Energy Conversion and Management 239 (2021) 114226

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Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Review

Advances in atmospheric water generation technologies

G. Raveesh, R. Goyal *, S.K. Tyagi
Centre for Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The availability of freshwater is persistently changing, and the current trends indicate that it is declining very
Atmospheric water generation rapidly, both quantitatively and qualitatively around the globe. Therefore, the shortage of freshwater will pose
Vapour compression refrigeration the biggest threat to mankind, and hence, there is an urgent need to develop and demonstrate new and sus­
Thermoelectric cooling
tainable technologies to address the issue. Atmospheric water generation technologies, which generate water
Sorption
Passive radiative cooling
from the air, has been untapped so far and could be an emerging alternative to tackle this issue. However, these
Fog harvesting technologies have been energy-intensive, which actually limits their widespread deployment in the field. The
performance of various technologies has been summarized and compared in terms of their important perfor­
mance parameters, constraints and advancements. The technological solutions to some of the current issues,
retarding the growth of these technology have also been identified and discussed. Further, it is found that the
advancement of some of these technologies is still in the nascent stage, and could not emerge as an economically
viable solution. Thus, there is immense scope to explore atmospheric water generation and transform it into a
feasible futuristic solution to water scarcity. Therefore, this review aims to provide the technical insight to re-
examine the available technologies, research gaps and scope for further advancements.

will face severe water stress owing to population growth, unsustainable

1. Introduction
Water scarcity has emerged as one of the potential global issues
nowadays [1]. Although water fills 70% of our planet, but only 2.5% is
available as freshwater [2,3]. According to a study done by World
Health Organisation (WHO), it is estimated that around one-third of the
global population lacks safe drinking water and more than three billion
people have no access to clean water for maintaining hygiene at their
places [4]. More recently, people have realized the critical importance of
clean water availability in the context of the global fight against the
ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Further, around four billion people face
water shortage at least for a month each year, and nearly half of them
live in India and China [5]. Some recent studies also point out that India,
along with China, France and the US, will be left without safe drinking
water by the year 2040, if the consumption of water continues at the
current pace [6,7].
Further, countries that are not known to be arid at present and
having a reasonable amount of annual rainfall are also facing water
stress nowadays [8]. The majority of water is consumed for power
generation worldwide, and soon a situation may arise when they have to
choose between the drinking water and energy demand [6,7]. It is ex­
pected that by the year 2050, more than half of the global population
consumption of natural resources, economic development, and climatic
changes [9–11]. According to World Resources Institute (WRI), many
developed and developing countries have already entered the top list of
water stress rankings [12]. Therefore, the scientific community has to
look for some alternatives and sustainable water generation technolo­
gies to address water scarcity on an urgent basis.
This article presents the recent advances in one of these such tech­
nological interventions, wherein the water gets generated from the
moist air, which is widely and freely available in the atmosphere. The
research and developments in atmospheric water generation (AWG)
reported in the past decade has been inspiring and promising. Many of
these are still in their initial stages, enabling researchers to explore more
and flourish. The research community has made numerous efforts to
address the water-energy nexus of AWG. Therefore, the objective of this
paper is to review the recent advances in AWG technologies and discuss
them comprehensively. This review also identifies and suggests the so­
lutions for the important issues associated with the AWG systems, along
with future perspectives.
2. Atmospheric water generation
The moisture in the atmospheric air exists as a renewable source of

