GE Research wins $14 million contract to 3D-print device that pulls water from air

Test samples of heat exchangers 3D-printed in the GE additive manufacturing lab.GE Research

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Atmospheric Water Extraction program awarded GE Research a $14.3 million contract to build the prototype of a device capable of providing 150 troops their daily ration of potable water while significantly reducing the cost and logistics of transporting water.

The GE team is calling the project AIR2WATER, or Additively Manufactured, Integrated Reservoir To Extract Water using Adsorbents and Thermally Enhanced Recovery. One design goal is that the device be compact and light enough for four soldiers to haul.

The key technologies are sorbent materials that absorb air and a 3D-enabled design of an additively manufactured heat exchanger that effectively draws heat over the sorbent materials to release the water.

The GE team will collaborate with scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, who will focus on sorbent materials; the University of South Alabama, who will model the mass transfer and measure the adsorption kinetics; and the University of Chicago, who will contribute their artificial intelligence expertise.

GE researchers will support the material, modeling, and AI efforts and lead the overall system integration, including the 3D design of and sorbent integration into the additively manufactured heat exchanger. GE engineers will draw from the company’s decades of experience developing heat exchangers for aerospace applications and power-generation turbines.

GE Research’s principal investigator and technology manager for material physics and chemistry, David Moore, says the development and deployment of such a device could transform military transport operations involving water. “Today, the logistics and costs involved with transporting water are staggering and, in dangerous war zone areas, result in casualties. By creating a highly portable, compact device that efficiently extracts water from the atmosphere, we can save lives and ease the logistical and financial burden for our armed forces.”

Besides its use on the battlefield, AIR2WATER could address the scarcity of water around the world, according to GE. The World Wildlife Fund reports that more than 1.1 billion people do not have access to water and approximately 2.7 billion experience instances of water scarcity.