The company Watergen has created a system that creates drinking water from air. The technology extracts humidity from air in a machine resembling an air conditioner. The machine works by drawing in air, filtering it, going through a heat exchanger which extracts the water from air, and finally filtering the water to remove impurities and adding minerals for taste. The process is a fairly simple one, but one which thrives due to its patented heat exchanger technology. The technology can also be used with solar panels to make the system completely separate from the grid.
The machine comes at different scales from residential to commercial use. It can be used for help during a crisis, or to provide clean water for small towns or villages lacking water infrastructure. Atmospheric water generation could be one solution to the global water crisis. Currently, over 2 billion people live in countries experiencing high water stress. 700 million people could also be displaced worldwide from water scarcity by 2030.