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: rahulgoyal@iitd.ac.in (R. Goyal).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2021.114226
Received 4 February 2021; Accepted 26 April 2021
Available online 8 May 2021
0196-8904/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
G. Raveesh et al.
Nomenclature
AWG Atmospheric Water Generation
VCR Vapour Compression Refrigeration
COP Coefficient of Performance
TEC Thermoelectric Cooling
HVAC Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning
RH Relative Humidity, %
T Operating Temperature, oC
WGR Water Generation Rate, L/h
SEC Specific Energy Consumption, kWh/L
MHI Moisture Harvest Index
Fig. 1. Atmospheric water generation technologies.
freshwater, estimated to contain around 1.29 × 1013 m3 of water
[13,14], which can be potentially extracted [15–17]. Atmospheric water
generation is a process that extracts water from the humidity present in
the ambient air. The water thus generated can supplement freshwater
and may be treated further using filtration and purification processes to
make it safer for human consumption. This process does not impact the
environment negatively because the humidity removed will be naturally
replenished by the hydrological cycle. There are many other techniques
to supplement freshwater, including but not limited to solar desalina­
tion, membrane distillation, etc. [18–20], which are in practice world­
wide. However, all these techniques require access to conventional
water sources. Besides, the onsite implications of these techniques are
challenging, especially in landlocked regions. Moreover, these tech­
niques require extensive infrastructure for implementation, involve
wastage and residual products. On the other hand, the AWG technique is
more attractive and easily applicable while operating without any
conventional water sources and extensive infrastructure. In contrast to
its counterparts, AWG is a promising concept that can supply water in
the event of contamination of existing water sources [21], emergencies
[22], and resolve the problem of water scarcity, especially in remote,
low-precipitation, and arid regions [23–26].
The atmosphere also contains potentially extractable water in the
form of fog and water vapour, which can be captured, processed and
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Energy Conversion and Management 239 (2021) 114226
collected by various techniques. In the case of fog, only an efficient
capturing and collecting technique is required, whereas, for water
vapour, a technique to transform the water vapour into a liquid phase is
required. One such technique is condensation, in which the saturated
water vapour is converted into water (Relative humidity ~ 100%) by
cooling the air below its dew point temperature. Other techniques are
also available and relevant to extract pure water from the moist air.
Fig. 1 shows the broad classification of AWG technologies considered in
this review.
The active refrigeration techniques facilitate forced and controlled
condensation of water vapour but at the expense of high-grade energy
like electricity. The required cooling below the dew point temperature of
the air is usually achieved by using conventional refrigeration tech­
niques. Therefore, this technology is not feasible for low relative hu­
midity (RH) and low-temperature conditions. Another approach uses a
vapour concentration technology with sorbent materials that can work
even at low RH conditions. The energy input required here is the
application of heat to release the captured water vapour. The input
energy for sorption can be assisted with solar radiation, depending upon
the property of the sorbent. The vapour concentration is also possible
with selective membranes that separate the water vapour from other
non-condensing atmospheric gases. The passive techniques for AWG
include fog and dew harvesting but are applicable only at high RH
conditions. Thus it is clear that there is no such universal AWG tech­
nology that can be equally and efficiently applied under all climatic
conditions. The psychrometric properties of atmospheric air like RH, dry
bulb temperature, dew point temperature etc., at a given location and
time, decides the choice of appropriate AWG technology. Attempts are
also being made to approach AWG in unconventional ways with the
concept of integrating standalone AWG with other systems. However,
none of the currently available AWG techniques has emerged as an
energy-efficient alternative to freshwater production on a large scale
[27,28].
3. Active refrigeration
In this type of AWG, the atmospheric air is cooled below its dew point
to generate water. The required cooling for condensation is mainly
provided by employing conventional vapour compression refrigeration
(VCR) system or thermoelectric cooling (TEC). Rather than a standalone
system, condensate recovery from Heating, Ventilation and Air-
Conditioning (HVAC) system during their seasonal operation may also
be used to obtain water as a by-product. The performance of AWG sys­
tems is usually evaluated in terms of its water generation rate (WGR),
giving the amount of water generated per unit time and specific energy
consumption (SEC), giving the power consumed to produce the unit
amount of water. The ambient temperature, relative humidity, and dew
point temperature have a significant role in the WGR and SEC, making
the performance of these systems highly dependent on climate [29,30].
Active AWG systems are energy-intensive, so powering using renewable
energy sources will be a sustainable option. Theoretically, the proximity
of the inlet air conditions to the saturation curve in a psychrometric
chart estimates the energy demand. The inlet air has to be first sensibly
cooled to near dew point temperature, and then latent heat has to be
removed to facilitate phase change from vapour to liquid. Thus the total
energy demand comprises sensible cooling demand and latent heat
removal demand. Since the required output is water, the latter is un­
avoidable, whereas the former is overburden to the system.
As a result, the contribution of latent load to total cooling load
invested is a critical parameter in determining the economic feasibility
of any AWG process that uses high-grade energy. A simple method to
assess the energy requirements of AWG technologies using active cool­
ing was formulated by Gido et al. [15] with the help of the moisture
harvest index (MHI). The MHI can be used as a tool to predict the per­
formance of AWG systems, economic analysis, and operational strategy.
The values of MHI will provide information about unfavourable times,
G. Raveesh et al.
Fig. 2. Integration of climatic chamber with active refrigeration system [36].
where switching to alternate technologies can ensure energy savings
rather than working with low efficiency. More details about the MHI and
its detailed analysis can be found in the reference [15].
3.1. Vapour compression refrigeration
VCR based AWG is an established technology as it follows the same
working principle as refrigerator and air-conditioner. The moist air en­
ters the evaporator section of the VCR system with the help of a
controlled fan. It is then cooled below its dew point temperature and
condenses over the evaporator coil, purified and collected. The water
generation depends upon the VCR system’s cooling capacity, the
quantity of air entering, and the inlet air’s psychrometric properties. The
majority of commercially available AWG [31–34] devices deploy this
technology. The high energy demand and the operational limit under
adverse climatic conditions are the significant concerns of VCR based
AWG [27,29,30,35].
A typical VCR based AWG unit will contain multiple sets of air filters
and water filters in addition to standard VCR components. The filters
used may require annual maintenance or replacement, which adds up to
the cost of operation. Also, the VCR based AWG systems have to cool
large volumes of air if the RH of the ambient air is not high. A large
amount of high-grade electrical energy is required to maintain the low
temperature required for water vapour condensation. Around half of the
total cost is associated with energy consumption, and performance
degradation is observed when RH becomes less than 30% [27]. For
example, at RH levels below 30% and the ambient temperature around
20 ◦ C, the dew point will be at 0 ◦ C or below, making its operation
infeasible in such climatic conditions. The formation of frost over the
evaporator coil will act as a resistance to heat transfer and adversely
affect the AWG system.
The performance of a VCR (1 ton of refrigeration (TR) capacity)
based AWG system under different weather conditions was experimen­
tally studied by Patel et al. [36]. The weather conditions were selected
by considering the average monthly data obtained from various cities of
India. The experimental setup includes a climate chamber consisting of
an electric heater and a humidifier with the AWG system, as shown in
Fig. 2. The inclusion of a climatic chamber could create favourable
weather conditions for AWG, irrespective of location. According to the
test results, the AWG device was found to work effectively with hot
ambient conditions and relatively higher RH values. For example, the
AWG device (Operating temperature (T) = 35 ◦ C and RH = 95%) pro­
vides a WGR of 1.78 L/h with 0.75 kWh/L SEC [36]. Other studies also
3
Energy Conversion and Management 239 (2021) 114226
confirm the suitability of active refrigeration-based AWG and its better
performance under hot and humid conditions [29,30,37,38].
Zolfagharkhani et al. [39] developed a mathematical model using a
rigorous computer algorithm without assuming the exit air as saturated
from the AWG system. They conducted parametric studies on a refrig­
eration based AWG device. The amount of water generated and the
energy consumed under various ambient conditions were evaluated
using the proposed mathematical model. For the analysis, the incoming
air temperature and RH were considered in the range 30–50 ◦ C and
30–100%, respectively. With the mathematical model results, a case
study was also conducted with the climatic conditions (humid, mean
RH-69 to 94%) of a coastal region in Iran. The optimized small scale
model obtained a WGR of 22–26 L/day with SEC in the range of 0.22–0.3
kWh/L. Talib et al. [40] conducted experiments on a modified small
scale VCR system with a 372 W reciprocating compressor. The experi­
ments were performed at a location in Iraq (T = 33 ◦ C, RH = 24%) for
different values of the volume flow rate of incoming air across the
evaporator. The modified system obtained a WGR of 7.9 L/day with a
minimum SEC of 1.76 kWh/L at an airflow of 230 m3/h. The perfor­
mance was improved by introducing an evaporative cooler in the test
space resulting in 13.11 L/day WGR with SEC of 1.068 kWh/L at the
same incoming air volume flow rate.
The condensate formed in HVAC systems during the hot-humid
season, usually neglected, can supplement water for domestic pur­
poses [41–47]. The condensate collected from HVAC systems requires
some filtration process to make it available for drinking. Optimization in
the design of buildings and HVAC hardware is required to prevent
contamination in its pathways and provide safe storage [44]. The
maximum water cannot be extracted as the HVAC systems have to
maintain some residual humidity for thermal comfort. However, only
seasonal operation is recommended for such systems. In the studies
conducted by Magrini et al. [41–43], the concept of an integrated HVAC
system was investigated in terms of its contribution to meet the water
demands at the place of installation. For this purpose, a case study was
performed for a hotel in Abu Dhabi. An optimized integrated system was
developed for specified climatic conditions (T = 20–35 ◦ C and RH =
60%). The total cooling power demand of the hotel was divided into
equal size modules, treating an airflow at 8.33 m3/s. During summer
months, such an integrated system could collect water around 10,200 L/
day with the potential of meeting over 24% of the annual water demand
of the hotel. Al-Farayedhi et al. [45] investigated the condensate re­
covery from a split air conditioner (1.5 TR) under the climatic conditions
of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia (ambient temperature = 25–50 ◦ C, RH =
G. Raveesh et al.
15–90%). The airflow rate was maintained as 0.135 m3/s throughout the
investigation. The highest daily average water production of 70.1 L/day
was observed in the humid month of August. Cattani et al. [47] proposed
an integrated HVAC system installed on the roof of a hotel in Mexico to
produce drinking water, domestic water heating, and provide air in non-
conditioned space. A tool for simulating the operation was also devel­
oped to predict the yearly performance, energy savings and pay-back
period. Experiments were conducted in November (ambient tempera­
ture = 27.3 ◦ C, RH = 86%). The system was made to work continuously
during the test period and observed an average WGR of 1880 L/day. A
payback period of maximum 2.5 years was also estimated with experi­
mental and simulation results.
The performance of VCR-AWG systems can be improved either by
precooling the inlet air with the cold exit air from the evaporator, which
can reduce the sensible cooling demand [28,48] or by providing a pre­
conditioning unit to improve the psychrometric properties of incoming
air [36,49]. Also, there exists a considerable variation in theoretical and
experimental values of WGR at high humidity, which highlights the
scope of further optimization in the design of AWG [29,36]. The recent
approaches in VCR systems integrated with liquid desiccant dehumidi­
fication [50–52] and with desiccant coated heat exchangers [53–56] can
be viewed as the new research pathways for AWG. These technologies
support the efficient handling of the sensible and latent load associated
with the VCR systems, which can be re-investigated for AWG. The
integration of desiccants with VCR reduces the total cooling load to be
solely handled by the VCR system. The regeneration of desiccants for
continuing its operation can be provided using low-grade energy or by
the heat liberated from the condenser, which extends its application in
various fields without increasing the energy consumption [57,58].
3.2. Thermoelectric cooling
Thermoelectric cooling (TEC) is another well-known method to get a
low-temperature surface below the dew point. It is based on the Peltier
effect, transforming the electrical energy into a temperature gradient.
Compared to VCR, the coefficient of performance (COP) and cooling
capacity is very low for TEC but still attractive due to its advantages like
compactness, no moving parts, non-requirement of refrigerants, silent
operation, less maintenance, portability and eco-friendliness [59–61].
Thus, TEC is gaining attraction in providing refrigeration as well as
dehumidification of air to extract water. The performance of TEC can be
enhanced by developing new thermoelectric materials, better TEC
design, thermal management, and optimizing it.
Milani et al. [61] conducted a feasibility study of TEC in the dehu­
midification of atmospheric air. It was found that more than 95% of the
cost of water generation is due to high input energy requirement rather
than the initial investment of dehumidification devices. The study [61]
recommended integrating the AWG system with rainwater harvesting
tanks to meet the growing water demands. The study also highlighted
the need to stack TEC devices powered by renewable energy sources to
overcome its low thermal efficiency and energy consumption. The effect
of orientation of the heat sink of a TEC on condensation under high RH
condition was experimentally studied by Hand and Peuker [62]. The test
conditions were set to ambient temperature in the range 16–22 ◦ C and
an ultrasonic humidifier controlled RH close to 100%. The performance
of the TEC system was further investigated by periodically cleaning/
removing the water collected on the cold side of TEC and applying a
hydrophobic coating on the cold side. The periodic cleaning and coating
enhanced the WGR by 16–18% and 30%, respectively. The orientation
of the heat sink was found helpful in controlling the water collection at
high humidity conditions.
He et al. [63] experimentally studied and compared the performance
of a newly designed TEC-AWG system with the conventional system. The
new design consisted of a hydrophobic coating (Nano silicon dioxide
(SiO2) gel) on the cold side fin surface. The cold exit air was recirculated
to the hot side of the thermoelectric module. The hydrophobic material
4
Energy Conversion and Management 239 (2021) 114226
Fig. 3. Solar-powered Peltier module for condensing atmospheric air [66].
helped in increasing the condensation rate on the cold side of TEC. Also,
the reuse of cold air from the exit facilitated better thermal management
than the conventional design. Compared with the conventional system
under the same conditions, the maximum WGR of the new design was
around 67% more than the conventional system. Shourideh et al. [64]
designed a portable TEC-AWG system based on cooling capacity and
COP variation with the current. A mathematical model was also devel­
oped to predict the water generation and optimize the fin design on the
cold side of TEC. Performance analysis was performed with different air
velocity, RH, and current. The study [64] found that the increase in air
velocity deteriorated the water generation, whereas the increase in
current and RH improved the water generation. A similar type of anal­
ysis was also carried out experimentally by Liu et al. [65]. The
condensation rate increased with an increase in RH but decreased with
the incoming air flow rate. Their study concluded that the productivity
could be further increased by optimizing the contact surface to provide a
better contact area, increasing the contact time of air, and improving the
wettability of the cooling surface.
Kadhim et al. [66] fabricated and tested a small scale prototype of
TEC-AWG, powered by a solar panel. During the experiments, the
incoming air velocity, RH, and dry air temperature were between 0.59
and 1 m/s, 60–80% and 24–31 ◦ C, respectively. The hot side of TEC was
fitted with a fan, and on the cold side, an aluminium cone was used, as
shown in Fig. 3. For the test case, the maximum WGR was 20 mL/h for
an incoming airflow of 1 m/s at 75% RH. Eslami et al. [67] conducted
exhaustive optimization of a TEC to obtain the best performance from
such a device. The different operating parameters affecting the system
performance were considered together in optimization to minimize en­
ergy consumption. The study [67] concluded that the input current and
inlet air velocity should be reduced at higher temperatures. With the
overall parametric optimization, a WGR of 26 mL/h (T = 45 ◦ C, RH =
75%) with an energy consumption of 20 W was achieved. The optimized
TEC device performed well compared to other commercially available
VCR based AWG devices at high RH.
Irshad et al. [68] performed an experimental and numerical inves­
tigation on a dehumidification system with a thermoelectric air duct for
a tropical climate. The input power and airflow rate were varied to
evaluate the performance of the dehumidifier. The number of thermo­
electric modules was selected based on the cooling load requirement at
the place of installation. The WGR was around 0.82 L/h for an input
power of 30 W with a 0.011 L/s air flow rate. The study [68] observed
that the WGR decreased with a further increase in input power due to
heat transfer from the hot part to the cold part of the thermoelectric
system at higher powers. Sharpe et al. [69] conducted a meta-analysis
review of better thermal management in thermoelectric cooler to use in
G. Raveesh et al. Energy Conversion and Management 239 (2021) 114226

Table 1
Summary of the main research work in active refrigeration.
Ref. Technology Working\Test Performance
conditions

