Automakers are hungry to preserve or reuse any kind of energy or by-product in a vehicle in the name of progress, efficiency, and inventiveness. Energy recovery systems, solar panel integration, exhaust gas repurposed to spin turbochargers, etc.
Now, though, Ford has devised a way for your car to provide its passengers with a consistent supply of clean drinking water merely from the act of driving the car as they normally would.
Just push a tap and water streams out of a special faucet built into the centre stack, ready to drink. The fact is, every car fitted with an air conditioning system creates water as a by product of compressor condensation. Somewhat wastefully, these droplets drip onto the ground.
Doug Martin, the man responsible for this refreshing feature addition to a Ford’s cabin (referred to as On-the-go H20), who works as an engineer in the automaker’s powertrain division, first got the idea to make use of the compressor condensation moisture from a method used in the Peruvian capital of Lima.
There, the notoriously humid air is condensed by a special billboard that then turns it into clean drinkable water for the population to enjoy. When applied to vehicles, Martin says that the average car was able to produce more than 1.9-litres of water during each hour of driving, the equivalent of nearly 4 bottle’s worth. That’s 1900cc of water wasted.
“All that water going to waste should be recovered to serve a purpose,” said Martin. “The real vision is that this idea could eventually help people who don’t have easy access to water, in remote locations such as the Australian Outback, for example. I’m trying to make my twin daughters proud, and make the world a better place for them.”
Mr Martin has worked for Ford for a combined 22 years now, and the science of invention has come relatively easy for him, with roughly 70 auto-related patents to his name.
This newest may have the most potential to improve lives as curbing the global water crisis affects 1 in 10 people according to the World Health Organisation and leaves hundreds of millions of people without reliable access to clean drinking water.
Ford hasn’t really said anything about putting this system into its vehicles in particularly drought-prone areas, for example, but don’t be surprised if your next Ford Focus has a retractable faucet minus the annoying water bill.
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