MIT's Window-Sized Device Pulls Drinking Water from Thin Air, Even in the Desert

scitechdaily.com

15 points·Brajeshwar··7 comments

Original article:

https://news.mit.edu/2025/window-sized-device-taps-air-safe-...

I never thought it would take a university the size of MIT to develop an outdoor dehumidifier, but here we are.

"The system runs entirely on its own, without a power source, unlike other designs that require batteries, solar panels, or electricity from the grid."

Drinkable water anywhere with no power consumption is a much bigger deal than a regular dehumidifier.

Ah, missed that when I was skimming the article, thx.

Yeah, this is the important part. On first glance it was yet more of the extremely expensive powered devices (even if they are internal power with solar cells) that would almost never make economic sense vs a truck. But this isn't automatically prohibitive like most such things.

Drinkable? The article mentions of no filtering or treatment. Would you really want to drink water straight from the air?

We already have substances for pulling water from the air, they’re called desiccants.

I recommend watching Thunderf00t’s series of videos debunking these devices, they’re universally scams or academic hype.

Condensation is inherently fairly pure, until it runs over uncleaned surfaces. Yes, I'd drink pure water.

Dessicants are inherently mostly-inedible compounds, with a tiny amount of water (when fully charged).

They are nothing alike.

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