[36] VCR T = 17–40 ◦ C, RH = WGR = 1.78 L/h, SEC =

27–95% , Air 0.75 kWh/L, at T = 35 ◦ C,
velocity = 5–15 m/s RH = 95%
[39] VCR T = 38–44 ◦ C, RH = WGR = 0.92–1.08 L/h, SEC
69–90%, Air velocity = 0.22–0.3 kWh/L
= 2–5 m/s
[40] VCR T = 33 ◦ C, RH = 24% WGR = 0.33 L/h, SEC =
, Air flow = 224–244 1.76 kWh/L
m3/h
[41–43] HVAC T = 20–35 ◦ C, RH = WGR = 425 L/h
condensate 60%, Air flow =
recovery 30,000 m3/h
[45] HVAC T = 25–50 ◦ C, RH = WGR = 2.92 L/h
condensate 15–90%, Air flow =
recovery 486 m3/h
[47] HVAC T = 27.3 ◦ C, RH = WGR = 78.3 L/h Fig. 4. Radiative cooling setup attaining high-temperature reduction from
condensate 86% ambient [86].
recovery
[62] TEC T = 16–22 ◦ C, RH ~ WGR improved by 30% with
100% hydrophobic coating and
lies between 25–100 W/m2, restricts the dew yield below 0.8 L/m2/day
16–18% with cleaning [30,73–76]. Current research focuses on developing new materials for
[63] TEC T = 24.3 ◦ C, RH = WGR = 24 mL/h with 52.3 the condenser, system architecture, daytime radiative cooling, and
60–90%, Air flow = W input power (RH = 90%) optimizing for better dew yield according to meteorological parameters
30,50,70 m3/h
[77,78]. The dew yield is highly influenced by the geometry of the
[65] TEC T = 24.29 ◦ C, RH = WGR = 20 mL/h with 58.2
67.8%, Air flow rate W input power collector or passive condenser. Beysens et al. [76] studied the dew
= 29.7 m3/h collection with different dew collectors’ shapes and compared the per­
[66] TEC T = 24–31 ◦ C, RH = WGR = 20 mL/h with 70 W formance with a standard planar condenser. The study observed that the
60–80%, Air velocity input power (T = 31 ◦ C, RH hollow shaped structures could enhance the dew yield with improved
= 0.59–1 m/s = 75%)
[67] TEC T = 45 ◦ C, RH = 75% WGR = 26 mL/h with 20 W
cooling due to less wind influence than the planar structure. According
input power to other studies [79,80], micro-sized grooves on the surface can enhance
[68] TEC T = 22–35 ◦ C, RH = WGR = 0.82 L/h with 30 W the dew yield than the conventional flat condenser plate. The grooves
60–90% input power will favour drop coalescence by reducing pinning forces under the same
wettability of a smooth surface.
Al-Khayat et al. [81] prepared and tested the effect of micro-
AWG. They mainly focused on heat sink configurations using liquid
patterned polymer coating on copper tubes in capturing the water
coolants. According to previous research data, a non-periodic micro­
vapour from the atmosphere. The micro-pattern design consisting of
channel configuration with multiple bifurcations on the heat sink could
hydrophilic bumps was inspired by the desert beetle [82], that harvest
provide efficient TEC-AWG performance. Galinstan was also suggested
water in a dry climate due to its unique skin texture. Under the
as a suitable liquid coolant owing to its physical and thermal properties
commonly achievable dew formation conditions, the new pattern
and less pumping power requirements. A summary of the main research
condensed 57% more than the standard case. Ang et al. [83] proposed a
works in active refrigeration based AWG is presented in Table 1.
concept of trapping the uncollected micro-droplets of water from usually
neglected regions of a dew harvester through a cascading effect.
4. Passive cooling
Specially designed conical microstructures were incorporated in the
condenser surface to trap the usually neglected water droplets. In usual
The water from the atmosphere can be extracted by passive means
cases, these water droplets will undergo re-evaporation and thus not
through dew and fog harvesting. Dew is formed due to invisible atmo­
contributing to the water yield. Their study claimed that this modifi­
spheric water vapour condensation on a substrate. In contrast, fog is the
cation could harvest around three times more water volume than the
visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets formed due to conden­
unmodified flat surface.
sation in the atmosphere. In dew harvesting, the dew point temperature
The greatest challenge with passive radiative cooling lies in its
required to initiate condensation of atmospheric water vapour is ach­
daytime operation. It requires low solar absorption and high mid-
ieved on a substrate by passive radiative cooling, dissipating the heat
infrared emissions to operate during the day. With the recent de­
from the substrate to the outer space through the atmospheric window
velopments in nano-photonics and metamaterials, daytime radiative
[70,71]. In fog harvesting, the fog droplets are harvested by trapping
cooling has been achieved [71,77,84]. Raman et al. [85] demonstrated
them with mesh-like structures, allowing the droplet growth by coa­
the daytime radiative cooling for the first time with a specially designed
lescence and finally collected by gravity. Thus, these techniques are
layered photonic reflector and selective emitter made up of hafnium
simple, inexpensive and work with zero additional energy requirements
dioxide (HfO2) and silicon dioxide (SiO2). A temperature reduction of
[30,72]. The performance of these systems is evaluated in terms of the
approximately 5 ◦ C from the ambient during the daytime was achieved.
amount of water generated per unit area of collector per unit time. Since
In the work of Chen et al. [86], a remarkable temperature reduction of
water generation is slow with these passive techniques, the performance
up to 42 ◦ C was reported with 24-hour cycle operation. The temperature
is usually quantified per day for all practical purposes.
reduction was achieved with a selective emitter made up of layered
silicon nitride (Si3N4), silicon (Si), and aluminium (Al). The emitter was
4.1. Dew harvesting
also surrounded by a vacuum chamber to reduce thermal loss and to
provide direct sunlight shielding. A zinc selenide (ZnSe) window was
The dew formation depends on several factors like ambient tem­
attached to the vacuum chamber to ensure radiative heat exchange from
perature, RH, wind speed, cloud cover, material properties, etc. [71,73].
the selective emitter. A combination of vertical shade and mirror cone
The dew harvesting is dependent on the natural cooling power, usually

5
G. Raveesh et al. Energy Conversion and Management 239 (2021) 114226

4.2. Fog harvesting

Fog harvesting, similar to dew harvesting, is also a simple, inex­

pensive, and sustainable technique. It extracts water from the impaction
of visible aerosol consisting of liquid droplets against a fog capturing net
or mesh, which is usually installed in a vertical orientation. The occur­
rence of fog is not common in all locations, which limits its applicability
[72,95]. At the same time, many countries with favourable topography
and climatic conditions have successfully implemented and demon­
strated this technology [96–99]. The water extraction with fog har­
vesters typically varies between 1.5 and 12 L/m2/day for the countries
with year-round fog occurrence [97]. In comparison, a very high
Fig. 5. Dew harvesting plant [90].
extraction rate of 30 L/m2/day at a higher elevation was reported in a
study in Oman during a favourable fog occurrence period of just two
months [100]. Therefore, fog harvesting is seasonal. Its efficiency de­
was used to minimize solar irradiance on the selective emitter surface.
pends upon the nature of the collecting device, the water content in the
The schematic of the test setup used in the work [86] is as shown in
fog, wind speed, topography, altitude of the location, etc. [97,98,101].
Fig. 4. Similar efforts were taken by Zhou et al. [87] to accelerate the
The current research focuses on developing new materials for fog
condensation of water vapour during the daytime. They employed a
collection, mesh structure, bioinspired design, orientation, and effect of
layered selective emitter made up of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS),
meteorological parameters.
silver (Ag), aluminium (Al) to make the radiative cooler and integrated
The commonly used fog collecting devices are made up of Raschel
the condenser with solar water purification. The water production was
mesh, with the fog collector’s standard size as 1 m2 or 40 m2. The
found to be doubled with this integration over the conventional system.
Raschel mesh is less robust and cannot withstand high-speed wind. It is
Zamir et al. [88] proposed the concept of decoupling the dew col­
also susceptible to water droplet re-entrainment to the air due to lack of
lector and emitter, enabling dew harvesting even at daytime under low
surface adhesion. Clogging or blocking the void space between mesh due
RH and cooling far below the ambient condition. Unlike conventional
to the presence of pinned water droplets is also another concern. These
passive radiative coolers, the decoupling will protect the dew from
two are the major challenges with conventional mesh (see Fig. 6a)
evaporation and convective heating due to sunlight during the daytime.
affecting fog collection efficiency. Park et al. [102] demonstrated a high
Also, the selective emission property of the emitter will be destroyed
fog collection efficiency, around 5 times more than the conventional
when dew forms on the emitter. Dong et al. [89] developed a theoretical
mesh, by improving the wettability with a surface coating, reducing the
framework to analyze a blackbody emitter’s performance and a selective
mesh wire’s radii, and properly adjusting the spacing. The newly opti­
emitter. It was observed that the selective emitter could work in low RH
mized mesh collected more water than the standard mesh by allowing
arid conditions (RH = 20–40%) where the blackbody emitter usually
the fast draining of the collected droplets. Shi et al. [103] developed a
fails, extending the dew harvesting technology to dry regions. Many
new mesh architecture, termed as fog harps see (Fig. 6b), made up of
researchers have studied the feasibility of a dew harvesting plant for
vertical metallic wires running in parallel to the direction of droplet
scalable water generation [75,90–94]. The dew condensers used for this
shedding. The conventional fine and coarse mesh used for fog collection
purpose were made up of locally available materials, usually installed on
have the inherent clogging issues and escape of micro-sized droplets,
building rooftop, terrace, or ground. Since the dew yield is limited, these
respectively. Thus the new design of vertical fog harp could collect more
systems also collected rainwater, and a decent output was achieved
water by avoiding clogging and ensuring efficient drainage of droplets
without any additional energy requirement. During dew season, the
through the harps. The new harp design achieved a fog collection effi­
condensation of humid air occurs at night over the collecting surface,
ciency of about 3 times more than the conventional mesh design.
collected by gravity and can meet the local needs. For example, the dew
Lee et al. [104] also demonstrated an enhanced fog collection effi­
harvesting plant installed at a village in Gujarat, India (see Fig. 5) can
ciency using hydrophilic collectors made up of nanochannels and mac­
process approximately 500 L of water daily and claims to produce water
rostripes with vertical array arrangement. The new arrangement helped
economical than the reverse osmosis technique, with no environmental
in the attainment of faster unidirectional droplet removal and prevented
impact.
the re-entrainment of droplets. During the comparison test with the
conventional mesh, about 50% improvement in fog collection was
attained with the new design. The modern fog harvester designs are

Fig. 6. Fog nets: a) Typical fog net, b) Fog harp design [103], c) Improved Raschel mesh [120].

