A 22-year old Indian engineering student has developed an invention that efficiently pulls moisture from the air and converts it into drinking water. Jawwad Patel set his intention to ease the hardships that accompany water scarcity in arid and remote areas. His device, known as the “Dewdrop”, sucks in air using a fan, filters out dust, and then condenses the moisture to produce mineralized water. The water is then stored for drinking and when the container is emptied, the process begins again. This is not the first invention to pull and store water from the air, but it is the first that is easy and inexpensive to manufacture using 3-D printing technology.

Weighing less than one kg, the Dewdrop is easy to carry anywhere, and it can produce over a litre of drinking water per hour. Jawwad sees the device being of great use to people in impoverished areas, and also for mountaineers, explorers and campers in the deserts and remote forests. He is currently working on his next version of the product which will incorporate a solar cell to provide the choice of hot or cold water.