Update on water harvesting question about Taiwan

A quick post to mention that I received a reply from the Water Resources Agency, Ministry of Economic Affairs, that indicated that they have been doing cloud seeding for the past 10 years. They referred me to this explanation of cloud seeding. They didn't say much about atmospheric water harvesting, which suggests that they are not doing anything presently in that direction.

I also came across a recent article in Nano Energy on "Solar-powered nanostructured biopolymer hygroscopic aerogels for atmospheric water harvesting." One of the authors is a professor at National Tsinghua University in Taiwan, so I wrote to him to ask if he knew of anyone in Taiwan working on practical applications of atmospheric water harvesting. I'll update when I hear back.

Considering the recent reports of heavy fog in western Taiwan, atmospheric water harvesting sounds like an ideal approach to Taiwan's drought conditions.

Another source on atmospheric water harvesting:

• "Fog‐to‐Water for Water Scarcity in Climate‐Change Hazards Hotspots: Pilot Study in Southeast Asia" by Zaitizila Ismail and Yun Ii Go, Global Challenges (2021). 
  Abstract: "Water is indispensable for human survival. Freshwater scarcity and unsustainable water are the main growing concerns in the world. It is estimated that about 800 million people worldwide do not have basic access to drinking water and about 2.2 billion people do not have access to safe water supply. Southeast Asia is most likely to experience water scarcity and water demand as a result of climate change. Climate change and the increasing water demand that eventually contribute to water scarcity are focused upon here. For Southeast Asia to adapt to the adverse consequences of global climate change and the growing concern of environmental water demand, fog water harvesting is considered as the most promising method to overcome water scarcity or drought. Fog water collection technique is a passive, low maintenance, and sustainable option that can supply fresh drinking water to communities where fog is a common phenomenon. Fog water harvesting system involves the use of mesh nets to collect water as fog passes through them. Only minimal cost is required for the operation and maintenance. In conclusion, fog water harvesting seems to be a promising method that can be implemented to overcome water scarcity and water demand in Southeast Asia."

Is anyone in Taiwan doing work on atmospheric water harvesting?

OK, I'm going way out of my own comfort zone when it comes to this topic, but I'm going to toss out an idea anyway. I heard about this idea of harvesting water from the atmosphere on NPR a long time ago (was it this many years ago?). Lately, the news from Taiwan has been about the lack of rainfall (fewer typhoons, which is resulting in less water for industrial, agricultural, and residential purposes). It has come up most recently in worries about how Taiwan's production of semiconductors will be affected by the drought.

What I haven't seen yet is any reporting on the possibility of using the idea of atmospheric water harvesting to provide more water to Taiwan. I wrote a couple of friends about it--one a Taiwanese industrial engineer at my school, and the other, a faculty member in a university in Taiwan that has a sustainability science program. Neither of them knew much about what might be going on in Taiwan in relation to this idea. 

I also wrote an email to President Tsai's office (through their website--I don't have her personal email or anything). I mentioned a couple of articles about this idea (they don't let you forward links, unfortunately): this more general-audience article on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for water harvesting, and this academic article on "autonomous atmospheric water seeping MOF matrix." 

I don't know if anyone in Taiwan is working on this already. I don't know if it would even work--maybe it's too humid in Taiwan (a lot of the places where they use these things seem to be pretty arid). But it might be worth a try. 

[See update here.]