A pioneering water harvesting system inspired by the Namib Desert Beetle ( Stenocara gracilipes) is one the biomimicry innovations that will feature in the first annual edition of Nature's 100 Best© book. The book is an initiative of ZERI, Biomimicry Guild and the Biomimicry Institute, in cooperation with IUCN, and UNEP.

The Namib Desert Beetle lives in a location that receives a mere 40 mm of rain a year yet it can harvest drinking water from early morning fogs. Researchers from the University of Oxford and the UK defense research firm QinetiQ, designed a surface that mimics the water-attracting (hydrophilic) bumps and water-shedding (hydrophobic) valleys on the beetle's wing scales that allows the insect to collect and funnel droplets thinner than a human hair.

Material engineers have created synthetic versions of the Namib beetle’s fog-catching technology for numerous applications. Synthetic films can be “printed” on to polymer sheets and attached to buildings and tents to harvest water vapour, to serve for instance refugee camps. Another application involves capturing and recycling up to 10 per cent of water vapour from cooling towers, which lead to cuts in energy bills.

Related articles:

• Parker, A.R. and Lawrence, C.R. (2001). Water capture by a desert beetle. Nature ; no. 414 ; p. 33-34. doi:10.1038/35102108
• Its a bugs life. Building services journal. 06 Jan 2005
• Anne Trafton, Beetle spawns new material, MIT News, 14 Jun 2006

Related web site: FogQuest

Contact: Prof. Robert E. Cohen, Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

Source: UNEP, 28 May 2008

Tags: africa, water collection