Drink the Dew: Can Fog Be Harvested?

Overview

Objectives/Goals The objective was to determine whether a model of the Stenocara beetle, which harvests all of its water from desert fog, would collect more or less water vapor than models of a funnel collector and a net collector, which are being used in the world today. I predicted that the beetle model would harvest the most. Methods/Materials Three model vapor collectors were constructed. Each model was placed in a large pot, one at a time, with 625 milliliters of water in the bottom. The pot, with the collector and water in it, was placed on a burner and brought to a boil. The steam created was allowed to condense on each collector. When the set time was up, the collected water was measured and recorded. There were 3 trials. Results The results of my experiment followed more or less to my hypothesis. The Stenocara model collected approximately 4 times more than the two others, harvesting an average of 5 milliliters. The funnel model collected an average of 1.83 ml, and the net model took last with an average of 0.87 milliliters, and the control (no collector at all) harvested an average of 1.13 ml. Conclusions/Discussion The availability of clean drinking water is one of the world's largest problems. People already harvest fog, but my experiment showed that the model of the Stenocara beetle consistently collected more water than two other methods of fog collection. I think that if scientists were to study nature's methods, it would make the world a better place.

Competition history

• CSEF 2005 Environmental Engineering · Entry J0802

Resources

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