#fog collection

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

Building a Better Fog Harp

On arid coastlines, fog rolling in can serve as an important water source. Today's fog collectors often use tight mesh nets. The narrow holes help catch tiny water particles, but they also clog easily. (Image credit: A. Parrish; research credit: J. Kaindu et al.; via Ars Technica) Read the full article

[mindblowingscience]

Bioinspired yarn can harvest water from fog

Scientists have developed a bioinspired yarn capable of harvesting water from fog, providing an innovative solution to water scarcity in ari

Scientists have developed a bioinspired yarn capable of harvesting water from fog, providing an innovative solution to water scarcity in arid regions. By imitating the alternating hydrophobic and hydrophilic patterns seen in desert beetles and the water-transporting abilities of micro/nanoscale one-dimensional spider silk, this double-strand yarn accelerates droplet formation, offering a promising approach to tackling the global water crisis.

Continue Reading.

[ediblegardenspointloma]

The Future of Fog in California and Strawberries

Intrigued? Listen to the report, The Future of Fog in California from KQED, public radio in the San Francisco Bay Area. The upside of living in a fog belt may be strawberries. The KQED report explains why foggy Watsonville grows the best strawberries.

You’ll also learn about research efforts in Monterey on fog and the importance of fog to the region. Think redwoods and your winter lettuce. Then nerd out on fog collection links at the end of this blog post.

I live in a fog belt, though not as intense as parts of the Bay Area. I have trouble growing tomatoes. Read Growing Tomatoes in Fog Belt and Rethinking Tomatoes in the Fog Belt and Dwarf Tomatoes: Rethinking Tomatoes in the Fog Belt (Again).

I collect a substantial amount of water on foggy days or when the dew is heavy. Water condenses on the metal roof of our garage and runs down to my rain collection trash cans adjacent to my vegetable beds. Lids turned upside down capture the water. I need to do some measurements on the next really foggy day.

If you really want to nerd out on fog collection, check these articles:

How scientists are harvesting fog to secure the world’s water supply (PBS NewsHour) The Fog Collectors: Harvesting Water from Thin Air (Columbia University) How to harvest water from clouds of fog (NPR) How to get fresh water out of thin air (MIT) The ethereal art of fog catching (BBC)

[notwiselybuttoowell]

Dealing with drought: how fog collectors are providing trees with water in Spain

Scientists in the Canary Islands and Portugal are collecting water from fog to enable reforestation of degraded landscapes

As summer fires continue to devastate huge areas of woodland in Spain, France and Portugal, and drought plagues Europe and the UK leaving tens of thousands of acres at risk of desertification, some scientists are busy collecting fog.

The EU-backed Life Nieblas project (niebla is Spanish for fog) is using fog collectors in Gran Canaria in Spain’s Canary Islands, and Portugal, to improve degraded landscape and fuel reforestation.

Fog collectors – sheets of plastic mesh erected in the path of the wind – already exist but have never been used efficiently, says Vicenç Carabassa, the project’s head scientist, who works for the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (Creaf), a public research institute at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. As wind blows fog through the mesh, water droplets collect and fall into the containers below.

Fog collection is particularly applicable in restoring the Canary Islands’ laurisilva [laurel forests], which themselves exist by collecting fog water,” says Carabassa. The water droplets from the fog condense on the trees’ shiny, waxy leaves. “The system allows saplings to flourish until they are mature enough to capture water themselves,” he adds. Laurisilva is sub-tropical rainforest populated by evergreen species, though not necessarily the familiar laurel trees found in parks and gardens.

To operate well, fog collectors need both fog and wind, conditions that exist in the Canaries and Portugal, but less so in the Mediterranean, where forest fires and desertification are a growing problem.

“We’re still trying to discover what are the optimal conditions for fog collectors to work,” says Carabassa, who adds that laurisilva restoration can help to replenish the aquifers that are under constant strain in the Canaries.

As well as the Canary Islands, where Creaf is working with the Gran Canaria local authority, the public company Gesplan, which manages the project, and several other research institutes and public organisations, the technique will be tested in maritime areas around Barcelona and the El Bruc municipality in northern Catalonia, which was ravaged by a huge fire in 2015.

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

In some parts of the world, fog is a major source of freshwater, but collecting it is a challenge. Most systems use a wire mesh to capture and collect droplets, but the process is highly inefficient, pulling only 1-3% of droplets from the fog. Researchers found that this is due largely to aerodynamic effects. The presence of the wire deflects droplets around it (bottom left). To solve this, engineers introduced an electric charge into the fog. The subsequent electric field actually pulls droplets to the wires (bottom right). When applied to a mesh (top), the efficiency of fog capture improves dramatically. 

The technique can also be used to capture water vapor that would otherwise escape from the cooling towers of power plants. The MIT researchers who developed the technique will conduct a full-scale test at the university’s power plant this fall. They hope the technique will recapture millions of gallons of water that would otherwise drift away from the plant. (Image credits: MIT News, source; image and research credits: M. Damak and K. Varanasi, source)

[dahartley11]

Air Wells, Fog Fences & Dew Ponds Methods for Recovery of Atmospheric Humidity

Air Wells, Fog Fences & Dew Ponds Methods for Recovery of Atmospheric Humidity By Robert A. Nelson Copyright 2003 Fog Fences (El Tofu Mountain)

Note from Friend Nature: Water is a world concern. I am building a small fog screen and locating it next to my vegetable garden. I am currently watering my garden with recycled water, but I am implementing this design for a time when we might not have any water in California to recycle.

By Robert A. Nelson    Copyright 2003

 Fog Fences (El Tofu Mountain) Chungongo, Chili

http://www.rexresearch.co…

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