Kyzyl
26355
826
43
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/21/nobel-laureate-omar-yaghi-invents-machine-that-harvests-water-from-dry-air
May 28, 2026 8:55 PM
Kyzyl
26355
826
43
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/21/nobel-laureate-omar-yaghi-invents-machine-that-harvests-water-from-dry-air
xelbi1988
Dehumidifier. It's always just a dehumidifier.
Yasashii93
While I do hope this could be real, finally, this kind of thing pops up every few years and is always a scam.
A recent big one I recall is WaterSeer. That received a total of $337,000 in funding and produced diddly dick. But it’s not like they have to give the funding back, which is why many pseudoscientific BS projects like this have been popping up.
Self-filling water bottles, Solar Freakin Roadways, instant composters. All bullshit that gets $ in funding and preorders and delivers squat.
rezpawner
No he fucking didn't. This is a scam, and I can say that with certainty, because the physics don't work. You can break a lot of laws, but not the laws of physics.
IAmTheSlothKing
I’m sorry, but if you’re pulling water from it, it is by definition, not dry.
MurderousCoat
The only place where there's literally no water in the air is a spot in Antarctica. While it may be sparser in deserts, there's still thousands of litres of water in the air even at 5% humidity which is the lowest most deserts can reach. Regardless, this guy is overselling his invention.
duktayp
Redoneter593
I was gonna say "We're gonna Moisture Farming in now time!"
Tarmaccian
Oh, good. It’s another Legionella factory startup company. Just what the world needs.
So this particular device uses a crystal to extract water from air, and that’s new, but then what? It trickles into a collection tank to mix with whatever contaminants are there… because the people in charge of “purify the tank” are busy working on “repair the regular water supply”.
Unfortunately, in pretty much every case, piping or trucking water is easier than air extraction. Pesky real-world crap, I know.
Xenarion
So, a dehumidifier? :P
fknbastard
No. A moisture vaporator.
therandombagofmeat
SilverFoxChaser
Wellp they're going to stick them on datacenters now and completely ruin the environment for miles around.
JaceTiger
They'd need at least an order of magnitude larger than the data center itself to even break even with the hourly water need of the data center, not to mention all the maintenance that it would need. Nah, they'll go on stealing from local communities
StunttheRunt
https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1dHUzcnJ1d3QzcjhyYWV6dmIzeXNrcjFsdTh1cmxsbzlvejM2anFtMSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/EKDIMDsRX3ihy/200w.webp
Stefnos87
the strange thing is, the more water a datacenter takes in the easier it suddenly burns to the ground >.> xD
wejustdontknow
These devices are always just dehumidifiers which already exist and are incredibly inefficient and don't result in palatable water.
KingKrabvoldIV
lol people don’t bother to do that math. If you want to extract 1000 liters of water a day from 20% humidity air you’d need to circulate a shit ton of that air to capture it, and that’s assuming a perfect 100% extraction rate. Just imagine the energy costs of running a vacuum like that constantly.
Totallycasual
Yup, i run one all the time at my place, it chews like 200w and produces maybe 2-3L per day, you can't use the water though.
freakdiablo
Exactly my first thought. Had a couple compressor based dehumidifiers that would *maybe* pull enough water for one person to drink (if clean), and they'd pull 200-250w.
I even had smaller units for bathrooms that ran on a 50w peltier. They'd pull under a cup of water a day.
And those were in moderate humidity climates. A desert where these are needed? Yeah...
welluhwhatdoyouwantmetosay
But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!
shitheadtookmyname
#1 These things already existed. Maybe not at this efficiency level, but definitely have existed for a while.
PuckerScream
*Nestle enters the chat*: "Oh. Is that so?"
jargonmon
Nestle puts out a cease and desist*
KingKrabvoldIV
lol is he just using condensing coils? People understand how thermodynamics and physics work, right? You can’t just magically extract water without energy input.
Evenmoreuselessname
https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/omar-yaghi-water-harvesting-machine
KingKrabvoldIV
So it just captures water vapor and traps it as it condenses (requiring solar power to do so). lol this can be done with tarps and everyday common materials. There’s no way this is going to scale without energy input to circulate water vapor constantly.
DudeThatsRacist
The Caribbean is hardly a climate considered "dry air." Not to mention how dubious these "Water from Air" devices actually are.
TheFallenTwo
Yep. The places these sorts of devices actually kind of work are the same ones that have a very frequent phenomenon called "rain."
nikinnorway12
"up to" is doing some heavy lift for sure.
mikeatike
They are almost always dehumidifiers. They literally can't work in a real desert. So they test it somewhere hot and humid, place wild claims, then pretend it will do that in a desert.
