Making Use of Mother Nature: Converting Fog into Drinkable Water Utilizing a Series of CloudFisher Nets

Chen, Jason; Willis, Matthew

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Making Use of Mother Nature: Converting Fog into Drinkable Water Utilizing a Series of CloudFisher Nets

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Throughout numerous third-world countries, people have limited access to drinkable and potable water. These communities often have to spend several hours of the day collecting water for their families which can be a grueling activity. One solution to this is utilizing fog harvesting nets and a gravity-driven piping system to transport the collected water. These nets are able to capture the fog, condense it to water, and let it fall down the net. Once the water droplets fall off the nets, it falls into the piping system which then travels to an area that is easily accessible to the community. In this project, the group analyzed how altering wind speed and the orientation and number of nets that fog passes through, affects overall water collection. A Unit Operations lab was also designed for future generations of WPI students. The data collected is also utilized as a comparison to how nets are generally orientated in existing fog harvesting projects, like the site based in Morocco, and if there were any areas where the change in orientation is preferred. Increasing speed does generally increase the rate of collection, and while nets set in parallel series to one another are not as efficient after each netting in a row, areas with dense fog and less surface area would benefit from this type of orientation. Deliverables for the unit operations lab include a theory section, sample calculations, pre-lab questions, and operating instructions for the unit.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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