AUSA 2025 – US Army and AirJoule partnering in potable water systems
The US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) and AirJoule Technologies Corporation announced a three-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) on 7 October. The partnership aims to provide soldiers with leading-edge technology that transforms air into clean, potable drinking water from ambient air in deprived or challenged environments
Building on the Army’s existing hydrogen-powered nanogrid technology – the first of its kind fielded by the service – coupled with a waste heat recovery system and AirJoule’s moisture extraction system, the solution will transform captured water vapour into drinking water in areas where ground water is limited, contaminated or non-existent. The AirJoule technology derives from the dehumidification process and effects the transformation with significant energy efficiency. Given the nanogrid’s ability to operate silently and independently from grid power, the potential benefit to mobile forces and special operations teams is obvious – and eliminates a host of logistical hurdles. In Afghanistan, for example, millions of bottle of potable water had to be airlifted into theatre, adding to the colossal cost of the airbridge.
Ensuring adequate supplies of reliable, clean water supplies has been a challenge for deployed forces for at least two millennia. To date, water purification technologies have required complex and often expensive efforts to enable their effective use, frequently involving the addition of chemicals such as chlorine. By contrast, AirJoule’s solution – which relies only on the atmosphere – can effectively produce water, quite literally, ‘from thin air.’ The system’s metal organic framework can hold half its weight in water vapour and requires minimal energy to convert it to liquid.
Image courtesy Air Joule
