Hochdorf SME wants to extract drinking water from the air
Hochdorf LU - Alera Energies AG is working on a method for extracting drinking water from the air. Water is to be extracted from the air with a sorptive agent. This approach could be used in water-scarce countries. Lukas Gasser explains in an interview with Luzerner Zeitung that the impetus for the project came from a colleagues business trip
Hochdorf LU - Alera Energies AG is working on a method for extracting drinking water from the air. Water is to be extracted from the air with a sorptive agent. This approach could be used in water-scarce countries.
Lukas Gasser explains in an interview with Luzerner Zeitung that the impetus for the project came from a colleagues business trip to South Africa. The mechanical engineer is the founder, proprietor and managing director of Alera Energies, established in Horw LU in 2015. The company is now based in Hochdorf, Gassers birthplace.
Here Alera Energies wants to develop a solution for extracting drinking water from the moisture in the air. The Lucerne company is not pursuing the method of cooling the air below the dew point to collect the condensed water. You need large electric cables to do that, says Gasser. Stable line networks are mostly lacking in regions affected by water shortages. There is no point in providing a small power plant in addition to such a water extraction system.
Therefore, Alera Energies wants to combine the water in the air with a liquid sorptive agent. Gasser does not want to reveal how exactly this and the then required separation of the sorptive agent and water will work just yet because Alera Energies want to patent the idea. The concept does exist and has already convinced the Albert Koechlin Foundation. It has contributed 20,000 Swiss francs to support the project.
Gasser wants to have completed the theoretical feasibility study for the Air Water Generator by the end of the year. Then a prototype will be made and an industry partner acquired.
