Fog water harvesting with cylindrical brush

Sci Rep. 2024 Aug 24;14(1):19679. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-70637-7.

Abstract

In this study, an efficient fog collector-type 1 and 2 cylindrical brush-has been introduced and its harvesting performance compared to other conventional collectors under field and laboratory conditions. Under field conditions, type 1 cylindrical brush with Raschel and aluminum mesh was installed in the inlet of the humidity front of the Caspian Sea to Ardabil plain in Abi-beyglu in the northwest of Iran. The results of the analysis of the collected water revealed that type 1 cylindrical brush collected 9.3% and aluminum mesh collected 4.3% more water than Raschel mesh. Under laboratory conditions, by applying different fog speeds, the performance of three conventional collectors and two proposed cylindrical brush were determined. The results indicated that type 2 cylindrical brush had the highest efficiency compared to others, and due to the lack of clogging, its efficiency did not diminish over time. Upon increasing the speed of the output fog, the amount of collected water and accordingly the efficiency of the collectors increased. Type 2 cylindrical brush showed the highest increase in efficiency at high fog speeds. Its maximum value reached about 50%, while the maximum efficiency of Raschel collector was equal to 28%. In general, it can be stated that cylindrical brush introduced in this study, in addition to the high performance of fog harvesting and the high efficiency of water collection, has a high resistance against strong winds. Therefore, it can be a suitable collector for water harvesting in foggy areas without any implementation problems.

Keywords: Conventional collectors; Cylindrical brush; Efficiency; Fog collector.