Experimental investigation of atmospheric water harvesting by cooling
Aaya ALMARZOOQI, Sondus AL-QUDAH, Ibrahim I. EL-SHARKAWY, Ahmed A. ALHINDAWI, Abdul Ghani OLABI
Abstract. Water scarcity remains one of the most pressing challenges in arid and semi-arid regions worldwide, where conventional freshwater resources are limited and desalination infrastructure can be energy-intensive and economically restrictive. Atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) systems have emerged as a promising decentralized solution, utilizing the abundant moisture present in the atmosphere to generate potable water. This paper presents a comprehensive experimental investigation of a vapor compression-based AWH system, evaluated under both controlled laboratory conditions and dynamic real-world environments to assess its operational performance and identify optimization pathways. A series of structured experiments was conducted to investigate the impact of inlet air relative humidity on system performance. Experiments showed that the ambient relative humidity was identified as the dominant factor influencing system productivity, with water production increasing by 124.7% as RH rose from 60% to 92% at a constant air flow rate of 600 m3/hr, accompanied by a corresponding reduction in specific energy consumption (SEC) to 937 kJ/kg. Another set of experiments has been conducted in real-world, uncontrolled diurnal tests, results showed that the system produced between 0.28-0.95 kg of water per 30-minute interval, with yields increasing proportionally with relative humidity from 20% to nearly 80%, independent of temperature variation. These findings confirm RH as the dominant factor controlling atmospheric water harvesting performance. The outcomes of this research offer valuable insights for the development of energy-efficient, scalable, and economically viable AWH systems tailored for deployment in arid and coastal regions.
Keywords
Atmospheric Water Harvesting, Vapor Compression, Water Scarcity, Condensate Recovery
Published online 6/20/2026, 8 pages
Copyright © 2026 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Aaya ALMARZOOQI, Sondus AL-QUDAH, Ibrahim I. EL-SHARKAWY, Ahmed A. ALHINDAWI, Abdul Ghani OLABI, Experimental investigation of atmospheric water harvesting by cooling, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 67, pp 663-670, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644904176-90
The article was published as article 90 of the book Climate Action and Sustainability
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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