifier to condense water from the atmosphere — was displayed at the Museum Beelden aan Zee in The Hague in mid-2016. The following April, the Netherlands Ministry of Defense invited Verheggen and his partners to run tests in Gao, Mali — one of the driest, hottest places on Earth, where temperatures can reach 122 degrees Fahrenheit with 3 percent relative humidity. Rik Harrewijn, a member of the Netherlands’ Concept Development and Experimentation team, says they were searching for technology to manage water scarcity and create greater stability in conflict areas. PROOF OF CONCEPT Extreme Conditions Custom made for the Mali tests, the solar-powered [Desert Twins]( tapped the same principle that makes cold soda sweat on a hot day. But the weather was hard on the Twins — the fan broke and the team couldn’t get the unit cold enough to produce condensation. When they did manage to make a few drops of water, the drops evaporated instantly. Cubic Consensus Back home in the Netherlands, the ministry simulated Mali’s climate conditions so Verheggen and engineer Peter van Geloven could continue to test dozens of new prototypes. They needed to condense moisture in the air more efficiently, and — strangely, says Verheggen — the crazy cube design was the answer. They built a new device, calling it Droppler technology, which uses solar energy to power a cooler that makes cold water. The water is then circulated through a tube that sucks in air, immediately producing condensation and expanding water volume. The Cup Runneth Over One Friday evening van Geloven left the machine running in his lab. When he returned on Monday, there was water everywhere — much more than his 1.5-liter bottle could hold (the new design ended up producing 4.5 liters per night). Even in desert conditions, van Geloven explains, a system that sucks in 50 cubic meters of air can yield up to 1,000 grams of water per hour. “It’s that simple,” Harrewijn says, noting that even his department’s researchers were surprised. The [Ministry of Defense]( is providing financial support for the creation of a portable device aimed at generating up to 40 liters of water per day. The next challenge will be getting it to market. Doing the Impossible Erik Hoogendoorn, manager of technology and innovation at Engie Refrigeration, says that with a target market that includes low-income people in remote areas, the device has to be cheap. Verheggen says he’s got that covered: Discussions with the Dutch Coalition for Humanitarian Innovation concluded they will be able to make clean drinking water for a few cents per liter. Of course, if you live somewhere with filthy air, you’d be hesitant to drink the resulting water. But Verheggen says filters and minerals will be added to make it potable. Can you buy the device? Not yet, but Verheggen is negotiating with several multinational companies interested in the technology. Granted, it sounds far-fetched, but if the past is prologue, it could come to pass. “It happens a lot with Ap,” says his longtime friend and collaborator Taco Zwaanswijk, “that he’s doing the impossible.” WATCH THE LATEST EPISODES OF The Carlos Watson Show, season 4! POWER FOR PEOPLE The late Kofi Annan (left) and Verheggen in September 2017 at Making Waves, an event that connects innovators with policymakers and investors. Fostering Inspiration Verheggen’s determination surfaced early, when he stopped attending school in his teens. His parents, an engineer and a teacher, respected his decision and allowed him to take night classes to finish high school. “I didn’t fit in any system,” he says. Art became a passion, which he cultivated by studying film and sculpture at the Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts. At 22, he approached Petra Reulings in a bar, certain they would marry someday. They’ve been together ever since. Better for All Verheggen’s endeavors have included making documentaries for nearly two decades, serving three terms as cultural ambassador for UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education and giving presentations about his work from Denmark to Costa Rica and Iran. As for his water-harvesting pursuits, he has yet to earn any income from them. “I’ve always thought we live OK,” he says. “We have a good life.” Rather than buy a bigger car, Verheggen says he’d prefer to see his projects “contribute to a better life for everybody.” Community Corner What is your opinion on the project? Share your thoughts with us at OzyCommunity@Ozy.com. ABOUT OZY OZY is a diverse, global and forward-looking media and entertainment company focused on “the New and the Next.” OZY creates space for fresh perspectives, and offers new takes on everything from news and culture to technology, business, learning and entertainment. [www.ozy.com]( / #OZY Curiosity. Enthusiasm. Action. That’s OZY! [TV]( | [PODCASTS]( | [NEWS]( | [FESTIVALS]( A Modern Media Company OZY Media, 800 West El Camino Mountain View, California 94040 This email was sent to {EMAIL} [Manage Subscriptions]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Read Online](