Photo: Kelly
A Nobel Prize-winning chemist has revealed a machine that can extract liters of clean drinking water per day from desert air, even in humidity as low as 20%.
Professor Omar Yaghi, who won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on metal-organic frameworks is behind the new invention. The new system uses advanced materials to capture moisture from the air and runs on solar energy.
As first reported The Guardian, the device is roughly the size of a shipping container and is designed to operate on solar energy. This makes it perfect for areas with limited energy resources and communities living within arid conditions.
This device can create water from desert air
The device uses sponge-like, ultra-porous materials that trap water molecules from the air, even in very low humidity. When exposed to gentle solar heat, the captured moisture is released, condensed, and collected as clean drinking water.
According to reports, the system can generate up to 1,000 liters per day under harsh desert conditions, which makes it a potential solution for drought-hit areas and disaster zones where access to clean water is limited.
Reflecting on what drove his work, Yaghi recalled his youth and how hard it was to get clean water: “My job as a child was to wait for the water to come from the city because it came once a week or once every two weeks, and it came only for a few hours,” he said.
“So, as soon as word was around the neighborhood that water was coming, well, I went to the faucet to open it and fill as many containers as I could put my hands on within that specific period of time…And that’s the water that we had for that week.”
Yaghi is hopeful that future generations will continue to make even more discoveries and create new technology that will help improve the lives of everyone around the world.
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“Anyone, anywhere, of any background can go into a lab and, with the right preparation of mind, could make a discovery that can lead to solving a big problem in society. I’m not saying it’s easy. It requires dedication. It requires thoughtfulness. But anyone can do it,” he said.
“That’s the power of science. Science transforms us and transforms society in ways that we do not anticipate… Try something new, and do it, and after you do it, you have a chance to discover something, and that discovery may change the world.”