6
G. Raveesh et al. Energy Conversion and Management 239 (2021) 114226

Table 2
Summary of the main research works in passive cooling.
Ref. Technology Research focus Results Location/Test
conditions

[76] Dew Effect of shape of Hollow shaped Pessac town

harvesting the condenser on structures at Le
dew yield. showed superior Bourghail,
performance than France
planar shapes.
[79] Dew Dew yield Dew yield T = 33 ◦ C, RH
harvesting enhancement with enhancement = 40%
the micro-grooved estimated as
substrate. twice in
Fig. 7. Electrostatic fog collection prototype [122]. comparison with
smooth non-
mostly bioinspired, mimicking various organisms’ natural adaptations, grooved
substrates.
mainly native to arid regions. Several research works [105–114] re­
[81] Dew Bioinspired surface 57% more water T = 20.3 ±
ported in the recent past have successfully demonstrated the possibility harvesting coating to increase harvested than a 0.5 ◦ C, RH =
of such designs for improving the performance of fog collectors. The dew harvesting non-coated plain 85.3 ± 3.6%
review works carried out in the past [115–117] opens the possibility of efficiency. surface.
[83] Dew Inducing water Water harvested Sealed
extending and exploring more natural adaptations for water harvesting.
harvesting harvesting from increased three chamber with
The effect of surface wettability on dew and fog harvesting perfor­ both active and fold with RH = 90%
mance was investigated experimentally by Seo et al. [118] using a passive regions of a cascading than
tubular copper surface with various wettability characteristics. They surface through the unmodified
found that the fog harvesting performance is greatly dependent on the cascading. case, at 90% RH.
[87] Dew Daytime radiative WGR improved T = 20 ◦ C, RH
water removal from the collector, for which a large contact angle is
harvesting cooling and its from 0.4 L/m2 to = 100%
required. Among the considered surface wettability characteristics, the integration with 1 L/m2, through
oil-infused copper tube surface exhibited superior performance due to a solar water purifier integration of
large receding contact angle. Knapczyk-Korczak et al. [119] deposited systems.
[88] Dew Decoupling of Theoretical T ≈ 25 ◦ C, RH
hydrophilic nanofibers in the conventional Raschel mesh to improve its
harvesting radiative emitter prediction of dew = 73 ± 4.5%
performance. The addition of hydrophilic nanofibers effectively and dew collector yield as 1.5 L/m2
increased the collection surface area of the mesh and the water droplet day in 24 hr
removal, thus enabling more water collection. An improvement in the operation.
water collection rate by 3 times than the conventional mesh was re­ [89] Dew Extending dew Dew harvesting T = 20–30 ◦ C,
harvesting harvesting to less possible with RH =
ported in their study. Rajaram et al. [120] also improved the perfor­
humid areas using selective emitter 40,60,100%
mance of conventional Raschel mesh through the surface and condenser with even at T = 20 ◦ C
geometrical modifications (see Fig. 6c). Hydrophobic coatings were selective emitter and RH = 40%
added to the mesh to change the surface properties. A new geometry [90] Dew Feasibility of a dew Reported Kothara at
harvesting harvesting plant. maximum yield Gujarat, India
with better-capturing capacity and small pore size was developed
of 0.6 L/m2 per
through a punching process. The fog collection efficiency was increased night
by 50% with this modification than the conventional mesh. [102] Fog Developing Fog collection T = 26.4 ±
Damak and Varanasi [121] proposed a new concept to improve fog harvesting efficient fog efficiency 0.5 ◦ C, RH =
collection by injecting an electrical charge into the fog droplets. One of collectors by improved by five 100%
improving wetting times than the
the major factors limiting the performance of fog collectors is the de­
characteristics, conventional one
viation of water droplets around the wire mesh due to aerodynamic drag optimizing wire with the
force. In this study, a space charge was injected using an ion emitter and radii, spacing etc. developed fog
controlled the trajectory through an imposed electric field. The electric mesh
field was established between the emitter and the collector. The imposed [103] Fog Enhancing fog Fog harvesting Room
harvesting collection with fog rate improved by temperature
electric force was much higher than the aerodynamic drag force. Thus, harp design. three times with with RH =
the charged fog droplets followed the electric field lines and directed the new design 100%
towards the collector without deviation. Cruzat and Jerez-Hanckes [104] Fog Fog collector Fog harvesting T = 21 ◦ C, RH
[122] performed a similar type of study with electrostatic fog harvest­ harvesting design with rate improved by = 65%
nanochannels and fifty percent in
ing. A new design was proposed, in which a radial electric field was
macrostripes to comparison with
imposed between the co-axial inner copper electrode and outer perme­ enhance fog conventional fog
able fog collector, as shown in Fig. 7. The study [122] also reported an collection. mesh.
improved water collection rate of about 60% than the standard fog [119] Fog Modification of Collection of Climatic
collector. A summary of the main research works in passive cooling harvesting conventional water from fog chamber with
Raschel mesh with improved by RH = 95%
based AWG is presented in Table 2. nanofibers. three times.
[120] Fog Modification of Collection of T = 24 ± 1 ◦ C,
5. Water vapour concentration harvesting conventional water from fog RH = 100%
Raschel mesh using improved by two
hydrophobic times.
In refrigeration based AWG systems, a large amount of energy is
coating and
wasted in cooling the incoming air, which is generally a mixture of water reduced pore size.
vapour and other non-condensable gases. The vapour concentration [122] Fog Electrostatic fog Fog collection Majada
method provides an alternative to separately treat the water vapour, harvesting harvesting rate improved by Blanca, Chile
reducing operational cost and energy requirement of AWG systems. The 60% than the
conventional fog
water vapour concentration can be achieved with sorption techniques or collector.

