Turbines convert wind energy into electricity; the blades are designed to actively keep moisture out
Can a wind turbine produce water out of thin air? Prime Minister Narendra Modi believed that it is possible and asked Henrik Andersen, CEO of Vesta Wind Systems, a Danish wind turbine manufacturer, if his organization could develop the technology.
Mr Modi’s reasoning was that the rotating turbine could “suck moisture” out of the air and condense it into water. In addition, he theorized that a turbine could “separate” oxygen from the air and therefore could produce oxygen, energy, and clean water.
Andersen said Modi’s ideas conveyed “passion” that would keep his engineers “very busy.”
The comment was picked up by former Congress Speaker Rahul Gandhi as an example of how none of the prime minister’s advisers were bold enough to point out how wrong he was.
Experts who The Hindu He came close to saying that the humidity in the turbines worked to the detriment of the blades and that there were simpler alternatives to extracting water than running a turbine.
A turbine converts wind energy into electricity and its blades are designed to actively hold moisture. There have been attempts to harness wind energy to produce drinking water, but this involves using electricity as an energy source to purify saline water.
“Condensation is the enemy of the turbine,” said Amit Rambhia, managing director of Panache DigiLife Limited, a firm that works on technology applications. “A wind turbine in a coastal town, for example, would benefit if there was a well to draw water from the ground and it had a turbine that would power a system to pump or distill the water into fresh water.”
In response to Gandhi’s comment, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal and Bharatiya Janata Party IT cell chief Amit Malviya tweeted articles to defend the prime minister’s conjecture and challenge Gandhi.
One pointed to a 2012 article on CNN that described a French company, Eole Water, which claimed to have modified a wind turbine to make drinking water from air. The company, according to the article, showed a working prototype of the modified 24-meter-high turbine in the desert near Abu Dhabi that has been able to produce 62 liters of water per hour. Company officials later said it would cost $ 600,000- $ 790,000 to install just one such turbine. A review on the company’s website revealed that the company exited the turbine business. It said: “Eole Water was a water technology company that pioneered the use of wind turbines to produce drinking water. The brand is no longer operational, but its legacy lives on thanks to improvements in water technology. “
An expert from a wind turbine manufacturing facility in Chennai said The Hindu on condition of anonymity that the prime minister’s suggestion is “implausible”. A turbine could be connected to a solar still, an ancient contraption used to distill water, to make it more efficient at distillation. The expert added: “Too much moisture would be corrosive, too little would make it ineffective at trapping condensate. However, much more energy would be spent extracting very little water. It’s a technology demonstrator, but not something that can realistically be implemented anywhere. “
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