The Future of Water Supply: A Global Review of Atmospheric Water Harvesting

Abstract

Faced with the burgeoning challenge of water resource crises, Atmospheric Water Generation (AWG) technologies have emerged as strategic and sustainable solutions. This review study provides a comparative assessment of four primary thematic axes in this field: active refrigeration methods (based on vapor compression cycles and thermoelectric coolers), vapor concentration techniques (utilizing desiccants and membrane processes), passive methods (dew and fog harvesting), and finally, the role of electric fields in performance enhancement. The findings of this research indicate that vapor compression systems exhibit maximum efficiency in climates with high relative humidity; conversely, the emergence of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) has initiated a fundamental paradigm shift in atmospheric water recovery in arid regions (with humidity below 20%). In the membrane technology sector, the implementation of selective membranes has resulted in an energy consumption optimization of up to 50%. Furthermore, results demonstrate that the application of an electric field in the fog harvesting process increases collection efficiency by up to 60% and facilitates a 40% recovery capacity of evaporated water in power plant units. Overall, the integration of passive methods with active systems, coupled with the utilization of renewable energy, is evaluated as the most efficient strategy forsustainable water supply across diverse climates.