DRIPS Project presented on June 2012 at PechaKucha EDF Sustainable Design Challenge in London

1. PechaKucha
EDF Sustainable
Design Challenge
In Collaboration with In Association with
4
Supported by

2. 4
Kristin B. Lubenow

3. PROBLEM:
There are places on Earth where there’s
not enough rainfall to grow food.
Some places hardly And some places
get any water at all. alternate between
bone dry and flooding.

4. And in some places,
the water doesn’t
penetrate deep
enough and
evaporates before it
could nourish plants.

5. Two high school students
from San Francisco
decided to find a solution.
Nick and Tim Werby worked with UC
Berkeley School of Engineering to design
a cost-effective and practical product.

6. IDEA:
Create a simple
product that would
collect atmospheric
water
(dew, fog, rain)
and transport
it below the
evaporation layer
in the ground.

7. Condensation: Solution:
• Water collects on surfaces colder • Atmospheric Water Capture
than the surrounding air
• Easy Maintenance
• In desert environment, this water • Easy to Understand
evaporates before reaching plant
roots • Cheap
• Farmer can’t grow enough food • Recyclable
due to lack of irrigation even in the • Flexible
presence of atmospheric water

8. Condense
atmospheric
water on a
surface and
transport it
deep enough
into the ground
to keep the
moisture from
evaporating
during the day.

9. Easy
Maintenance
No electricity;
No moving parts;
No supervision;
Simple to make.

10. Simple to
Understand
Stick in the ground
next to a plant.
Communicate use with
a pictogram.

11. Cheap
& Small
There are many
atmospheric
water collection
solutions. We
focus on the
cheap and the
small. We are
targeting poor
subsistence
farming
populations.

12. D.R.I.P.S. Project
Flexibility and
Flexible &
Customization
Customizable

13. D.R.I.P.S. Project
Extra Food &
Little Cost

14. D.R.I.P.S. Project
Extra Food &
Little Cost

15. D.R.I.P.S. Project
2011 EDF Sustainable
Design Challenge Winner

16. D.R.I.P.S. Project
2012 Challenge:
Develop a Working Prototype
Moving from concept to a
fully-realized product is
very hard.
Tim and Nick decided to
develop an inspirational
prototype.
Using the grant from EDF,
the boys worked with
artists to develop a
DRIPS prototype...

18. There are MANY
different solutions to
atmospheric water
collection problem.
DRIPSproject.com is a large library of
solutions with links to companies that
make various atmospheric water
collection systems and to research on
how atmospheric water can be used
in agriculture.

20. PechaKucha
EDF Sustainable
Design Challenge
In Collaboration with In Association with
4
Supported by