Dew Water Harvesting

Prof. Kripa Varanasi of MIT has organized this seminar (below) and I think the topic is enormously interesting in the context of agriculture. The seminar is open and I encourage folks to attend.

My view is that water availability is a #1 issue going forward. Even in the US, a country with abundant water resources, there are areas where shortages exist. One of the basic themes of the MIT Field Intelligence Lab, a research unit within the Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity, is the unified study of water, energy, and agriculture. This is a unique research approach to problems that will affect the global economy within the next 20 years. From a broader perspective, MIT is establishing a Global Agricultural Initiative. More details to follow regarding this important development.

SPECIAL MECHANICAL ENGINEERING SEMINAR

Date: Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Time: 4-5PM, Room: 3-370

SPEAKER

Prof. Daniel Beysens,
CEA-Grenoble and ESPSI Paris Tech (France)
President, OPUR, International Organization for Dew Utilization

TITLE

From Breath Figures to Dew Water Harvesting

ABSTRACT

Breath figures are the characteristic pattern that water droplets form when condensing on a plane substrate. Its geometrical characteristics and dynamical properties are very uncommon because the growth is constraint on a space dimensionality lower than the droplet dimensionality. When the substrate is decorated (rough), a supplementary constraint is imposed that leads to unusual behaviour. The phenomenon of natural dew has many common characteristics with breath figures. It shows, however, a number of specificities, mainly related to the fact that it is an atmospheric phenomenon limited by radiative cooling. The possibilities of enhancing dew water yield for producing potable water will be addressed.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY

Daniel Beysens is Director of research at ESPCI - Paris Tech and at CEA -Grenoble (France), where he was head of department from 1995 to 1999. He holds a PhD in Physics (1973) and an Engineering diploma in Optics (1969). His area of expertise is phase transition: to obtain water from the air by passive radiative condensation (enhanced dew water) and in space conditions to improve the management of fluids with emphasis on near and supercritical conditions. The Physical Society (SFP) gave him the Ancel Prize of Condensed Matter Physics in 1985, he was decorated in 1995 as a knight of Palmes Académiques for outstanding data in education and research, he obtained in 2000 the Grand Prix of the French Academy of science for the discovery of a new thermalization process in space, received in 2007 the Prize of Innovative Technologies for the Environment, bestowed by ADEME and in 2008 he was given the Emergence award, bestowed by the Ministry of Research. He was between 2003 and 2007 President of the European Low Gravity Research Association www.elgra.org and is since 1999 the President - founder of the OPUR International Organization for Dew Utilization www.opur.fr.