However, they’re not trying to be more efficient than RO devices, they’re trying to be more compact, portable, and avoid the need for filters.
They’re solving for a different problem than I was measuring them against.
In my race to criticize, I overlooked those key details.
I still think my comment is worth reading to learn about the efficiency differences but I guess that measurement is not important for the viability of this technology.
Original criticism below: ———————
I’m skeptical about how practical this actually is.
While it’s refreshing to see a drinking water solution that isn’t based on inefficient dehumidifier technology, this still seems impractical.
From the demonstration video, their portable ~50 watt solar panel took 30 minutes to get a few ounces of drinking water.
It looked like a cold winter day, so let’s be generous and assume the panel only produced 15 watts of power during those 30 minutes.
Let’s also be generous and say they got 5 ounces of water.
That means they produce 1 ounce of water for every 3 watts.
That’d be 333 ounces per kWh.
To put that into perspective, a desalination plant produces more than 100x that much.
Yes, there is lots of additional infrastructure to consider with a traditional desalination plant but It’s not like this solution wouldn’t require the same complexity to scale up.
I don’t remember the cost of dehumidifier drinking water “solutions” but I think this is slightly more efficient than those horrifically inefficient solutions.