In recent years, Chile has witnessed how climatic changes have impacted its ecosystems and water conditions from the extreme north to Antarctica. With a water deficit of over 60%, Chile is experiencing the deepest and most extensive drought in its history, with the area between the regions of Atacama and La Araucanía being the most affected. But in the face of the problem, innovations emerge side by side with the talent, creativity and resilience of Chileans who seek solutions to create a better future. These are some of those who intend to combat the water crisis from the distribution of the resource, its management and even its creation.
Atrapanieblas: from Chile to the world
Mist water collectors are ingenious constructions made up of two six-meter high eucalyptus trees at their extremities and a polyethylene fabric in the center, which can be found on the coastline of northern Chile and are solving the most serious problem of the desert: water scarcity, through the capture of desert snow. The late Chilean physicist Carlos Espinosa invented what is recognized as the world's first model of a fog water collector, earning the title of "the professor who glued the clouds". Chile is considered the pioneer country both in the invention and implementation of this technology. Since its creation in the 1960s, it has been developed and perfected based on the patent obtained by Espinosa, which he himself promoted for free dissemination through UNESCO. Today this technology has already been imitated in many other Latin American countries and has also moved to several countries such as Spain, Croatia, South Africa, Namibia, Oman and Yemen.
In Chile, today we highlight the first network of water collectors and recyclers in Chile, "Uma parada no deserto" (A stop in the desert).A stop in the desert"located in Ovalle, Coquimbo region, which through 28 fog water collectors located in the Cerro Grande Ecological Reserve, manages to collect an average of 1,537 liters of water per day, equivalent to almost 600,000 liters per year, representing one of the best results of fog water collection in the Southern Cone.
https://www.unaltoeneldesierto.cl/
FreshWater Solutions: transforming air into purified water
This project transforms the air into potable water to contain the dry water and reach remote communities that do not have this supply, generating 28 liters of purified water per day. The FreshWater system, created by Héctor Pino, accelerates the natural water cycle by capturing water microparticles that are suspended in relative humidity, to then form a cloud and make it collide, obtaining pure water that then goes through a process of filtration, purification and sterilization, obtaining purified water of excellent quality, unlimited and without time expiration. The good thing is that it is also water without chemicals, preservatives, fluoride and chlorine.
https://freshwatersolutions.org/
Kilimo: against water scarcity in agriculture
When and how much to irrigate? This is the question answered by Jairo Trad, Tatiana Malvasio, Rodrigo Tissera and Toni Abdala, when they founded this technological platform that uses climate and satellite data to provide recommendations to each farmer to improve irrigation performance by up to 30%. The climatic information is obtained from satellites and its software is integrated to the tools that the producers have in their fields. The farmer accesses the platform through a mobile application and the web and receives weekly recommendations based on the real demand of each field, which is updated daily. In addition, throughout the season they are accompanied by an agronomist. This year's goal is to reach 400 clients in Chile, Peru, Mexico and Argentina, countries where they are present.
Capta Hydro: monitoring and automation in water distribution
Surface water, which currently irrigates more than 160 million hectares worldwide, is distributed mainly by irrigation canals. However, water losses are between 25-50%, due to leakage in irrigation canals, theft, operational errors and inefficiencies caused by delivery according to availability and not according to need. For this reason, the Chileans Benjamín Lagos, Gastón Dussaillant and Emilio de La Jara detected that there was a great need to improve the distribution of these waters and concluded that one of the best ways to do it is through the implementation of software and hardware for the telemetry of flow and automation of behaviors in rivers, reservoirs and networks of canals. This is how Capta Hydro was born: a technology that allows the management and distribution of surface and subway water resources that improves the efficiency, accuracy, transparency and regulatory compliance of distribution.
