Design considerations for next-generation sorbent-based atmospheric water-harvesting devices

To meet the increasing global demand for clean water, sorbent-based atmospheric water harvesting (SAWH) is a promising solution. Improving sorbent and device design is essential to enable substantial enhancement of the system’s performance, but challenges remain, owing to the complexity of system integration. Prior work has largely focused on development of sorbent materials deployed in laboratory-scale systems to produce small amounts of water. However, the challenge of large-scale water production remains, falling largely on device-level design and optimization to efficiently utilize sorbent materials in a variety of environments. Here, we present comprehensive design considerations for next-generation SAWH devices, focusing on key components influencing system performance metrics. Various aspects of device design are considered, including sorbent selection and integration, airflow, heating sources, and condensation stages. In addition, we propose several figures of merit to unify sorbent and device development and provide a framework for objectively evaluating the performance of next-generation SAWH devices.