Texas City to Test Waste Heat-to-Water Generation System

Hubbard, Texas will become the first U.S. city to install a system that creates water from waste heat. According to an article by Robyn Griggs Lawrence in Smart Cities Dive, the AirJoule Technologies system uses heat from a geothermal water well to generate distilled, potable water.

“AirJoule was developed as a dehumidification and cooling technology that uses a proprietary metal organic framework to capture and condense water vapor, harvesting thermal energy and water from air using less energy than conventional systems and without using refrigerants, it says.” The system will put heat back into the system and produce cool drinking water. Once it receives a purity certification, it can be used to supplement the city’s water supply.

According to the company, “While the pilot project will tap into Hubbard’s geothermal well, the system could work with any waste heat source, including heat from data centers, manufacturing plants or energy production.” The technology could help data centers make up for the massive amounts of water they require and even return water back to communities.