7
G. Raveesh et al.
Fig. 8. Continuous sorption-prototype [129].
using a selective membrane. The performance of sorption-based AWG
systems is evaluated in terms of the amount of water generated per unit
mass of the sorbent material used.
5.1. Sorption
Sorption based AWG is gaining momentum among researchers due to
its capability to work in low RH conditions, where traditional AWG
devices are considered infeasible. The critical element of this technique
is the sorbent, a material used for concentrating water vapour. In this
approach, a sorbent is used to capture the water vapour from the at­
mosphere until its saturation. The sorbent is then heated to release the
captured water vapour, followed by condensation at ambient tempera­
ture to form water. High water capturing capacity, fast cyclic operation
of capturing and releasing water vapour, lower energy demand for
desorption etc., are the qualities of a good sorbent material [28,123].
The materials used for sorption technology include common desiccants
like silica gel, zeolite, other hygroscopic materials and the latest mate­
rial advancements like metal–organic framework (MOF) and composite
sorbents [123,124]. Although the conventional desiccants have high
moisture capturing ability, their inherent requirement of high temper­
ature for desorption limits its use under energy concern [125]. Many
companies, together with patented enhancements, have successfully
deployed this technology [126–128]. The latest research trend in sorp­
tion technology mainly focuses on developing new sorbents that can
effectively concentrate the water vapour even at very low RH and
Fig. 9. Test setup with phase change material and composite sorbent [131].
8
Energy Conversion and Management 239 (2021) 114226
regenerate quickly with less heat or solar irradiation.
Li et al. [129] developed a conceptual AWG device capable of
continuously extracting moisture from the air with nano sorbent
composed of a hollow carbon sphere and lithium chloride (LiCl) salt. The
nanostructure enabled the sorbent with a higher surface area, which
resulted in better capturing of moisture and light. The conceptual AWG
device was made up of a cylinder wrapped with a nano sorbent, a
condenser unit made up of copper with a transparent lid, a supporting
frame and a small stepper motor, as shown in Fig. 8. The continuous
operation was achieved by rotating the cylinder. Thus, the sorbent could
capture and release moisture continuously, unlike other conventional
sorbent-based AWG devices. The solar beam enters through the trans­
parent cap to extract moisture from the upper part of the cylinder, and in
parallel, the lower part of the cylinder captures moisture from the
ambient air. The nano-enhanced sorbent showed moisture capturing up
to 100% of its weight at 60% RH in a short span of 3 h. Also, with a solar
intensity of 1 kW/m2, desorption happened within 30 min. The multiple
moisture extraction and processing in this new concept attained an
output of 1.6 kg water per kg sorbent per day during the field test.
Entezari et al. [130] conducted an extensive theoretical and exper­
imental investigation with active carbon fibre (ACF) composites with
lithium chloride (LiCl), calcium chloride (CaCl2), and lithium nitrate
(LiNO3) as a sorbent for AWG purpose. The experimental results indi­
cated a yield of 2.9-grams of water per gram of sorbent with LiCl com­
posite. The test conditions were 25 ◦ C ambient temperature and RH
70%. The temperature of desorption for LiCl composite was 80 ◦ C which
could be quickly gained by solar irradiation. The sorbent was also tested
under 20% RH and 25 ◦ C conditions, where it was able to generate 1.18
g of water per gram of sorbent. The thermodynamic analysis of
adsorption-absorption combined ACF systems was also performed, and a
three-phase sorption cycle was suggested for further analysis. A similar
investigation was conducted by Ejeian et al. [131] with ACF composites
containing LiCl and magnesium sulphate (MgSO4). The performance of
the new composite was compared with the LiCl-ACF composite. The
addition of MgSO4 helped to improve mass transfer in the system, in­
crease the density of sorption, and prevent leakage in the composite. In
the test of the proposed composite under different RH, the benefit of
MgSO4 addition was noted by a 30% increase in sorption density under
medium RH. The condensation process was improved by incorporating a
phase change material (PCM) material around the condenser. The PCM
material selected according to the climate of the test site helped in
maintaining the condenser temperature almost constant during the
operation. The schematic of the test setup is as shown in Fig. 9. A pro­
totype based on the proposed composite provided a yield of 0.92-gram
water per gram of composite sorbent at 35% RH in the field test.
G. Raveesh et al.
Fig. 10. Sorption based atmospheric water generation prototype [137].
Wang et al. [132] conducted an experimental investigation with two
solar-assisted AWG devices using ACF-CaCl2 and ACF-LiCl as sorbent.
They used the rolled-up structure of ACF-CaCl2 in the first AWG device
and the corrugated ACF-LiCl structure for filling in the sorbent bed in the
second AWG device. Sorbent bed, solar collector and a condenser were
the main components of these AWG devices. An open-type and semi-
open type working concept was proposed for the two devices. The
semi-open type device with corrugated ACF-LiCl sorbent bed structure
produced superior performance. The device with ACF-CaCl2 produced
0.32 kg water with 2.25 kg sorbent, and the device with ACF-LiCl pro­
duced 11.2 kg water with 40.8 kg sorbent. Yang et al. [133] developed a
portable AWG using microfluidic technology and adsorption–desorption
principle, reducing the space requirement and energy demand with
better efficiency. The microfluidic system was prepared by poly­
dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to obtain an enhanced heat transfer area
together with compactness. The proposed AWG device contained a
condensing part with a microchannel, adsorbent, heating chamber, plug
and a polyimide heating film. Silica gel was used as an adsorbent in the
heating chamber. The moisture trapped in the silica gel was removed by
heating with the polyimide heating film, resulting in generation of high
temperature high humidity vapour which was then condensed in the
microchannel.
Kumar and Yadav [134] studied experimentally the sorption of a
composite desiccant formed by the precipitation of CaCl2 salt in porous
saw wood. They investigated the performance of this composite desic­
cant under various concentrations of CaCl2 in the AWG process. The
highest generation of water was 180 mL/kg/day at 60% CaCl2 concen­
tration. Gandhidasan and Abualhamayel [135] performed experiments
for an AWG system consisting of CaCl2 liquid desiccant in Saudi Arabia.
The liquid desiccant was circulated using a slow speed pump to form a
thin layer over the absorber plate. Continuous experiments during the
day (average ambient temperature of 41 ◦ C) and night (average ambient
temperature of 31 ◦ C) were performed to find out the rate of absorption
and desorption. Depending upon the flow rate of liquid desiccant, an
absorption rate of 2.11 L/m2/day and desorption rate of 1.15 L/m2/day
was reported. It was also observed that for the same flow rate of liquid
desiccant, the night-time and daytime performance was not the same.
They suggested the need for optimization of flow rate to match the
daytime with night-time performance.
Srivastava and Yadav [136] proposed an improved version of com­
posite desiccant based AWG with Scheffler reflector. The composite
9
Energy Conversion and Management 239 (2021) 114226
hygroscopic material (37% concentration) considered were LiCl, CaCl2
and lithium bromide (LiBr) with host as sand. The inclusion of the
Scheffler reflector facilitated a fixed focus concentration of solar irra­
diation. The test was conducted with a semi-arid climate, and the hu­
midity ratio varied from 7.6 g/kg to 13.8 g/kg during the evaluation
period. The maximum water generation obtained from LiCl, CaCl2 and
LiBr were 90, 115 and 73 mL/day, and that took place in 5.5 h, 4.5 h and
4.5 h, respectively. Kim et al. [137] demonstrated an AWG device based
on porous MOF-801 to address the non-feasibility of AWG systems at low
RH (20%). With the new MOF-801 sorbent, the productivity of 2.8 L of
water per kilogram sorbent was achieved at 20% RH in a daily cycle with
a developed conceptual device, as shown in Fig. 10. The study recom­
mended MOF-801 as a viable solution for moisture extraction in places
like North Africa (RH-20%). The desorption temperature was estimated
to be around 65 ◦ C, which could be generated using simple solar col­
lectors during day time.
Similar studies with the metal–organic framework (MOF) in
extracting moisture from desert regions were investigated by Fathieh
et al. [138]. Zirconium based MOF blended with graphite (MOF-801/G)
and aluminium based MOF with blended graphite (MOF 303/G) was
used as sorbent and tested in a controlled environment replicating the
climatic conditions of the Arizona desert. The MOF-801/G sorbent was
successfully used in producing 100-gram water per 1000-gram sorbent
without using any active power source. Further enhancement was made
possible with MOF 303/G sorbent, which showed productivity up to
175-gm water per 1000-gm sorbent under similar test conditions. Terzis
et al. [139] explored the fluidization of MOF-801 to enable a high-
frequency sorption cycle. As a result of fluidization, the distance of
heat and mass diffusion was greatly reduced. The continuous sorption
cycle was achieved from the fluidized bed by providing cold and hot air
periodically to the inlet. Moisture in the air is adsorbed when cold air
mixes with the solid particulates of MOF, and the same is desorbed when
hot air mixes with the MOF. The test output was calculated as 0.33 L/
hour/kg-sorbent and 0.52 L/hour/kg-sorbent at RH 18% and 39%,
respectively. The highest achieved yield from the experiments was 10 L/
day/kg of the sorbent.
Yao et al. [140] developed a sorbent made up of porous sodium
polyacrylate/graphene framework (PGF) to produce clean water even
from a highly polluted atmosphere. The PGF sorbent offers excellent
features like high sorption ability (5.20-gram water per gram of sor­
bent), high absorption of incident solar radiation (~97%), lower
desorption temperature (~60 ◦ C), and working ability in a wide range of
RH than MOF. The PGF oxygen groups capture water molecules from the
atmosphere and trap the impurities by van der Waals force. The pro­
posed sorbent also showed remarkable sorption of 0.14-gram water per
gram of the sorbent at a very low RH of 15%. Li et al. [141] conducted
tests with a composite hydrogel sorbent (Polyacrylamide (PAM)-CNT-
CaCl2). The composite sorbent’s solar radiation absorption capacity was
increased with the inclusion of a carbon nano tube (CNT) in the network.
The composite hydrogel captures 0.74-gm water per gm sorbent at RH
35%.
Wang et al. [142] utilized the concept of interfacial solar vapour
generation for liquid sorbent based AWG technology. As salt concen­
tration increases in the liquid sorbent, its moisture absorption capacity
also increases but increases the energy demand for desorption. There­
fore, in liquid sorbents, the salt concentration will be less than 40% by
weight. Here, the moisture extraction capacity of the sorbent was greatly
enhanced by using concentrated CaCl2 salt solution (50% by weight),
together with graphene oxide-based aerogel with large-size pores as the
solar absorber. The composite aerogel helped in reducing the bulk
heating of salt solution, and desorption was enhanced by interfacial heat
transfer. The water vapour transport to the condenser wall was through
the capillary action through the large pores of composite aerogel. The
new concept was also demonstrated in a scaled device, and a water yield
of 2.89 kg/m2/day was achieved at 70% RH. Later the adsorption and
desorption process was made to co-occur in a concept developed by Qi
G. Raveesh et al. Energy Conversion and Management 239 (2021) 114226

Table 3
Summary of the main research works in sorption.
Ref. Type of sorbent Working conditions Performance/Capacity

[129] HCS-LiCl nano T = 22 C, RH =

◦
Sorption up to 100% of its
sorbent 60% own weight within 3 h at
RH = 60%.
Solar assisted desorption
within 30 min. under 1
kW/m2.
Batch-mode AWG device
produced 1.6 kgwater/
kgsorbent in 10 h.
[130] ACF-LiCl, ACF-CaCl2, T = 25 ◦ C, RH = 2.9 gwater/gsorbent at 70%
ACF-LiNO3 composite 70% RH with ACF-LiCl.
sorbent
[131] ACF-LiCl-MgSO4 Cold semi-arid, RH 0.9 gwater/gsorbent at 35%
composite sorbent = 25–70% RH Fig. 11. Water vapour separation with selective membrane [147].
[132] ACF-CaCl2, ACF-LiCl T = 30–33 ◦ C, RH 0.32 kg water with 2.25
= 65–85% kg ACF- CaCl2 and 11.2 kg
was around 0.5–1.8 kgwater/kgmaterial during an 8-hour test at RH
water with 40.8 kg ACF-
LiCl 20–80%, extending its potential to harvest in almost all weather con­
[134] CaCl2-porous saw T = 20–30 ◦ C, 180 mLwater /kgsorbent/ ditions. They also generated a small amount of electricity when the
wood Semi-arid Climate day surface was modified with commercial carbon ink. The presence of ox­
[135] CaCl2 liquid desiccant T = 31 ◦ C-41 ◦ C, 1.15 Lwater/m2/day ygen groups in the carbon ink produced a small amount of electricity
RH = 87–92%
through the electrokinetic effect. Therefore, this absorber type is a
[136] LiCl/Sand, CaCl2/ Semi-arid, Produced 90, 115 and 73
Sand, LiBr/Sand Humidity ratio = mLwater/day with LiCl, promising option for addressing both electricity and water issues among
7.6–13.8 g/kg CaCl2 and LiBr rural communities. Yang et al. [145] demonstrated a new strategy to
composites in 5.5 hr, 4.5 efficiently utilize the heat of adsorption and excess heat of solar-assisted
hr and 4.5 hr,
desorption by attaching the sorbent to a thermoelectric module. They
respectively.
[137] MOF-801 Hot arid, RH = 2.8 Lwater/kgsorbent in a used a hygroscopic aerogel, poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride)
20% daily cycle integrated with graphene oxide (G-PDDA) with fast sorption kinetics,
[138] MOF-801/G, MOF- T = 18–25 ◦ C, RH Produced 100 gmwater/ which facilitated multiple operating cycles. Thus, the heat from multiple
303/G = 30–50% kgsorbent with MOF-801/G operating cycles was used to generate electricity along with water
and 174 gmwater/kgsorbent
generation. In the study of Mulchandani et al. [146], the improvement in
with MOF-303/G
[139] MOF-801 T = 22 ◦ C, 23.5 ◦ C, Produced 0.33 Lwater/h/ sorption kinetics of a traditional silica gel desiccant was tested by
RH = 18%, 39% kgsorbent and 0.52 Lwater/ applying photo-thermal nano-particles over the desiccant surface. The
h/kgsorbent at RH 18% and inclusion of nano-particles enabled the silica gel to undergo multiple
39% respectively.
working cycles due to more localized heating resulting in faster
[140] Porous sodium Arid and 0.14 gwater/gsorbent
polyacrylate/ contaminated, RH
desorption. Under various RH conditions, the new desiccant showed
graphene framework = 15% around 10 working cycles in a 12-hour test period, generating around
(PGF) 0.47 gwater/gdesiccant at 40% RH. A summary of the main research works
[141] Composite hydrogel T = 22–26 ◦ C RH = 0.74 gwater/gsorbent at RH in sorption based AWG is presented in Table 3.
sorbent (PAM-CNT- 35%, 60% = 35%.
CaCl2)
[142] CaCl2 solution with T = 25 ◦ C RH = 2.89 kg/m2/day was
graphene oxide 70% achieved at 70% RH. 5.2. Membrane separation
aerogel
[143] Liquid sorbent (1- T = 25 ◦ C RH = 2.8 Lwater/m2/day Bergmair et al. [147] proposed a model of an AWG device with a
ethyl-3-methyl- 80%
imidazolium acetate)
water vapour selective membrane, as shown in Fig. 11. According to
with CFM their study, the selective membrane can reduce the energy demand for
[144] Agricultural waste- RH 20–80% 0.5–1.8 kgwater/kgmaterial extraction by more than 50%. The membrane permeation was regulated
corn stalk during 8-hour test with the help of a condenser and a vacuum pump. The driving force for
[145] G-PDDA aerogel RH 60%, T = 20 ◦ C 4.25 L water/kg sorbent
permeation is the partial pressure difference between the incoming air
during 12-hour test
streams and the permeate side. The proposed model claimed a water
production of 9190 L/day with a power consumption of 62 kW as
et al. [143]. To further improve desorption, interfacial solar heating was compared to 4450 L/day under conventional operation. The selective
also suggested with the new concept. The proposed setup contains membrane also assures water of superior quality due to initial screening
interconnected containers with the proper demarcation of adsorption in the membrane. To reduce the energy cost associated with AWG de­
and desorption space. The difference in pressure and concentration in vices, Gido et al. [148] proposed a liquid desiccant system to separate
the two interconnected regions facilitated moisture flow from the water vapour from the incoming air containing non-condensable gases.
adsorption part to the desorption part. The carbon fibre membrane was A significant portion of the energy consumed in cooling the water
used as the interfacial solar absorber, and 1-ethyl-3-methyl-imidazolium vapour and non-condensable gases in refrigeration-based AWG devices.
acetate was used as the liquid sorbent. The concept was tested in a The proposed system was analyzed using a numerical model, and the
designed device, and the highest production yield of 2.8 L/m2/day was results showed electrical energy savings up to 65% compared to other
observed at 80% RH. commercial AWG devices. Later, LiCl was used as a liquid desiccant due
Gong et al. [144] fabricated and tested a moisture absorber made to its ability to regenerate moisture with low energy requirements or
with agricultural- waste corn stalk. The corn stalk was treated by solar irradiance. The non-condensable gases were removed from the
boiling, drying, and then dipping in the LiCl solution to get the desired regenerated stream using a vacuum pump. The model was evaluated for
absorbing property. The new absorber’s moisture capturing capacity different operating conditions and the energy consumption was esti­
mated in the range 0.18–0.28 kWh/L. The required condensation

