Technology harvests unlimited energy from the air around us
To sustain society’s needs, instead of relying only on solar and wind energy, the scientific community and industry are harnessing an abundant natural resource – atmospheric humidity – the invisible water vapour already present in the air we breathe. However, converting the moisture drawn from the air directly into electricity has its challenges.
Tapping into a new source of renewable energy
To address the barriers, the CATCHER(opens in new window) project, supported by the European Innovation Council(opens in new window), advanced a previously developed technology that turns atmospheric humidity into electricity. This humidity-to-electricity conversion technology is now one step closer to being scaled up with large numbers of individual converter units. When complete, it will be integrated into the European power grid for daily energy use. “The broader need was to establish a credible pathway towards future stand-alone humidity-to-electricity conversion technology and to complement conventional technologies, such as solar and wind,” comments project coordinator Svitlana Lyubchyk(opens in new window), associate professor at COFAC/Lusófona University in Portugal. She stresses how important the scale of the resource itself is. A single device can only harvest a small amount of energy at one time. However, the moisture in the air is everywhere on Earth and constantly being replenished by nature. The new technology can be used everywhere to tap into a massive, never-ending supply of energy. Air moisture has the potential to be the next big clean energy resource. “Our assessment indicates that the energy associated with atmospheric water adsorption is equivalent to about 50 times current annual global energy consumption,” Lyubchyk explains. “This is a theoretical resource ceiling that places atmospheric humidity among the largest renewable resources in the world, broadly comparable in scale to wind and greater than other renewable resources already exploited commercially.”
Expanding the possibilities of humidity-to-electricity conversion
CATCHER partners optimised the individual humidity-to-electricity converter units and demonstrated more than 9 000 hours of continuous operation without seeing a drop in performance, including testing under changing temperature and humidity conditions. They established a scalable electrical and power management architecture for combining many converters. The scientists now have a much clearer understanding of the mechanisms that govern humidity-to-electricity conversion. Their work shed light on how the different-sized holes inside the converter work together to turn air into electricity. They also determined the best way for these converters to operate, which is key to designing more efficient energy collection and power management electronics. Even though CATCHER has moved the technology another significant step towards an autonomous system capable of converting atmospheric humidity into usable electrical energy, it is far from done. The consortium plans to continue developing humidity-to-electricity conversion, which is still in the early stages of technological development despite recent advances.
A game-changer in renewable energy
The ultimate goal is to deliver a 24/7, easy-to-use, fully recyclable energy solution that can be adapted to a wide range of environments, from a large-scale energy production plant to a home. The expected long-term impact is a clean and affordable renewable energy source that works alongside current power systems and allows such plants and homes to independently generate their own electricity anywhere in the world. “A disruptive new product capable of supplementing existing technologies and addressing significant energy efficiency challenges will strengthen the European renewable and decentralised energy market,” concludes Lyubchyk. “This will contribute to the EU’s target of a fully renewable energy system by 2050.”
