A wind turbine that pumps out drinkable water?

French startup Aeolus Water has plans to take fresh water generation to new capabilities, as the company recently patented a wind turbine it says produces water, according to GreenUnivers today.

After more than a decade of research, the company, located in Sainte-Tulle, in the Alpes-of-Haute-Provence of southeastern France, developed a wind turbine it says produces fresh water from moisture in the air, without releasing carbon dioxide emissions or consuming external energy.

Because air already contains water in its gaseous state, fresh water in the form of water vapor in the air is viewed a promising future renewable resource.

Aeolus Water, formerly known as Aeolus Tech, has a 14-meter high prototype, with an 8.5-meter turbine it says can produce more than 500 gallons of water in 24 hours under normal conditions. The company is seeking financial partners to commercialize the technology.

The concept is not totally unheard of, GreenUnivers reports. Australia’s Maxwell Edmund Whisson invented a similar prototype in 2007, although it was not commercialized.

And Holland-based Dutch Rainmaker developed a prototype capable of producing as much as 500 liters (132 gallons) of water per day from the air, with a pilot installed in Germany.

Dutch Rainmaker's turbine forces air through a heat exchanger, where the air is cooled and condensation occurs. The company said when the temperature falls below its dew point water droplets form and collect in a water storage compartment.

However, its wind turbine doesn’t produce electricity like most turbines or even newer gearless models (see Wind market could hit record high in U.S. and EarthTronics snags Honeywell name on its new gearless wind turbine). Instead, it drives a heat pump powered by the wind turbine’s blades. With the heat pump, water vapor in the air can be condensed and collected for domestic or irrigation purposes, Dutch Rainmaker said.

Read the article (in French) »