10
G. Raveesh et al. Energy Conversion and Management 239 (2021) 114226

Fig. 12. a) Experimental setup b) Schematic of double slope half-cylindrical basin solar still [151].

temperature could be produced by using any refrigeration system.

Kudasheva et al. [149] demonstrated the use of inorganic aqueous
salt-based liquid membranes for the dehumidification process. Their
study observed that the performance of liquid membrane depends not
only on the nature of membrane material but also on the membrane
supporting material. The experiments with carbon black nano-particles
as supporting material showed around 12 g/h of water recovery at
75–80% RH. Unlike pressure-driven membrane systems, Qi et al. [150]
developed a polymer electrolyte membrane based on an electrochemical
process. With this new approach, the dehumidification was achieved at
RH 90% to 30% with a very low voltage. The mass transfer inside the
electrolyte was governed by electrolysis, electro-osmosis, and back
diffusion. The study [150] also observed that the back diffusion
adversely affected the efficiency, which needs to be tackled in the future.
Fig. 13. Biomass gasification powered atmospheric water generation sys­
6. Recent approaches tem [156].

The issues associated with conventional AWG systems and the global
water scarcity scenario have necessitated crossing conventional ap­
proaches with integrated/hybrid approaches. Recent efforts were made
by researchers to couple the solar still with AWG. Essa et al.[151] con­
ducted studies on double slope half-cylindrical basin solar still (DS-
HCBSS), as shown in Fig. 12, to collect the water from the atmosphere.
Modifications were made in the solar still by the inclusion of longitu­
dinal fins and a covering of hygroscopic silica gel in the fins and basin
liner. During experiments, the measured ambient temperature observed
between 28 and 40 ◦ C and RH between 45 and 62%. The productivity of
the DS-HCBSS with silica gel was enhanced about 72% and 166% when
longitudinal fins and longitudinal fins with gravels were used, respec­
tively. Maximum productivity of 400 mL/m2 was recorded during the
measurements. The innovation lies in using silica gel in the basin rather
than water in conventional stills and integrating solar still with AWG.
Two small vents were provided on opposite sides of the basin to permit
cold airflow inside DS-HCBSS at night.
Similar work on the utilization of tubular solar still (TSS) for mois­
ture extraction from the atmosphere was performed by Elashmawy
[152]. The tests were conducted with TSS with a rectangular trough at
extremely low-humidity conditions (RH = 12%) and ambient tempera­
ture variation between 29 and 36 ◦ C during the daytime. Black cotton
cloth bed filled with calcium chloride desiccant were used in the trough.
A fan was used at night for circulating the air for better absorption.
During the daytime, the tube side vents were closed with no fan for
regeneration. A maximum yield of 467 mL/m2day for 4 m/s incoming
air velocity and 230 mL/m2 day for no fan condition was obtained. As an
advancement to this model, Elashmawy and Alshammari [153] intro­
duced a parabolic concentrator system with the TSS to enhance the
regeneration process. Together with the concentrator, the system helped
to extract moisture from low humid desert regions (16% RH). Under the
same test conditions, the concentrator’s device produced 0.51 L/kg
compared to 0.13 L/kg with no concentrator.
William et al. [154] tested moisture extraction from the atmosphere
using a solar still with trapezoidal prism geometry. The sides were
covered with transparent fibreglass, which permitted solar-assisted
regeneration and condensation during day time. Sand and cloth were
used as hosts for carrying the CaCl2 desiccant solution. The desiccant
beds were arranged on multiple shelves to increase the sorption area.
The experiments were conducted in Cairo, Egypt, to study the perfor­
mance under different day and night weather conditions. The maximum
regeneration rate was 2.320 L/m2 day for cloth bed and 1.235 L/m2 day
for sand bed with 30% CaCl2. Elashmawy and Alatawi [155] carried out
a similar investigation to study solar stills’ potential with trapezoidal
prism geometry for AWG under low RH conditions. The tests were

