Friday JohnKu – AKA – TGIF – Fri-Yay/Good News

~ John W. Howell
Credit – Uravu Labs, released.

Indian Engineers Tackle Water Shortages with Star Wars Tech in Kerala

By Andy Corbley –

When a severe water shortage hit the Indian city of Kozhikode in the state of Kerala, a group of engineers turned to science fiction to keep the taps running.

Like everyone else in the city, engineering student Swapnil Shrivastav received a ration of two buckets of water a day collected from India’s arsenal of small water towers.

It was a ‘watershed’ moment for Shrivastav, who, according to the BBC, had won a student competition four years earlier on the subject of tackling water scarcity, and armed with a hypothetical template from the original Star Wars films, Shrivastav and two partners set to work harvesting water from the humid air.

“One element of inspiration was from Star Wars, where there’s an air-to-water device. I thought, why don’t we give it a try? It was more of a curiosity project,” he told the BBC.

According to ‘Wookiepedia’ a ‘moisture vaporator’ is a device used on moisture farms to capture water from a dry planet’s atmosphere, like Tatooine, where protagonist Luke Skywalker grew up.

This fictional device functions according to Star Wars lore by coaxing moisture from the air through refrigerated condensers, which generate low-energy ionization fields. Captured water is then pumped or gravity-directed into a storage cistern that adjusts its pH levels. Vaporators can collect 1.5 liters of water per day.

Moisture vaporators on the largely abandoned Star Wars film set of Mos Espa, in Tunisia – credit © Andrew Corbley

If science fiction authors could devise the particulars of such a device, Shrivastav must have felt he had a good chance of succeeding. In 2019, he and colleagues Govinda Balaji and Venkatesh Raja founded Uravu Labs, a Bangalore-based startup.

Their initial offering is a machine that converts air to water using a liquid desiccant. The desiccant absorbs moisture from the air, and sunlight or renewable energy heats it to around 100°F. The captured moisture is released into a chamber, where it’s condensed into drinking water.

The whole process takes 12 hours but can produce a staggering 2,000 liters, or about 500 gallons of drinking-quality water per day. Uravu has since had to adjust course due to the cost of manufacturing and running the machines—it’s just too high for civic use with current materials technology.

“We had to shift to commercial consumption applications as they were ready to pay us, and it’s a sustainability driver for them,” Shrivastav explained. This pivot has so far been enough to keep the start-up afloat, and they produce water for 40 different hospitality clients.

Looking ahead, Shrivastav, Raja, and Balaji are planning to investigate whether the desiccant can be made more efficient. Can it work at a lower temperature to reduce running costs, or is there another material that might prove more cost-effective?

They’re also looking at running their device attached to data centers in a pilot project that would see them utilize the waste heat coming off the centers to heat the desiccant.

The good news in this article is that smart people are exploring ideas that seem more fiction than reality to solve real problems. Today’s JohnKu talks about the potential of the human brain. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Ingenuity by John W. Howell © 2024

An idea born,

From a sci-fi writer’s brain. . .

Is now feasible.

66 thoughts on “Friday JohnKu – AKA – TGIF – Fri-Yay/Good News”

  3. This is the reason that I’m optimistic about the future, the human brain gives us the potential to solve so many challenges. Wonderful story to start the day, John. Now, where did I leave my sneakers???

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Just Star Trek had personal computers and cordless personal communication – the brilliant scientific inspirations continue! These men must be congratulated!!

    Liked by 2 people

  8. I love how often these inventors are inspired by science fiction – proof that if someone can think of it, even in a non-real environment, someone else can make it happen. Wonderful, John.

    Liked by 1 person

  15. That is a great initiative. Getting water from condensation from hot humid air is a very old idea but it is great they have a new take on it.

    Incidentally, I was just arguing in a Facebook beer group about condensation on beer bottles when I opened your post. Some people in colder climates don’t understand that the hotter and more humid air in Texas causes condense on beer bottles at higher temperatures of the beer bottle. Therefore, you cannot judge the temperature of the beer based on a photo without knowing the temperature/humidity. On a hot humid day in Texas the dewpoint will be higher than in Belgium. Belgians care a lot about at what temperature you drink your beer. A Westvleteren 12 should be 12 degrees Celsius (53.6 degrees) and Belgians conclude when they see condense on the bottle that it is a lot colder.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. And the Belgians then provide their teaching moment to the one they feel is serving their beer too cold, based on their own experience and not actual conditions. Germans and Belgians think Americans drink their beer too cold. For the most part we probably do.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Yes you are right, we often drink our beer too cold. However, at 30 centigrade (86 Fahrenheit) you only need 38% relative humidity to get condense on a 12 centigrade bottle, and we often have it hotter and more humid than that, but they don’t understand that.

        Liked by 1 person

  24. Love the sounds of this, John.

    I must wonder though, if we are harvesting moisture from the air, will that resource eventually run out, too? Humans appear to be good at using stuff up without thought of replacement.

    Anyway, loving the idea for a thirsty world.

    Your JohnKu is cool. I like that sci-fi writers are inventors of sorts.

    Hmm, wonder if they’ll want a cut of the $ action?

    🪙⚔️ 🪙⚔️ 🪙⚔️

    Liked by 1 person

    1. As long as we have plants and trees we will have air. You ask a good question about the Sci-Fi writers. I’m sure there is a law firm somewhere who would take on their case.😁X 😁X

      Liked by 1 person

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