Also, I wouldnt recommend drinking water that came from a dehumidifier.
VictusVonGuyver
There is in fact one that works in the desert, but it's less modern technology but more ancient trial and error technology. Hand woven wicker that gradually collects condensation. It was recently refined into something called a Warka Water.
Evenmoreuselessname
https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/omar-yaghi-water-harvesting-machine claimed it works in sub 20% humidity conditions. The saraha is 15-25% during the day and 50-60% at night. From what I understand, the device absorbs air into its crystalline structure at night then the water is driven off by being heated during the day. Like a much more efficient version of traditional wicker traps.
QuartzPoker
Is that relative or absolute humidity? I am suspicious that such a large increase at night could be absolute humidity, where would the water be coming from that it only comes out at night?
JeanClaudeVanDom
Yes I'm pretty sure that you know more on the matter than the Nobel committee.
Xero999
Loo up a product called the water seerer, hell go to thunderf00ts YouTube and see all the bs products like this
PocketCleric
To aegue here, no where does it say that hes gatting the Nobel for THIS thing, just something
dreikommavierzehn
Nobody is arguing he doesn't know what he's talking about. People are saying his startup company is at least half-full of shit. The nobel prize is for his scientific work, not his company.
NotSomoneElse68
The prize isn't for what he's trying to sell now.
OnlyWantToSayOneThing
Bro, this is the thing about science: You can double check. And by default of being scientific research they give you all the mathematics required to double check. This guy didn't earn a peace prize for solving fresh water, he earned the nobel prize for creating an ultra-porous structure. It's like getting a nobel prize for inventing a car and then going to the tabloid newspaper and saying cars can fly to the moon. 1/?
Goddesahpan
Maybe he is using the ultra-porous structure to capture water from thin air?
OnlyWantToSayOneThing
Yeah, that's implied. But that isn't wat the nobel prize is for. He created a really fancy sponge and got a nobel prize for it. Then he started multiple companies and has been selling his sponge as a water capture device, a carbon emission capture device, and a microplastic device. I only hesitate to call him a fraud because it may technically, on paper, work to produce a liter of water a day. In that case its technically a clean water capture device.
OnlyWantToSayOneThing
Even at 100% efficiency, you have to ask about how to get the water back out and if de-salination plants or simply a water truck is better. Often times water trucks ARE cheaper and better. 2/2
TurnsOut42WasASlightMiscalculation
I note that "can extract water even from arid, desert air" and "can generate up to 1,000 liters per day" does NOT mean can extract large quantities of water from desert air. This may well be an important scientific advance, but there are still physical laws that limit miracles
Nukls
but, how are you going to make people PAY for the water?
/s
mikeatike
By running this scam yo buy these things for millions that dont work.
futureman3000
With money?
MissivesFromTheTower
You don't charge them for the water going in... You charge them for the water going out. Three fiddy to let that water out.
tallyhoho
Subscription service duh
pyr0max
You have them pay for the device and the maintenance.
There is always a way to let someone pay.
dixxienormus
Condensate has been around forever and bushies have had a device in their kits for ages to produce fresh water on demand. This idea sound more like a commercialisation to high volume. But there has to be moisture in the air.
Evenmoreuselessname
https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/omar-yaghi-water-harvesting-machine exactly what it is, yet the clever materials/structure used to do it make it work from just ambient solar efficiently. Pretty neat.
Ghlargh
The energy cost is so high that it's almost always better to drill deep wells or build pipelines to get water.
Desalination plants are probably also more efficient if you are anywhere near salt water.
mikeatike
We have had a scam that claimed this. See EEVblog. https://youtu.be/WyPBIzJQB_o
I will wait until this is proven.
anjeleyezjr
Tomorrow's headline. "Nobel Laureate found dead in his home of 39 self inflicted gunshot wounds. In other news, Nestle has now secured the rights to all air based water collection methods".
ballpeenX
What is "ultra-low-grade thermal energy"?
AOCOIN
Farts, 𝑜𝑏𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑙𝑦.
Ghlargh
Made up word for a very energy intensive thermal difference required to condense water out of the air. Making water appear straight out of the air isn't hard but it has an energy cost defined by the laws of physics.
Evenmoreuselessname
The higher the temperature differential to the cold side, the more work can be done... Say high grade energy is high pressure superheated steam at 900F to drive power turbines. Low grade steam is saturated steam at say... 280F and 40psi that might be a turbine waste product used to heat homes. Ultra low grade would be water vapor and condensate below 200F after it's run through a steam radiator that's usually useful only to feed back into the boilers.
