What you are looking at is known as Fontus and has been designed by Kristof Retezar. Kristof is designer based in Vienna and he designed this gadget with the aim of providing clean drinking water to over one billion people that are living around the world in water-scarce areas. The applications and implications of this technology are amazingly huge in areas where poverty rules and people don’t have access to clean drinking water.
Fontus is basically a self-filling water bottle that is capable of turning air into potable water via condensation of humidity that is contained in the air. Once the humid air flows into the gadget it comes into contact with a number of hydrophobic ‘teeth’ that enable it to convert water vapor into water drops. It is entirely solar powered and has a component attached to it that keeps the dust and bugs out. However, it is still not able to filter out any potentially harmful contaminants.
Retezar said, “The water you get is clean, unless the air is really contaminated. We’re thinking about making a bottle that also has a carbon filter, and this one would be for cities or areas where you might think the air is contaminated. But originally, this water bottle was thought to be used in nature, and places where you wouldn’t have contaminated air.”
Fontus is able to provide with 500ml of water in just one hour once exposed to temperatures ranging between 86-104 degrees Fahrenheit along with 80-90% humidity. It also made its way to the finalists in the Dyson Award back in 2014. Retzer says, “You always have a certain percentage of humidity in the air, it doesn’t matter where you are – even in the desert. That means you would always potentially be able to extract that humidity from the air.”
