Ionic Wind Driven Fog Collection in Windless Environment

Abstract

Fog collection is a promising technique to harvest water from the atmosphere. However, the fog collection in the windless environment is still a challenge. An ionic wind-driven fog collector was numerically designed. Numerical results demonstrated that the discharge electrode location significantly influenced the ionic wind flow pattern and fog collection rate. The fog collection rate corresponding to a nearly unidirectional flow pattern was several times of that corresponding to the vortices dominant flow pattern. An enhancement of 6.7 times in the fog collection rate was realized by increasing the input power. The fog collection rate increased linearly with the liquid water content under a fixed power consumption. A fog collector prototype was fabricated. The measured ionic wind velocity and fog collection rate supported the numerical design. In a windless foggy environment with a liquid water content of 0.62 g m–3, a collection rate of 0.46 L h–1 was achieved.