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Abstract
Water has a vital role in any biological activity and existence of life on earth. The population growth, the improvement in life conditions, and changes in nutrition habits have created more demand for water for residential, agricultural, industrial applications. Capturing and utilizing atmospheric water is considered as a potential solution to the growing water demand problem. In this study, major methods for capturing the atmospheric humidity and converting them into the potable water, including the technologies that are based on the ideal gas law, desiccation, and separation membranes, are identified and explained. The article also addresses the influential factors in each method to be utilized in a passive noise or an active parameter.
Keywords
Atmospheric water generators, Thrmoacoustic refrigeration, Thermoelectric coolers, Desiccation
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1.Introduction
Water has a fundamental role in the biological activities and existence of living beings. It comprises a significant percentage of all living creatures. In some organisms it reaches 90%, while in an adult human body it encompasses up to 60% [1]. According to the United Nations, a human needs 20-50 liters of water per day for drinking, cooking, and cleaning [4]. The increase in the demand for water is driven by many factors. One of the main factors is the continuous growth in population of mankind which reached 7,404,976,783 in 2016 with an average annual growth rate of 1.07% [2]. This adds roughly 80 million people every year [3]. The population growth creates more demand for potable water, water for agriculture, industry, and energy. In addition to the previous factors, the improvement in life conditions and changes in nutrition habits put more pressure on the water demands. The aforementioned factors, among others, result in an increase of 64 billion cubic meters of demand in freshwater per year [3]. It is projected that by 2025, 1.8 bilion people will live in countries or areas with a severe water shortage [4]. The problems associated with potable water needs is not limited to the developing countries, but can also affect the developed ones too. As the recent incident of water contamination in Flint, Michigan shows. Water covers 71% of the surface of earth, with almost 96.5% of it being salty oceans water [5]. Glacier ice, as the solid...