My Science School

The world’s freshwater constitutes just 2.5 per cent of the total global water. But much of it is locked up as ice in glaciers, ice caps and permafrost. We get most of our water from rivers, which make up only 0.49 per cent of surface freshwater. What if we could pull water from the air, instead? Fontus is a water bottle that pulls moisture from the air, and in ideal conditions, generates half a litre of water in an hour.

Austrian industrial designer Kristof Retezar wanted to make a simple, portable tool to help people where drinkable water isn’t easy to get. The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs reports that 1.2 billion people live in areas where water is physically scarce; another 1.6 live in countries where water infrastructure and storage is lacking.

The Fontus uses solar energy to power a small cooler or condenser. This condenser creates a temperature differential drawing heat from one side of the device to the other. This leaves two chambers: one cold and the other hot. Air flows into both these chambers separately, but when air passes over the hot side, the slight cooling of that chamber causes the cold chamber to chill even more. That means that the air passing through the cold chamber rapidly condenses like droplets on the outside of a cold glass.

It has a basic filter to keep out bugs and dirt, but works best in the pristine air of natural environments.

Picture Credit : Google