11
G. Raveesh et al.
Fig. 14. Modified Solar Chimney Power Plant [160].
Fig. 15. Fog harvesting from cooling tower plumes [161].
performed at Hail city, Saudi Arabia, with average RH values and
ambient temperature as 26.5% and 28 ◦ C, respectively. The solar still
contained 5 shelves packed with black cotton material and CaCl2 as a
liquid desiccant. Under these extreme low RH conditions, a water gen­
eration of 1.06 L/m2 day was observed with the trapezoidal solar still.
Chaitanya et al. [156] proposed integrated biomass gasification
powered AWG system, as shown in Fig. 13. Here the thermal energy of
combustion from a typical biomass gasification process was used to
power a vapour adsorption refrigeration cycle. They also reported that
the proposed system could produce 800–1200 L of water per 1000 kg of
biomass, a promising technology in places like India, where biomass
availability is more. Ozkan et al. [157] developed a mathematical model
to estimate the performance of an AWG process powered by waste
natural gas from oil refineries, chemical plants, etc. The compressor, the
main power-consuming component of a VCR system, was powered by a
gas engine utilizing the waste natural gas. The chilled water produced by
the VCR cycle was used to condense the incoming air’s moisture in a
heat exchanger. The model predicts that 1 m3 of gas could generate up to
12.6 kg of water under warm-humid conditions. Similar studies
[158,159] were also carried out for investigating the potential of uti­
lizing flared and landfill gas to power the AWG process. Therefore, this
type of utilization can meet a part of the onsite water requirements for
other allied processes using unutilized waste gases.
Ming et al. [160] proposed a modified solar chimney power plant to
12
Energy Conversion and Management 239 (2021) 114226
produce freshwater from the atmosphere. A mathematical model was
formulated to conduct a parametric analysis of the proposed system. The
usual collector was replaced with black spiral tubes in the modified
system, as shown in Fig. 14. The system was also equipped with a wind
turbine to harness the air flowing upwards and a hydraulic turbine to
harness downward freshwater. A solid porous surface was installed at
the top of the chimney to collect the water formed out of condensation.
The black pipes are filled with water that absorbs solar radiation during
day time, stores it, and releases it at night. The cold moist air gains the
heat of solar radiation, resulting in buoyancy-induced air flow during
night time. Ghosh et al. [161] studied the feasibility of fog harvesting
from the cooling tower plume of thermal power plants, as shown in
Fig. 15. Fog nets of various shapes were placed near the cooling tower
exit at different inclinations to the incoming fog stream. It was estimated
that from a 500 MW thermal power plant unit, fog harvesting could
recover around 40% of water. The recovered water can be utilized as a
make-up water supplement in the cooling towers without further
treatment. They also found that the water collection from the cooling
tower fog harvesting is almost 2 times higher than the other fog har­
vesting systems. Also in this type, the number of fog days is determined
by the number of days of operation of the thermal power plant.
A new approach with VCR based AWG devices to handle low hu­
midity conditions was proposed by Tu and Hwang [162]. An air pre-
treatment stage with multiple desiccant wheels made up of silica gel
was introduced to enrich the humidity of the incoming air. The heat for
regeneration was obtained from the condenser of the VCR system, and
the water vapour released from the desiccant wheel was used to increase
the humidity. Multi staging of this air pre-treatment was employed to get
a higher humidity ratio. A mathematical model was also prepared to
predict the best configuration in terms of stages required for humidifi­
cation. At the best configuration predicted by the model with an ambient
temperature of 40 ◦ C and a humidity ratio of 5 g/kg, the newly proposed
AWG device could harvest 32.5 kg of water per hour with specific energy
consumption of 0.794 kWh/kg.
Heidari et al. [163] addressed the issue of high water consumption
associated with evaporative coolers. The study proposed a desiccant
wheel-based evaporative cooling system, as shown in Fig. 16. The pro­
posed system is capable of generating water together with its function of
providing a cooling effect. Simulations were performed to evaluate the
new system’s performance at 60 m2 space inside a building with an
indoor temperature of 25 ◦ C and 50% RH. The desiccant wheel made up
of silica gel was used to capture the moisture in incoming air and to
generate dry air for room cooling. The temperature requirement for
desorption was generated using the heat liberated from the condenser
and a solar boiler. The moisture was harvested with the help of a rotary
heat exchanger. The cool return air from the conditioned space was used
to condense the moist air separated from the desiccant wheel. The
simulations concluded that out of the total water production, around
49% was excess after supplying to the evaporative cooler, and this excess
water could be utilized for household use.
Kwan et al. [164] proposed a hybrid AWG system that utilizes the
exhaust gas of fuel cell to enhance the water generation of a VCR-AWG
system. In this hybrid system, the flue gas from the fuel cell, rich in
moisture as a result of an electrochemical reaction, was fed to the VCR-
AWG system. The temperature of the moist flue gas was reduced by
exchanging heat to the ambient with a heat exchanger before entering
the VCR-AWG system. A simulation model of the hybrid system was
created to conduct a parametric study. The study observed that at 75%
RH, water generation improvement by 50% was possible with a 2 kW
fuel cell than the non-hybrid system. The specific energy consumption
could reach as low as 0.2 kWh/L at 60% RH, justifying the hybrid sys­
tem. A summary of the main research works in recent approaches for
AWG is presented in Table 4.
Integrated systems are on the research pathway to help the AWG
emerge into a scalable decentralized water generation system. Large-
scale water generation is possible with integrated systems if AWG
G. Raveesh et al.
Fig. 16. Desiccant based evaporative cooling system together with water production [163].
systems are powered by hot waste gases from biomass gasification,
landfills, or power plants, reducing direct electric energy consumption.
This approach opens the door for large AWG plants in the future to meet
the water demands of a large community. The main issues associated
with AWG systems and possible solutions found in the literature is
presented in Table 5.
7. Conclusions
Several established and emerging techniques have been proposed in
the literature to generate water from the atmosphere. An optimum
choice among these techniques has to be made for its efficient operation
depending upon the climatic conditions. A universal technique that is
sustainable, having a wide operational band, scalable and energy-
efficient are yet to arrive. Although AWG technology has experienced
tremendous advancements in the past decade, none of the AWG tech­
nology has emerged as a viable solution to address the water-energy
nexus. However, most of the advancements in AWG technologies are
in their earlier stages only, and therefore many real-time investigations
and optimisation are required before their deployment in the field. The
parameters affecting the energy intensity (i.e. specific energy con­
sumption) of AWG systems should be the primary focus for future
research and development. The performance, challenges, future per­
spectives and significant advancements of various AWG technologies
have been summarized in Table 6. From the present comprehensive
review, the following remarks are made:
• Among the available AWG technologies, VCR based AWG offers
higher and scalable water generation, but at high specific energy
consumption. Its performance is superior to its TEC counterpart,
owing to its large cooling capacity and airflow handling. They are
most suitable to work in hot and humid conditions, and performance
suffers significantly with climate.
• Following an efficient operational strategy may reduce the energy
cost associated with AWG using active refrigeration. The Moisture
Harvest Index (MHI) concept reported in the literature can be viewed
as a simple tool to assess the performance of the AWG systems by
active refrigeration before installing in any particular location.
• The passive cooling based AWG seems to be re-emerging with its
advancements like daytime radiative cooling, deep cooling etc., in
13
Energy Conversion and Management 239 (2021) 114226
the context of the energy demand of other technologies. Dew har­
vesting plants have been installed in various locations to supplement
the freshwater source with practically zero additional energy
consumption.
• The fundamental issues of fog deviation, clogging and re-
entrainment associated with traditional fog collectors have been
resolved with electrostatic fog collection and bioinspired design. The
fog collection from the cooling tower plumes of power plants can
ensure scalable water generation.
• The sorption based AWG systems have shown remarkable progress in
the last decade. The newly available sorbents can work even at low
RH 20% or less without the need for high-grade energy. The inherent
issue of the slow sorption cycle is also now getting solved with the
advent of conceptual techniques facilitating fast and continuous
sorption. Sorption based AWG systems could emerge as a complete
sustainable option in all climatic conditions.
• Integrating passive or other systems for partially supporting active
systems could make the AWG even more energy-efficient and
attractive. Less attempts are being made in examining the scalability
of the integrated approach for AWG systems.
• Most of the previous works on various AWG technologies are
restricted to laboratory test conditions. More field tests are required
to assess the actual performance of AWG systems due to the vari­
ability of RH and ambient temperature in a day.
• The commercial deployment of these advancements is still far due to
cost and lack of optimisation. Also, detailed and precise economic
analysis is missing in most of the studies. From the user point of view,
capital investment, payback period, levelized cost of water etc., will
be of significant concern.
• The future scope of AWG is to introduce fundamentally new concepts
and investigate the possibilities of synergy between the existing
systems, integrating renewable energy sources like solar photovol­
taic and wind for continuous operation.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
G. Raveesh et al. Energy Conversion and Management 239 (2021) 114226

Table 4
Summary of the recent approaches in atmospheric water generation.
Ref. System Type Working conditions Performance/Yield Remarks
2
[151] Tubular Solar Still-AWG with T = 28–40 C, RH =
◦
Water generation of 400 mL/m - A new design of solar still consisting of double slope top half with
silica gel 45% − 62% a cylindrical basin.
- Supported with parabolic trough to increase temperature gain.
- Inclusion of longitudinal fins and gravels in the basin.
[152] Tubular Solar Still -AWG with T = 29–36 ◦ C, RH = Water generation of 467 mL/m2.day - Tubular solar still design with rectangular basin.
CaCl2 desiccant 12% with fan and 230 mL/m2.day without - Equipped with fan on the tube side of still for increasing air
fan circulation during night.
- Increase in water yield by 50.8% and efficiency by 51.2% by
increasing air circulation.
[153] Tubular Solar Still -AWG with Low humid desert 0.51 Lwater/kgdesiccant - Tubular solar still design with rectangular basin, supplemented
CaCl2 desiccant and solar climate, RH = 16% with a parabolic solar concentrator.
concentrator - Increase in water yield by 292.4% with the addition of
concentrator.
- Addition of a solar concentrator improved the evaporation rate of
moisture from the desiccant.
[154] Trapezoidal Solar Still-AWG with T = 24–26 ◦ C, RH = 2.320 Lwater/m2 day for cloth bed - Trapezoidal prism design with fibreglass on the four sides.
CaCl2 with cloth and sand bed 60–89% 1.235 Lwater/m2 day for sand bed - Square basin arranged in multi-shelves to hold desiccant and
increase surface area.
- No external fan is used.
- Efficiency around 29.3% for cloth bed, and 17.76% for sand bed.
[155] Trapezoidal Solar Still-AWG with T = 28 ◦ C, RH = 1.06 Lwater/m2 day - Trapezoidal prism design with multi shelves.
CaCl2 with black cotton material 26.5% - Offers more desiccant-water contact area than the square prism
design.
- Compact design and can be installed on rooftops.
- Efficiency around 10% due to low RH conditions.
[156] Biomass gasification powered Indian climate Up to 1.2 Lwater/kgbiomass - Cooling capacity of the vapour adsorption system powered by
AWG biomass gasification is 10.5 kW.
- Water yield of around 800–1200 L per 1000 kg of biomass,
estimated from the thermodynamic analysis.
- Techno-economic analysis estimated higher water generation
cost than other alternatives due to the low COP-0.52 of the
vapour adsorption system.
[157] Waste natural gas-powered AWG Warm humid climate 12.6 Lwater/m3gas - Theoretical study on checking the potential and feasibility of
flared gas-based AWG systems.
- COP of VCR unit considered is 3.8.
- Condensation rate for a condenser area can reach upto 38 L/m2/
day in summer.
[162] VCR based AWG with multiple T = 40 ◦ C, Humidity WGR = 32.5 L/h, SEC = 0.794 kWh/L - VCR-adsorption-hybrid AWG system is proposed.
desiccant wheels ratio = 5 g/kgdry air - The proposed concept is a solution to apply VCR-AWG in dry
climate.
- Air can be humidified from 3 − 12 g/kg to 20–50 g/kg using the
desiccant wheels.
[164] Fuel cell-VCR-AWG hybrid T = 27 ◦ C, RH = SEC = 0.2 kWh/L at RH = 60% - Fuel cell exhaust is fed to VCR-AWG.
system 25–100% - Improvement in water generation with electro-chemical water.
- At RH = 75%, 50% improvement in water generation by 2 kW
fuel cell.