Inti-Tech: waterless cleaning of solar panels
Water storms compromise the efficiency of solar panels and cleaning them can take up to three months, in addition to wasting more than 22 billion liters of water globally. That is why Inti-Tech, a Chilean startup, developed by engineers from the Catholic University and led by Nicolás Correa, created robots that clean solar panels of an entire plant in just five minutes and without using a drop of water. The initiative seeks to solve the problems resulting from the large amount of particulate matter in northern Chile that leads solar photovoltaic plants to reduce their efficiency by up to 40% due to this problem.
Khreo: Artificial intelligence to save water in mining
Mining is an industry that still consumes a large amount of water in its processes, for its extraction and recovery from various minerals. A pending challenge for a mining country like Chile is to rationalize its use in this industry. That is why the startup Konatec, with Leopoldo Gutiérrez at the head of a group of researchers from the University of Concepción, created Khreo, a technology based on artificial intelligence that allows measuring in real time the flow and deformation of mining mines so that they consume only the water needed in their processes. Thus, it provides the necessary tools to deliver recommendations to the mining companies in order to optimize copper recovery and save water, including energy.
Justwe! Water and energy: optimizing water consumption in companies and residences
The couple Pedro Bravo, civil engineer, and Marcela Gaete, communicator specialized in digital marketing, developed an automatic control platform for water management in companies and residences, managed from an application that is downloaded to the cell phone and that allows saving between 15% and 60% of water and energy. All this, thanks to a robotic device that intervenes in the water and energy connections, controlling the flow, pressure and consumption, in order to monitor, establish controls, act and report anomalies. Monitoring consumption in one or more agencies; controlling bathing times and network input pressure; managing water flows and checking energy to avoid fines for excessive electricity consumption are some of the things he allows you to do. All of this can be very useful for large institutions and for the long term it offers the same applications adapted for families, seeking to reduce both electricity and water bills and, in addition, to avoid wasting this increasingly scarce resource.
Remote Waters: Potential water in all the corners of the world
Pablo Cassorla developed a water purification system with low operational cost and quick installation for communities with limited access to potable water. The system consists of a machine that extracts contaminated water from sources such as the sea, wells, lakes or rivers, and filters it through a membrane. The machines are based on reverse osmosis desalination, a technology that can be used to filter other contaminants, besides salt, such as boron, arsenic or heavy metals, such as prickly pear, leaving the water ready for human consumption. So far, it has seven projects in the regions of Coquimbo, Valparaíso, Metropolitan and Maule and seeks to expand its activities to other countries.
https://www.remote-waters.com/
Projeto Nilus Ice Stupa: artificial geleiras to increase water resource efficiency
This Chilean pilot project developed in Cajón del Maipo and led by Sebastián Goldschmidt, seeks to create a park of Ice-Stupas (or ice stupas), to freeze the water wasted in times of abundance and thus reserve twelve gallons of water in solid state for times of scarcity. The Nilus project takes advantage of the freezing temperatures of the highlands and mountain peaks to transform water into ice. It captures the water from the scum and takes it downhill, where it freezes through a process of temperature differences, in areas with large temperature variations between day and night. The team of Chilean researchers in charge of this pilot estimates that with the formation of 50 "stupas" or artificial gullies, which are developed through artificial intelligence and algorithms, the goal of accumulating 100 million liters of frozen water to supply more or less a community of 100,000 people for three months will be achieved.
Atacama desalination plant: awarded in Global Water Awards 2022
The state desalination plant located in the district of Caldeira, in the Atacama region, was awarded this month as the best of the year in the "Global Water Awards 2022". The recognition considers the ecological and sustainable character of the facilities, which will operate from December 2021 with the capacity to desalinate 1,200 liters of seawater per second, to supply potassium water to more than 200,000 people in the districts of Caldera, Chañaral, Copiapó and Tierra Amarilla.
Today, thanks to this desalination plant, the Atacama region, which was permanently at risk of running out of water, is the only region in Chile that has guaranteed water for the next 40 years. Not only is it the most modern desalination plant in Chile, but it also incorporates many technological advances in energy efficiency and is also ecologically correct.
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