David Hertz and Laura Doss-Hertz of the Skywater/Skysource Alliance won the Water Abundance Xprize worth $1.5 million for making water out of thin air that costs less than Rs 2/litre. The couple started out by cranking out free bottles of water for anyone who wanted one by putting a little contraption on the roof of their office.
They developed a system that uses shipping containers, wood chips and other detritus to produce as much as 528 gallons (2,000 litres) of water a day. They created little rainstorms inside shipping containers by heating up wood chips to produce the temperature and humidity needed to draw water from the air and the wood itself. And if you don’t have wood chips to heat them with, coconut husks, rice, walnut shells, grass clippings or just about any other such waste product will do just fine.
Created by a group of philanthropists and entrepreneurs, the XPrize competition has awarded more than $140 million over the years for what it calls audacious futuristic ideas aimed at protecting and improving the planet.