Russian engineers have developed a device capable of extracting up to one thousand liters of drinking water per day from atmospheric air. The technology was tested in the arid climate of Uzbekistan and later in India.

The development is called 'Water in the Desert.' The installation is designed to operate in a wide temperature range from +12 to +60 degrees Celsius. According to the developers, a single basic unit is sufficient to supply water to a small settlement, tourist camping site, industrial facility, or remote shift base.

The tests in Uzbekistan are of particular importance for the technology. They were conducted in 2024 under arid climate conditions and allowed checking the system's performance in areas where high temperature and low humidity significantly complicate water extraction from air. In 2025, testing continued in India.

The installation takes atmospheric air and passes it through several stages of preparation. Then the flow is directed to cooling plates. During cooling, the water vapor contained in the air condenses and turns into water.

After that, the exhaust air passes through a recuperator—a device that returns part of the cold and transfers it to the new air flow. According to the developers, this scheme reduces energy consumption to 0.4-0.7 kilowatt-hours per liter of produced water.

The main advantage of the installation is its ability to operate even at low humidity from 5 grams per cubic meter of air. This makes it effective where other systems fail—in arid regions of Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. For comparison, direct cooling units operating on the principle of an air conditioner typically require at least 8-10 grams per cubic meter.

Earlier it was reported that Central Asia is experiencing an unprecedented water deficit due to a five-year drought. The period from 2021 to 2025 became the warmest for the region since 1981, and soil moisture reached historical lows.

Source: podrobno.uz