Most people see billboards as a slight distraction on the side of the freeway, but residents in part of Lima, Peru see one as a source of drinking water.
The surface of the billboard is an advertisement for the University of Engineering and Technology of Peru's (UTEC) 2013 enrollment. It utilizes a set of inverse osmosis filters to draw nearly 100 liters of water from the atmosphere every day. The water vapor is condensed into a liquid state, goes through a filter, and is stored in a tank at the billboard's base.
Since it was built almost three months ago, the system has produced nearly 10,000 liters (2,500+ gallons) of clean drinking water. So can this work for other cities?
The answer depends on the environment. Lima is on the Pacific coast near the equator and is at the edge of Atacama, one of the driest deserts on the planet. Now the mind blowing part: the city only receives half an inch of rain PER YEAR. The humidity, which is usually 80-100%, is how the billboard gets its water. Cities that frequently have high relative humidity could benefit from this technology built in to billboards or even buildings.
The surface of the billboard is an advertisement for the University of Engineering and Technology of Peru's (UTEC) 2013 enrollment. It utilizes a set of inverse osmosis filters to draw nearly 100 liters of water from the atmosphere every day. The water vapor is condensed into a liquid state, goes through a filter, and is stored in a tank at the billboard's base.
Since it was built almost three months ago, the system has produced nearly 10,000 liters (2,500+ gallons) of clean drinking water. So can this work for other cities?
The answer depends on the environment. Lima is on the Pacific coast near the equator and is at the edge of Atacama, one of the driest deserts on the planet. Now the mind blowing part: the city only receives half an inch of rain PER YEAR. The humidity, which is usually 80-100%, is how the billboard gets its water. Cities that frequently have high relative humidity could benefit from this technology built in to billboards or even buildings.
