From the headquarters of the University Center for Energy Efficient Buildings of CTU in Buštěhrad, the SAWER system was sent on its way to the United Arab Emirates, where it should start trial production for extracting water from the air using solar energy in real desert conditions.
Scientists from the University Center for Energy Efficient Buildings (UCEEB) of CTU first tested the device in a special chamber simulating the atmospheric conditions of the United Arab Emirates. After the successful completion of the test operation in the laboratory environment, the SAWER system was also built with all accessories into transport containers.
"We were a little surprised that the reality works a little better than the theory. For operation, a slightly lower cooling power is needed in order to get the same amount of water," Docent Tomáš Matuška from the Czech Technical University UCEEB evaluates the testing so far. At the same time, he adds that the tests are far from over, as the device needs to be tested in real desert conditions.
After the installation and final preparations are completed, the containers will be transported to the Sweihan desert area in the United Arab Emirates within a month, where the equipment will be put into trial operation. Data about the system and its performance will be collected remotely. The obtained data should serve the scientists from the Czech Technical University UCEEB for possible modifications and improvements of the SAWER system, which will become the core of the Czech national exposition at the world exhibition Expo 2020 in Dubai.
"SAWER in the desert will answer two fundamental questions for us: how does it cope with, for example, fine sand and other natural conditions in addition to high temperatures, and whether and how quickly we can really create an oasis around the mobile version of the system?" We would like to show this in the form of a time-lapse documentary to the visitors of the national pavilion at Expo 2020. In it, the next SAWER is supposed to receive even over five hundred liters of water per day, but it will work in a friendlier environment than the remote desert," says Jiří F. Potužník, general commissioner of the Czech participation in the World Expo 2020.