AgamemnonsMemes
I don't think physics will like this.
HandsomePenguin
You cant pull water uot of dry air. Thats not how physical objects work. You Can not create something from nothing.
Cataleast
Yeah, unless the thing's using this dubious-ass "ultra-low-grade thermal energy" to somehow create water molecules out of the oxygen and hydroven in the air, there's not really much to even talk about here...
TheDefective
FTUG
https://media3.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1eXdhcDdiZWpoMGFldHB0bzRiMDNlM2lmYXRnaHRhejdxMHBvY3BkMyZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/Em1Nrkf4oVCik/200w.webp
M4UsedRollout
It’s even more on-the-nose now that Nestle owns Perrier
FTUG
https://media2.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1YXBlbzl0bWloczQxY2kzaWQwcHNoam53dzU5b3o5aGEzNGMzeGVzZiZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/kCrGOt5ojlVbG/200w.webp
AnythingMuchShorter
They're already rich beyond imagination though. You can't really picture 500 billion dollars. Like you could maybe calculate how big of a pile that would be and picture the pile, but you can't actually conceptualize that much money directly. You could say "that's enough money to buy a million houses" but you probably also can't truly picture a million houses.
TorrentialUpPour
Just convert money to time. Say you make $50,000 annually. Well 50,000 seconds is ~0.58 days. $1,000,000 converted to seconds would be ~11.5 days. $1,000,000,000 (one billion) is ~31.5 *years*. Enjoy your half of a day :)
bROkeNsHIfT
ImGoingToGoFallAsleepOnABench
After a certain point, the purpose of accumulating this kind of wealth is to gain the sort of power that it confers to the bearer of such wealth - in fact, to the ultra-wealthy, the power itself is FAR more valuable than mere wealth.
AnythingMuchShorter
That's part of the reason to tax it away from them. Not just the tax revenue but because beyond a certain point more money exists purely to override democracy. One hundred million dollars can already get you anything you might want for yourself. People having hundreds of billions defeats the idea of a free country.
MikeRInternetTraveler
They’re just dragons hoarding gold at this point. When you already have more money than you can spend in ten lifetimes, why do you need more? I absolutely do not understand that mindset. It’s psychotic.
wazeewa
For these people its never enough. Its a game to them to see who can get the high score. They don't give a shit about everyone else, they would burn the planet if it increased their value. Psychopathic parasites.
ArdentSlacker
The goal of capitalism is not to make any advancements for humanity. It is to create monopolies and maximize wealth gaps. Billionaires cannot experience any more joy from having more money, so they seek to make your life worse in every way they can.
TheDefective
lujotu
I remain skeptical. I see an article like this once a year or so, it's always super thin on the actual science, and always turns out to be wildly impractical. Let the scientists keep doing the research and stop with the sensationalist crap until you've really got something deployable.
cowboycoco
"with nearly 3/4 of the world's population living in countries classified as water insecure..."
Can't think of a better time to be building data centers....
possumEnjoyer
As one of Imgurs many engineer homies, gonna need to see some serious receipts on this before taking seriously. It’s just got all the classic thermo-dynamics and material science type red flags that pseudoscientific claims always seem to have.
OneMoreLime
Still best to fashion the straps of your stillsuit in the traditional manner and cover ones face.
Smidge204
Thermodynamics and psychrometrics say this is basically, but for legal reasons not explicitly, fraud.
GimcrackGewgaw
Ultra low-grade thermal energy production is a real thing, but it makes little energy. It's going to harm adsorption, but improve it. So yeah, I'm calling bullshit on TEGs here. But hurricane relief is a good target for this kind of tech. Solar PV is real and maybe you can wring water out of moist, hot air.
TeelMoobeel
yeah, no mention of the price for installation or the price to keep it running
OnlyWantToSayOneThing
He got a nobel prize for the creation of this very fancy sponge. Its really great science. He has then created a startup company trying to sell the sponge as a carbon capture device, a water capture device, and a microplastic capture device. So I'm not saying its fraud but it looks, sounds, and acts like fraud (in my opinion, not a statement of fact)
iamthemurray
So a fancy sponge with a filter. Why not just stick to its capabilities. Even good science turns into a grift. And since he tacked on the extra's probably doesn't do the first thing well at all.
ChazzK
From what I read on it, the "not fraud" comes down to the fact that the 1kl number could be reached. By industrial use setups in optimal testing conditions... Which is very much not "solar powered half-kitbashed rig in the middle of a desert" and more "sealed room with so much humidity it's naturally condensing on surfaces as much as being extracted"
emu314159127001
You can say "bullshit," Penn and Teller consulted good lawyers before calling their debunking show by that name. It has no legal force in the US anyway.
