I know I’m not the target audience, but when I’m at home I rinse my stick
I know I’m not the target audience, but when I’m at home I rinse my stick
Its abundance of sunlight and heavy investment in solar cell technology has positioned Saudi Arabia well in its transition to becoming a leading exporter of renewable energy. Indeed, solar energy currently makes up more than 80% of the Kingdom’s green energy capacity. However, these cells bring a twisted irony, as their operation exposes them to overheating risks. Cooling systems are therefore necessary, but many depend on electricity.
An international research team led by KAUST Professor Qiaoqiang Gan has designed a potential solution. Their device needs no electricity, as it extracts water from the air using nothing more than gravity and relies on cheap, readily available materials.
Along with keeping the solar cells and other semiconductor technologies cool, the water can be repurposed for irrigation, washing, cooling buildings on which the solar cells are placed, and other applications.
Scientists estimate that the atmosphere contains six times more water than all the fresh water in the rivers combined. “This water can be collected by atmospheric water harvesting technologies,” says Gan.
While these technologies work reasonably well, in arid environments like that of Saudi Arabia they require electricity to harvest practical amounts of water. This demand risks deterring the adoption of solar cells in rural regions of the Kingdom, where electricity infrastructure is costly.
One reason for the low efficiency is that the water adheres to the surface of the harvesting device. Professor Dan Daniel and Shakeel Ahmad, a postdoc in Gan’s group, found that by adding a lubricant coating that is a mix of a commercial polymer and silicon oil, they could collect more water by relying on only gravity.
“A common challenge in atmospheric water harvesting systems is that water droplets tend to remain pinned to the surface [of the device], necessitating active condensate collection. Our coating effectively eliminated pinning, enabling true passive water collection driven by water,” says Ahmad. “Since this system operates entirely on passive radiative cooling, it doesn’t consume any electricity.”
The solution is based on previous technology made by Gan, which he describes as “vertical double-sided architecture.” That system was originally designed to reflect thermal heat back to the sky to keep the solar cells cool but not to capture the water produced.
The new device was tested six times over the span of a year in natural conditions in the town of Thuwal, about 100 km north of Jeddah, and could almost double the rate of water collection compared with alternative atmospheric water harvesting technologies.
Along with Gan and Daniel, KAUST Associate Professor Gyorgy Szekely contributed to the study, which was published in Advanced Materials.
Along with the efficiency of the water collection, Daniel is equally excited about the economic benefits of adoption.
“The system doesn’t consume any electricity, leading to energy savings. Moreover, it doesn’t rely on any mechanical parts like compressors or fans, reducing the maintenance over traditional systems, leading to further savings,” he said.
So my physical version must surely have gone up I’m value too then. What an investment
/s
Yeah I’ve seen this before. The well known one doesn’t hold a flag to what this man was really doing.
If you can get it into the log and then underground. It’s all pointless though unless we fix the problem at the source…
We need to blow up the sun
Yeah haha, and have been back since to get a degree and hated it just as much. Really affirmed the choices i made as a young man.
Never have i ever been between jobs since starting work after leaving school
We have this still where I live. Was just this weekend gone in my neighbourhood.
Last week it was the rich neighbourhood and the council was there stopping people from taking anything saying that it all belongs to the council.
Dann rich fuckers get extra protection for their rubbish mean while our houses get broken into and cars stolen constantly
That really is the power or civilisation.
Just one more turn then I’ll cook dinner. Two hours later haha
The NT government announced an enquiry into the fuel price a few years ago and almost over night our fuel price fell mostly in line with the rest of Australia.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-10/northern-territory-gouged-by-high-petrol-prices/101315636
Yeah fucking MSFS2020 was such a bust for me living in Australia. It took days to download then I finally got it working something went wrong with install files and had to dick around. In the end I played 3 hours of it but have hundreds in download time.
Fuck MSFS
I didn’t know about this, I’ll look in to it cheers
Australia shits me at the moment, say I get sick and need a few days off work due to the cold or whatever. I call the Dr they say we have an appointment next week. Come next week I’m healthy and over my illness because I just needed bed rest and time to recover.
I can’t get a Drs certificate or take an extra day off to go see the Dr and say I was sick can I have a cert for Wednesday Thursday last week please.
The first fear game really scared me when I was younger. I was 16 maybe and that’s how I found out I don’t like ghosts haha.
Playing in ym room at night alone in the dark. Ghosts coming out that I can’t hurt haha
Fuck that was bad
Naked gun and airplane are GOATS
When I was learning to ride, my dad bent mt training wheels up so the bike would still turn and the wheels would only touch if you started to fall over a fair way.
Yeah I play civ 6 a lot, my wife and I have thousands of hours combined. People have bosrd game nights we have civ nights.
I can’t see us upgrading any time soon unless there’s something spectacular but even then going from 5 to 6 was hard work
Now just edit your post to “Sorry this post has been removed by the creator”
Darth Tenebrous