AWG for the home
US start-up, Kara Water, made a splash at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023 in Las Vegas with its atmospheric water generator (AWG) for homes.
Up to 10 litres per day can be produced per day through the system, depending on the humidity.
Moisture is extracted from the air through a desiccant, a substance with a high affinity for water. Although air is a relatively cleaner harvesting platform compared to soil, water obtained from it still requires purification and sterilisation.
Our groundwater is contaminated or depleted, and we need to find a new way to provide drinking water to the people around the world.
Awarded as the CES 2023 Honoree, the solution features a multi-stage filtration process involving heating, carbon filtering, and periodic UV-C sterilization to remove harmful airborne impurities.
The company believes that up to 300 litres of clean water per month can be produced, reducing a reliance on groundwater sources and also potentially removing plastic waste from bottled water.
The Kara Pure is not what you might call cheap, however, retailing for £3,173.00.
Cory Soodeen, CEO and co-founder of Kara Water, said: "Our groundwater is contaminated or depleted, and we need to find a new way to provide drinking water to the people around the world."
Groundwater contamination is a growing concern
A recent report entitled: Assessing Groundwater Quality: A Global Perspective, looked at threats to groundwater from agricultural intensification, urbanisation and population growth.
Current groundwater abstraction represents 26 per cent of total freshwater withdrawal globally, supplying almost half of all drinking water and 43 per cent of the consumptive use in irrigation.
"Groundwater is an essential global resource and provides the largest store of freshwater, apart from the ice caps," stated the paper in its executive summary.
More recently, the US government space agency, NASA, developed a new method for monitoring underground water loss following tests at California’s Tulare Basin.
Smart home water tech on the rise
In recent years, CES has been a showcase for how smart water technologies are starting to enter homes.
Last year, Moen launched a smart tap where users could pre-set temperatures and further control them with gestures. Also on display was an auto-filling bath from Kohler, said to run the perfect bath every single time, and also a water security system from Arlo. The multi-sensor that can recognise motion, door and window openings and even water leaks as well as light/temperature changes.
Tower designs like the Kara Pure are not new. In 2021, Dutch start-up Hydraloop unveiled its tower-shaped decentralised water recycling products.