Smidge204
Well it's not really bullshit because what is being proposed is technically possible. It's just hilariously overhyped and oversold.
InitHello
Solar Roadways, anyone?
emu314159127001
Ah thanks for the clarification.
memepawn
Please explain. Do you have any sources?
Targe0
There's only so much water in air.
So to get the amounts of water they claim, then it needs to process huge volumes of air to be able to gather 1,000L.
It basically needs to move air at hurricane like speeds to be able to pull that much water from dry air.
whatsisname
there's a reason people constantly reinvent these things every year and yet they go nowhere, and it's not some secret conspiracy. It's just physics and economics.
dreikommavierzehn
No need to get technical to be honest, all you need to know is in the article: It never goes anywhere even close to any detail to how it works, only hints at the device by quoting it a "molecularly engineered material" (as opposed to what actually ...? atomarly? quantum stringly?). Furthermore it's climate friendly, solar powered, and condensates not just water but even out of dry air.
So basically it can do everything in any category. Yet is only suited for emergencies. Why?
kasooi
Atmospheric water generators aren't 'scams' perse but you won't get 1000L lol
Atmospheric water generators are also widely known to be extremely popular among con men, scammers, etc for whatever reason. I guess the idea that air conditioners can give off water really surprises people.
Tarmaccian
Basic thermodynamics. Entropy (disorder) must always increase.
Randomly-flying water vapor molecules are pretty high entropy, so condensing them to make liquid water means making something else much more disordered… and that means a pretty complicated system.
It’s not strictly impossible, but it’s the kind of thing that usually becomes the expensive/difficult/wrong way to solve a problem.
Agouti
Correct. To put it another way, there's no such thing as free energy. Water vapour sitting in the atmosphere wants to stay there, and you need to provide energy to extract it. In nature, this happens naturally driven by the sun and air currents.
We also have a pretty extensive range of tools we use to extract water from the air - dehumidifiers, which require either electrical energy (e.g. refrigerant cycle) or chemical energy (e.g. silica gel). Both can be fuelled by the sun, e.g. solar cells.
takhat
In this case... The basic laws of matter conservation.
1000s of litres from dry air... How? It's dry air because it has a low moisture content.
ElbowDeepInAPoliceState
It's talking primarily about carribean island, not exactly super dry air there. It can extract water from dry air, but not necessarily 1000L/day. Read the article before you pontificate about how it's fraud and lies
takhat
Article title says from dry air.
ElbowDeepInAPoliceState
Yes, but it doesn't say 1000L from dry air
Smidge204
Less sources and more the benefits of a college education and a career in commercial HVAC engineering. Desert air is dry (duh) so you need to process a lot of it. Let's say 5 g water per kg dry air. 1000 liters per day means processing 200,000kg of air - about 180,000 cubic meters - per day. That's about 4000 18-wheeler tanker trucks worth. Per day. "Ambient thermal energy" my ass. But there's more...
whatsisname
yep, and also "ambient thermal energy" is a giveaway that something is funky, you can't just power things unless you have somewhere colder for the heat to go.
Smidge204
Let's further say the ambient temp is 38C (100F). So you have 1000kg of water vapor at 38C that you want to condense into liquid (1000kg liquid water would be 1000 liters). Let's be really generous and say this device is literal magic and does this at constant temperature. That's still about 2.4 gigajoules of heat you need to reject somewhere, somehow. That's rejecting 27.8kw of heat nonstop for 24hours. Where is that energy going? What's driving that process at ambient temperatures?
oblimo
So much of passionately envisioned future technology can be dashed just by asking, "where does the waste heat go?"
Smidge204
Heating, cooling, boiling, and condensing water is HARD. That's why we use it as coolant. That's why we use steam turbines. The amount of energy water can absorb and desorb is phenomenal. One does not simply pull 1000 liters of water out of the air - let alone dry air (RH ~12%) - without having to deal with all that heat. No amount of magical desiccant is gonna change that. This is just one more in a long standing tradition of "Water from air" clickbait headlines at best, snakeoil at worst.
Smidge204
Didn't even touch upon the engineering practicalities either. 125 cubic meters per minute (180K/24h) is the kind of ventilation rate medium office buildings get. What's powering the fan? Are you filtering it at all? Do you have to force the air through your desiccant material? How much energy does that cost? How are you getting the water OUT of your magic desiccant? If it has enough affinity for water that it can suck it out of dry desert air, it's not gonna give it up too easily either.