Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking at Ramlila Maidan, December 2019. Photo: PTI.
Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, is being ridiculed again for his statement on generating water with wind turbines. There are certain aspects of technology policy that a prime minister must be aware of, and the job of the science and technology advisor is to train politicians on such matters. Public comments on these topics should have more detailed exposition while highlighting core science and using credible sources of information.
The technology evolves in phases from conception to laboratory, followed by field testing and the development of a commercial prototype. The final stage is its implementation, which eventually leads to its use and adaptability in the market. In the context of emerging technologies that are in the laboratory or field stages of development, there are always many gray areas left, and with regard to the claims and counterclaims that are made, and many promising technologies are in the wrong long term. On the contrary, many technologies that were originally underestimated have come to the forefront. There is a story that Thomas Watson, the founder of IBM, once told that there is a worldwide market for perhaps five personal computers.
From the perspective of basic principles of science, it is possible to use wind turbines to extract water from the air in a limited way. However, the technology has not yet been proven suitable for large-scale field use, and its potential influence compared to other technologies has not yet been established. A company called Eole Water claimed to have made such a prototype, but did not publish any of its technical articles on the subject and, in fact, closed the store several years ago.
An article published by CNN in April 2012 touted Eole’s technology and has been circulating since Modi’s comments as proof that the technology works. However, the article does not have independent comments from other scientists on the subject and does not present independently verifiable information. But to date, there is no evidence from any published scientific paper on this topic, certainly none that can validate the technological potential of the Eole turbine.
An article published in the magazine Energy conversion and management in 2008 he describes a complex design: using a solar chimney to extract water from the atmosphere. But the description is mostly theoretical and a turbine itself does not have a direct role in removing water from the atmosphere.
All that said, in principle it should be possible to generate water from the air using wind turbines, with the help of additional technologies such as a means of absorbing or sucking water, condensation and a means of its collection, and all of which will need large amounts of energy. There are substances called hydrogels, which are cross-linked polymers that can absorb and retain large amounts of water and other aqueous solutions, and the blades of a wind turbine could be covered with these elements. There are also microfluidic devices that have thousands of microchannels, constructed of materials like polydimethylsiloxane, that can be used for such applications.
However, these are all ideas and are in the early stages of development in different contexts. Its large-scale testing and implementation within the limitations of current engineering and technology has not been validated on a significant scale. And even if the technologies could be realized, again in principle, Modi’s idea of generating oxygen using wind turbines would be even more cumbersome to implement, with little benefit of any kind.
Instead, the prime minister should focus on policy-making aspects while working to create an atmosphere conducive to technological development and refrain from commenting in areas where a deeper level of expertise is needed. In fact, it is best not to make frivolous comments without comments from experts in the field or based on a misinformed article. Statements on key scientific and technological issues should be left to experts with proven experience.
Dhiraj Sinha has a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Cambridge. He has published articles in the field of microsystems and microfluidics in leading journals.
