‘Reimagining matter’: Nobel laureate invents machine that harvests water from dry air

[ad_1] A Nobel laureate’s environmentally pleasant invention that gives clear water if central provides are knocked out by a hurricane or drought may very well be a life saver for weak islands, its founder says.

The invention, by the chemist Prof Omar Yaghi, makes use of a kind of science referred to as reticular chemistry to create molecularly engineered supplies, which may extract moisture from the air and harvest water even in arid and desert situations.

Atoco, a expertise firm that Yaghi based, mentioned its items, comparable in measurement to a 20ft delivery container and powered solely by ultra-low-grade thermal power, may very well be positioned in native communities to generate as much as 1,000 litres of fresh water every single day, even when centralised electrical energy and water sources are interrupted by drought or storm injury.

Yaghi, who received the 2025 Nobel prize award in chemistry, mentioned the invention would change the world and profit islands within the Caribbean, that are susceptible to drought. He added that it may very well be an answer for international locations needing to get water to marooned communities after hurricanes comparable to Beryl and Melissa, which left 1000's with out water.

Omar Yaghi is a professor of chemistry on the College of California, Berkeley. {Photograph}: Brittany Hosea-Small/AP “Hurricanes comparable to Melissa or Beryl unleashed heavy flooding, destroying properties and crops and impacting 1000's of lives within the Caribbean. This devastation is a stark reminder of the pressing want for enhanced water provide resilience in weak areas, notably small island nations inclined to excessive climate occasions,” Yaghi mentioned.

The invention, Yaghi added, may present a climate-friendly and sustainable different to different water sourcing choices comparable to desalination, which can pose a menace to ecosystems when concentrated salty brine is launched again into the ocean.

Final month, a UN report mentioned the planet had entered a “international water chapter period” with almost three-quarters of the world’s inhabitants dwelling in international locations categorised as water-insecure or critically water insecure.

“Round 2.2 billion individuals nonetheless lack safely managed consuming water, 3.5 billion lack safely managed sanitation and about 4 billion expertise extreme water shortage for no less than one month a yr,” the report mentioned.

Injury attributable to Hurricane Beryl in 2024 on Union Island in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Composite: Reuters Within the three-island Caribbean nation of Grenada, which was devastated by Hurricane Beryl in 2024, Yaghi’s invention presents a ray of hope, notably for Carriacou and Petite Martinique that bore the brunt of the catastrophe and face a triple menace of storms, drought and coastal erosion.

“The expertise’s potential to operate off-grid utilizing solely ambient power is especially compelling for our context,” mentioned the Carriacou authorities official and environmentalist Davon Baker.

Carriacou and Petite Martinique, that are nonetheless experiencing the after-effects of Beryl, are compelled to import water from Grenada to take care of dry seasons that seem like getting extra intense and longer yearly.

“We’re at the moment contemplating complete restoration and resilience methods, and the atmospheric water-harvesting expertise Prof Yaghi developed addresses a number of vital challenges we face: the excessive value and carbon depth, in addition to the contamination danger, of water importation; vulnerability of centralised techniques to hurricane injury; and the necessity for decentralised options that may function when conventional infrastructure fails,” Baker mentioned.

Yaghi, who grew up in a refugee group in Jordan, mentioned he was impressed by the hardships he endured in a house with no working water or electrical energy. Giving his Nobel prize banquet speech, he recalled water arriving to his desert group from the federal government as soon as each week or two.

“I keep in mind the whisper by our neighbourhood, ‘the water is coming’, and the urgency as I rushed to fill each container I may discover earlier than the movement stopped.”

Describing the invention as “a science able to reimagining matter” he urged leaders to “take away obstacles, defend educational freedom” and “welcome international expertise”.

“On local weather, the hour for collective motion has already arrived. The science is right here. What we'd like now could be braveness – braveness scaled to the enormity of the duty – so we might present the subsequent era not solely carbon seize, however a planet worthy of their hopes,” he mentioned.