Machine turns sweat into drinking water for Unicef

[Hum]

A machine that takes sweat-laden clothes and turns the moisture into drinking water is in use in Sweden.

The device spins and heats the material to remove the sweat, and then passes the vapour through a special membrane designed to only let water molecules get through.

Since its Monday launch, its creators say more than 1,000 people have "drunk other's sweat" in Gothenburg.

They add the liquid is cleaner than local tap water.

The device was built for the United Nation's child-focused charity Unicef to promote a campaign highlighting the fact that 780 million people in the world lack access to clean water.

The machine was designed and built by engineer Andreas Hammar, known locally for his appearances on TV tech show Mekatronik.

He said the critical part of the sweat machine was a new water purification component developed by a company named HVR in collaboration with Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology.

"It uses a technique called membrane distillation," he told the BBC.

"We use a substance that's a bit like Goretex that only lets steam through but keeps bacteria, salts, clothing fibres and other substances out.

"They have something similar on the [international] Space Station to treat astronaut's urine - but our machine was cheaper to build.

"The amount of water it produces depends on how sweaty the person is - but one person's T-shirt typically produces 10ml [0.3oz], roughly a mouthful."

 

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[The Evil Overlord]

reverse osmosis?

Been around for a while now ;)

[DocM]

Miniaturize it and we have 1/3 of a still suit. Urine can already be done, so who wants to work on processing the feces?

[papercut2008uk]

is there any point to it when you could get more water out of the air through condensation? (with a dehumidifier or aircon unit)

[webeagle12]

thanks but no thanks

[DocM]

Not in the desert where humidity & ground moisture is nil, but if there's decent ground moisture a sheet of clear plastic, a cup, a deep hole and both larger rocks and a small rock will do.

Cover hole loosely with the plastic, place small rock in the center over the cup and the larger ones around the perimeter.. Sun evaporates soil water, which condenses on the plastic, which is formed into an inverted cone by the small rock. Water runs down the incline. Cup under the plastics low point gathers the water.

Compact, portable, cheap, and works in most temperate zones. Set up several to >collected volume.

[Hum]

Can't wait to bottle sweat lemonade drink. :p

[Growled Member]

Reminds me of the suits worn by the Fremen in the Dune series.

[IsItPluggedIn]

So they have tap water that isnt clean, so instead of filtering the tap water they will filter the sweat. 

 

This is not an infinite loop either. We user water in our body, some will evaporate. 

[Draconian Guppy]

Distillation with osmosis, expensive and if it came to that, a plastic (clear) bottle filled with ###### expose to sunlight for 24 hours and presto, heck it doesn't have to be ###### any dirty water,  the organoleptic properties do not affect it's quality. But then again, like said above, simple distillation would also work.

 

So they have tap water that isnt clean, so instead of filtering the tap water they will filter the sweat. 

 

This is not an infinite loop either. We user water in our body, some will evaporate. 

+1

[Shiranui]

Reminds me of the suits worn by the Fremen in the Dune series.

 

First thing I thought of.