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The article explains that the system doesn't use power or any type of refrigerant, instead it uses a new type of material with large surface areas in a small package to capture/condense the water out of the air while utlizing wind and the sun to help accomplish its goal.
I would agree that up until now the only viable technology was a dehumidifier which takes great amounts of fossil fuel energy, but this isn't the case here.
It's a Fremen wind trap.
These need to be upscaled and distributed to every water insecure country to prevent the water refugee crisis that is bound to happen in the future.
I wonder, if that was done, how much energy would be transferred from the atmosphere (condensing water vapor transfers a huge amount of energy as heat), and what impact that might have on climate instability. I also wonder if there’s a way to transfer the heat energy to somewhere “safer”, like underground, or even turn it into useful energy.
And if these could be used in places that aren’t as bone dry, even better. I mean all the big powerful storms have been bigger and more powerful because of all the extra moisture in the air.. if we could throw these everywhere, pull some of that moisture out, and use it to supply potable water instead of drawing from reservoirs, that seems like it might be a many-win option.
I would guess there would be no heat impact on the climate. The same heat was already in the climate, it’ll be expelled in a similar way.
Fossils fuels extract stored energy and burn it, but it’s not the heat they create that warms the climate. It’s the CO2 they release that reduces the rate at which heat is expelled from the planet causing additional energy to be retained.
This type of technology may reduce climate change if it’s used instead of desalination powered by fossils fuels. Or if the heat that was generated was captured and used for heating homes instead of fossils.
The amount of energy we get from the sun far exceeds how much energy we can produce. We can’t really impact the climate by cooling and warming the planet directly. It’s leveraging effect of greenhouse gasses insulating the planet which causes climate change.
This is only the umpteenth such device this past decade. I'll believe it when I see it deployed and used in real life scenarios.
Overall I'd give it a "maybe". It sounds like MOFs could possibly help to make AWH sufficiently efficient to operate using waste heat or solar heat, but maybe someone can confirm that independently. Doing that below 20% humidity using waste heat or solar is suspect. A system efficient enough to condense water at 20-40% humidity is much more possible, and that would be pretty nifty. At the moment there doesn't appear to be a device one could purchase from ATOCO or Yaghi.
The International Orgainization for Dew Utilization - OPUR (https://www.opur.cloud/) has been researching this for some time, and has some interesting things to say on the topic. They also have some devices for purchase (https://www.opur.cloud/index.php/condensers-for-sale/) Which is more than they had last time I looked at their website. For those interested in more information, here's the Publications Link: (https://www.opur.cloud/index.php/publications/). I live in an arid climate, which is expected to become moreso with global climate change. I've seen usable amounts of water condense on my metal roof, under the right conditions. These researchers are attempting to make that "natural process" more efficient.
Links from OPs article:
https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/omar-yaghi-water-harvesting-machine
https://atoco.com/atmospheric-water-harvesting/
Links from other sources:
MOFs Explained: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal%E2%80%93organic_framework
MOFs for AWH Atomopheric Water Harvesting
Harvesting Water From Thin Air: How MOFs Are Powering a New Generation of Atmospheric Water Systems https://synergyfiles.com/2026/02/most-efficient-atmospheric-water-harvester-airjoule/
Metal–Organic Framework-Assisted Atmospheric Water Harvesting Enables Cheap Clean Water Available in an Arid Climate: A Perspective https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11767004/
and
MOFs for water purification: - which appears to sound feasible
Metal-organic frameworks for clean water - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1001841725014202
Metal-Organic frameworks (MOFs) for the Next Generation of Water Filtration https://nhsjs.com/2024/metal-organic-frameworks-mofs-for-the-next-generation-of-water-filtration/
Recent Development of Metal–Organic Frameworks for Water Purification https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c03818
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