A Simple Setup to Explore Fog Harvesting as a Clean and Sustainable Source of Water

A simple experiment was developed to introduce students to the sustainable procurement of water through fog harvesting that can be used for drinking or irrigation purposes. Access to clean water and sanitation is problematic particularly within dry regions such as in areas of Peru, although there is a significant amount of fog in the mountainous areas of the country. By taking a whole systems approach, fog can be considered as a renewable feedstock, captured through a fog harp, condensed, and collected as water. This experiment enables students to construct their own device for fog harvesting and measure how effective it is at collecting water in comparison to other peer groups that work to construct devices with varying number of threads that make up the fog harp. Students perform such a comparison by plotting a graph of water collected as a function of thread count. Students also establish connections to relevant United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and the 12 principles of green chemistry. Therefore, this simple experiment can serve as a basic introduction to sustainability, embracing a shift to a more circular economy, through utilizing fog as a renewable feedstock to collect water