14
G. Raveesh et al.
Table 5
Technological solutions to the current issues of atmospheric water generation systems.
Issues
Performance of refrigeration based AWG at
unfavourable climate
High specific energy consumption of
refrigeration based AWG
Large variation between ideal water extraction
and real extraction at high RH in refrigeration
based AWG systems
Low performance of TEC-AWG
Daytime operation and deep radiative cooling of
passive dew collector
Change of selective emission property with dew
formation on the emitter surface
Clogging issues and escape of micro-sized
droplets associated with fog mesh
Deviation of water droplets around the fog mesh
Long cycle time associated with sorption
High desorption energy requirement for sorbents
Possible solutions
- Inclusion of a preconditioning unit or a climatic chamber to
improve psychrometric properties of air [36,49]
- Humidity enrichment with multiple desiccant wheels [162]
- Precooling the incoming air with the cool exit air from the
evaporator section [28,48]
- Dependence on renewable energy to power AWG systems.
- Removal of non-condensable gases from incoming air stream
with selective membrane [147–150]
- Using hybrid or integrated systems [156–159,164]
- Scope of design optimization, especially with evaporator
[29,36].
- Proper liberation of the heat of condensation to avoid re-
evaporation of water.
- Ensure dropwise condensation by providing a hydrophobic
coating over the condensing surface [62,63].
- Proper design to increase the condenser surface area and
residence time of air.
- Better thermal management by recirculation of cold exit air
to the hot side of the TEC module [63]
- Periodic removal of condensed water from the cold side [62]
- Stacking of TEC modules powered by renewable energy [61]
- Using photonic reflector and selective emitter [85,87,89]
- Reduce thermal loss and provide direct sunlight shielding-
using a vacuum chamber [86]
- Decoupling of emitter and dew collector [88]
- Fog harp design [103], hydrophilic collectors [104,119],
bioinspired designs [115–117], small pore size [120]
- Injecting electrical charge into fog droplets [121,122]
- Continuous sorption cycle [129], high frequency sorption
cycle by fluidized MOF [139], simultaneous
adsorption–desorption [143].
- Solar assisted desorption possible with advanced MOF and
composite sorbents.
- Using solar concentrators [136]
- Harnessing waste heat from other systems.
15
Energy Conversion and Management 239 (2021) 114226
Remarks
- Manually operated climatic chamber is used in the ref. [36],
that could be automated in future.
- Optimization-based controller is used to control AWG to
maximize WGR with minimum SEC [49].
- Heating of the desiccant wheel is done by using thermal
energy from the VCR-condenser [162].
- Renewable energy driven desiccant regeneration could be
explored to integrate with conventional AWG systems.
- Under hot and dry conditions, more than 50% of the energy
will be used for sensible cooling.
- Water vapour selective separation is done with solid
membrane [147], liquid membrane [148,149] and polymer
electrolyte membrane [150].
- Less experimental investigations with selective membrane
for AWG are reported in the literature.
- Hybrid system opens new research pathways in refrigeration
based AWG for scalable production.
- Most of the studies on integrated systems reported in the
literature are limited to theoretical analysis.
- Experimental investigations [29,30] confirmed the large
variation in WGR at high RH.
- The variation of WGR from theoretical and experimental
investigation is minimum at low RH.
- Less investigations are conducted to check the potential loss
of water generated from the condenser coils.
- Dropwise condensation can reduce the resistance to heat
transfer between the cooling coil and air in contact.
- An improvement of water yield upto 30% by using nano
silicon dioxide (SiO2) gel as hydrophobic coating [63]
- An improvement of 67% in WGR by cold exit air
recirculation [63].
- Periodic removal of condensed water avoids re-evaporation
of water droplets and additional resistance [62].
- Stacking of TEC can improve COP and cooling capacity [61].
- Scaling of passive radiative cooling with selective emitter is
not yet achieved.
- Currently, the passive radiative cooling with selective
emitters, vacuum chambers etc., are costlier.
- Theoretical water generation of 1.5 L/m2/day is predicted
[88], higher than current theoretical maximum of 0.8 L/m2/
day.
- 24-hr operation can be ensured with decoupling technique.
- Scaling of this system needs to be explored.
- Cold air recirculation, which is not done in the work [88]
can improve water yield.
- Fog harp design uses untreated metal wires without the
requirement of super-hydrophobic coatings.
- Most of the studies reported are limited to laboratory scale
only, at high humidity test conditions.
- Sophisticated fabrication techniques are required for bio-
inspired design.
- Practical difficulty in commercializing and scaling up of
reported fog collectors.
- Improvement in collection efficiency by 60%.
- The test can be performed at different electrode geometries.
- Scope to develop advanced fog collectors with this
technique.
- First ever device to perform continuous sorption [129], still
in its initial stage.
- Currently, the cost of MOF sorbent is high.
- Extension of the work [139] possible by, optimizing the
process, developing new models to simulate the process.
- Sorbent material should be compatible with interfacial solar
absorber, and their combination is critical.
- Liquid sorbent is used in the work [143] and tests were
conducted at high RH conditions.
- Interfacial solar heating can prevent bulk heating of the
sorbent.
- Scheffler reflector is used to focus solar energy for
desorption in the work [136].
- Different bed designs for sorbent could be explored for
increasing the efficiency with solar collectors.
- Currently, the cost of advanced MOF and composite sorbents
are high.
(continued on next page)
G. Raveesh et al. Energy Conversion and Management 239 (2021) 114226

Table 5 (continued )
Issues Possible solutions Remarks

Desorption from sorbent affected by the
temperature of condenser surface
Sorption in a highly contaminated environment
- Incorporate suitable PCM material to maintain constant
condenser temperature [131].
- Using porous sodium polyacrylate/graphene framework
(PGF) [140].
- Small prototype with a commercial PCM is used in the work
[131] to maintain constant condenser temperature.
- The sizing of the device is crucial, as small size devices can
lead to early melting of PCM and incomplete desorption.
- The PGF sorbent developed in the work [140] can work
under wide humidity range (RH 15% to 100%).
- Solar assisted desorption is possible with PGF sorbent and
developed prototype can yield water upto 25 L/kg PGF
sorbent per day.
- Scalability with proper optimization could be explored.

Table 6
Performance, Challenges, Perspectives and Advancements of various Atmospheric Water Generation Technologies.
Technology Characteristic features Challenges Capacity/Energy Research gaps/Future Advancements reported in the
consumption Perspectives literature

Vapour compression - Based on well-
refrigeration established working
principle.
- Commercially
available in various
capacities of water
generation.
- Less infrastructure
requirement.
- Mostly depending on
high-grade electrical
energy.
- Suitable for hot and
humid climate.
Thermoelectric - Compact and portable.
cooling - Easily powered by
solar photovoltaic
system.
- Less infrastructure
requirement.
- Minimum investment
and easy to fabricate.
Passive radiative - No external power
cooling source required.
- Require high ambient
RH and clear sky
conditions.
- Ease of installation and
deployment.
Fog harvesting - Appropriate only for
highly humid locations
with frequent fog
occurrence.
- Less space requirement
than the passive dew
collectors due to
vertical placement of
fog mesh.
- More infrastructure
requirements to install
the high capacity fog
mesh.
Sorption - Can work as passive
(solar assisted) as well
as active system.
- Can work even at low
ambient RH (15–20%).
- Potential to grow as a
scalable and
sustainable system.
- High specific energy - 1–4 L/kWh - Optimization and - Air preconditioning unit [36,49].
consumption. depending upon modified design of - Integrated HVAC systems applied to
- Increase in carbon ambient evaporator coils large buildings [41–43,47].
footprint with usage of conditions. - Studies on effect of
electrical energy - small capacity material thickness,
generated from thermal (1–20 L/day) to coating, and thermal
power plants. large capacity conductivity of
- Environmental issues (>1000 L/day) evaporator coils on
with refrigerants. water generation.
- Cannot work at sub- - New methods for water
zero dew point vapour selective
temperature. separation.
- System integration with
other techniques.
- Low COP less than 1 - Very low capacity - New configurations to - Hydrophobic coatings on the water
- Economic concern in - Handles minimum enhance water condensing surface [62,63].
scaling up. water load generation rate and - Recirculation of exit cold air for
- Thermal management thermal management. thermal management [63].
of the system.
- Requires large area of - Less than 0.8 L/ - Research and - Deep and daytime radiative cooling
collector for significant m2/day development in [85,86].
water generation. - Being completely nanophotonics and - Decoupling of dew collector and
- Water generation is passive, energy metamaterials. emitter [88].
inconsistent. consumption is a - Coupling with active
- Cost of selective minor concern. cooling systems.
emitters and - More bio-inspired
metamaterials are high. designs
- Carrying away of dew
by the wind, reducing
water yield.
- Water droplet re- - 1.5–12 L/m2/day - Improved fog mesh - Various geometric and surface
entrainment. designs to avoid water modifications [102–104,118–120].
- Clogging in fog mesh. droplet re-entrainment, - Electrostatic fog harvesting
- Requires highly clogging the void space [121,122].
sophisticated between mesh etc. - Fog harvesting from cooling tower
fabrication methods for - More bio-inspired plumes of power plants [161].
advanced fog mesh. designs.
- Slow sorption cycle. - 1–2.8 kg/day/m2 - Recovery and efficient - Concept of continuous sorption
- Multiple sorption (at low RH utilization of latent heat [129].
cycles in a day. conditions with from sorption beds. - High frequency sorption cycle [139].
- High cost of advanced solar assisted - Addressing the trapping - Interfacial solar heating with
sorbents. desorption) of airborne contaminants sorption [142,143].
- Contamination of the in the sorption beds. - Novel sorbents
sorbent bed by air- - Enhancement of sorption [137,138,140,141,144]
borne pollutants. kinetics of sorbent
materials.
- Nighttime sorption cycle
with thermal storage.
(continued on next page)

16
G. Raveesh et al. Energy Conversion and Management 239 (2021) 114226

Table 6 (continued )
Technology Characteristic features Challenges Capacity/Energy Research gaps/Future Advancements reported in the
consumption Perspectives literature

Atmospheric water - Water generation can
generation assisted be enhanced for the
with selective same power input.
separation of water - Can be coupled with
vapour active refrigeration
system to reduce
energy cost.
- Maintenance cost is
high due to additional
components like
membrane, vacuum
pump, desiccants etc.
Hybrid/Integrated - Enhanced water
System generation rate.
- More infrastructure
requirement.
- High capital cost and
maintenance cost.
- More components and
reliability issue.
- Inexpensive sorbents
made up of agro-waste.
- Occurrence of leakage - Electrical energy - Improvement in mass - Water vapour selective separation
flow. savings up to 65% transfer performance of with solid membrane system [147].
- Power demand of membranes. - Liquid membrane [148,149].
vacuum pump. - Lack of experimental - Polymer electrolyte membrane
- Requirement of studies and calculation [150].
maintaining optimum of levelized cost of water.
pressure gradients.
- Cost and service life of
membranes.
- Management of water- - Better performance - Precise economic - AWG systems integrated with solar
energy nexus. than the analysis and the stills [151–155]
standalone system. calculation of levelized - Feasibility study of large scale AWG
- Scalability of the cost of water. units powered with: biomass
system is possible. gasification [156], waste natural gas
from oil refineries [157], flared and
landfill gas [158,159].
- Solar chimney power plant [160].
- VCR based AWG integrated with
multiple desiccant wheels [162].
- Fuel cell-active AWG hybrid system
[164]

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