13-year-old schoolboy built a device that extracts water from air for farms in arid regions
Roy Kim, a student at Whitford Middle School in Beaverton, Oregon, made it into the top ten finalists of the 3M Young Scientist Challenge with a device that pulls moisture from the air and turns it into drinking and irrigation water.
The invention targets farmers in dry regions where traditional water sources are running low.
The device relies on a Peltier module. When current passes through the junction of two different semiconductors, one side of the element cools down while the other heats up, and the cold surface drops below the dew point. Moisture from passing air condenses on it and drips into a storage container.
The appeal of this setup comes from having no moving parts and no compressor. The thermoelectric module runs on direct current, so it can draw power from a solar panel right out in the field. The downside is low efficiency – these kinds of setups usually produce less output per watt than classic refrigeration cycles.
Kim backs up the scale of the problem with data from the US Department of Agriculture. Between 2010 and 2020, agriculture remained one of the largest consumers of groundwater and surface water in the country, with irrigation accounting for 47 percent of all freshwater withdrawals. Around 212,714 farms depend on natural water sources for irrigation.
Kim says he entered the competition because he wanted to show his project to a wider audience. He believes that the more people learn about the problem and a possible solution, the better the chances it becomes less severe.
3M and the educational platform Discovery Education run the competition for students in fifth through eighth grade:
finalists between the ages of 11 and 14 get a personal mentor from among 3M scientists
each participant must identify an everyday problem and present a solution in a one- to two-minute video
the final takes place at the 3M Innovation Center in St. Paul, Minnesota
the grand prize is 25,000 dollars along with the title of America's top young scientist
Kim remains one of ten finalists for now, and only one of them will walk away with the title and the cash prize.
