With all the data collected, we found out that, from 3 am, the values of air pressure and humidity are higher during the day, and they will remain almost constant until 9 am. So, the most efficient lapse of time for harvesting was between 3 and 5 am, period in which the psychrometric constant will be at it is lowest. In fact, the days that we have registered a lower value of psychrometric constant, we listed a record in harvested water, given that, when energy is removed from the air, this gets colder, generating a thermal gradient which will benefit the dew point, so the state of water will go above the curve of saturation as an advantage, condensing most of the water steam in the air.
It is important also take in consideration to control the volume of water collected, before 6 am, for the reason that after this hour, with the temperature increasing, the natural humidity will decrease and the psychrometric constant will increase, whereas, there could result in a loss of 10 percent of the harvested water. Another key parameter is the wind velocity, being the wind, the main agent of water steam carriage through the tower’s mesh, that is why, before the towers were built, it is necessary to perform tests of wind direction.
The quantity of water collected relies on the rectangular geometry of the fog collectors, given that in this rectangular collectors, the drained water wont accumulates and drop out of the recollection system and generate losses [23]. That is why, we have built a rectangular model (tower Alfa) and a square one (tower Beta). We have determined the rate of water collected in terms of milliliters/day/m2. During the 21 days of experimentation, in the Alfa tower, we have collected 3 liters and 265 mililiters in average 32 milliliters/day/m2, with a rain rate of 0,48 mm, average psychrometric constant 79 (hPa/c°) and an average wind velocity of 0,85 (m/s). On the other hand, for Beta tower, we have collected in total 1 liter and 188 mililiters, in average 56,67 milliliters/day/m2, with a rain rate of 0,66 mm, average psychrometric constant 83 (hPa/c°) and an average wind velocity of 1,19 (m/s).
In contrast with bigger projects such as Atiquipa in Peru (Cereceda 2014), where the quantity of water harvested was between 3 and 15 liters/day/m2, but, there were built towers of 48 square meters, or the case of the community Majada Blanca in Coquimbo Chile (Hernandez 2014), with 2,5 liters/day/m2, with collectors of 153 square meters, we can consider that both towers Alfa and Beta have worked properly, given that the atmospheric and environmental conditions were not most appropriate, and the density of the fog was not very heavy.
Whereas some might believe that a rectangular model works better, I personally think that a square model can perform as good as the others. It is necessary to control the integrity of the structure of the towers, given that the wind may damage the mesh or the poles. In the 21 days of experimentation, we could identify an interesting behavior regarding the water harvesting cycle, for the reason that there was trend in the days of null water recollection, that would be between two or three days, so the next day we would harvest water in both towers. This also happened in various previous projects, such as in Coquimbo Chile (Leiva-Rivera 2014) were the null days of collection were between 1 to 15, reaching a maximum value of recollection of 14 liters/day/m2
Regarding tower Beta, despite being the smaller one, it could harvest and important average rate of water collected, so we can say that it is really important to have advantageous climate and atmospheric values, such as, high wind velocity, high and dense fog, low psychrometric constan, high relative humidity.
Subsequently, about water quality, we have tested 3 samples of each tower (one of every week) obtaining the following results, presented in Tables 3 and 4.
Table 3
Summary of quality parameters Alfa Tower 2022
Date
|
Sample
|
pH
|
Iron (mg/L)
|
Hardness CaCO3 (mg/L)
|
Chloride (mg/L)
|
21/04/2022
|
1
|
5,97
|
0,02
|
0
|
20
|
21/04/2022
|
2
|
6,15
|
0,17
|
0
|
20
|
21/04/2022
|
3
|
6,95
|
0,09
|
0
|
20
|
The water color is developed from organic matter, or by the presences of some metals such as iron, that it is dissolved or in suspension. With all the results, we can assure that, if we want to use the harvested water for human consumption, given the acid pH, we have to perform first a neutralization. In all the samples, we have a low iron and chloride content, values that are accepted by the Bolivian standard law for drinking water. Also to eliminate the color or turbidity, it will be necessary to perform a water spin process. The harvested water is completely useful for irrigation; we just have to be careful with the susceptible soils to water acidity.
For human consumption, according to the analysis performed in “El Tofo” Chile (Cereceda-Schemenauer 1992), it has been determined that the parameters were acceptable regarding the water quality law (NCH 409), except for the pH, which values were far too acid. It also happened with the measurements (Amaro 2008), resulting in values of 3,3 of pH, in contrast of what the World Health Organization (WHO) demands, values of pH between 6,5 and 8,5. Finally regarding the value for hardness in all the samples were null, therefore the quality of the water harvested from the fog it is acceptable. In urban areas, smog (a mixture of smoke and fog in the air) is emerging as a significant air quality challenge, impacting respiratory systems and overall human and animal health, and threatening human lives by increasing the chance of vehicle accidents due to low visibility (Zhou 2017).