A Nobel laureate makes Modi’s vision a reality

New Delhi: In October 2020, during a virtual interaction with Danish wind energy giant Vestas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggested that wind turbines could suck moisture from the air to generate clean drinking water.

Fast-forward to February 2026, and science has achieved that very goal through the work of a Nobel laureate.

As first reported by The Guardian, the Nobel laureate has unveiled an industrial machine that harvests water from the driest air on Earth.

Professor Omar Yaghi, the 2025 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, has turned the tide with his company Atoco, a California-based deep-tech firm specialising in atmospheric water harvesting and carbon capture using atomic-scale precision.

Put simply, Yaghi has built a company that creates molecular traps to grab water and carbon directly from the sky with extreme accuracy. By using a breakthrough called reticular chemistry, the Nobel laureate is transforming what was once a subject of political mockery into a vital lifeline for a thirsty planet. The heart of this breakthrough lies in reticular chemistry, a discipline that involves stitching together molecular building blocks into expansive, crystalline structures known as Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs).

Think of these as the world’s most advanced molecular sponges, but instead of cleaning a kitchen counter, they are designed to soak up invisible gases and moisture from the air.

Their internal architecture is so intricate that a single gram of the material, which is hardly the weight of a paperclip, possesses an internal surface area large enough to cover several football fields.

These are nano-engineered materials, which means scientists have designed them at a scale 1,00,000 times smaller than the width of human hair. At this microscopic level, they can build custom-made chemical pockets that act like tiny rooms specifically sized to fit water molecules.

Unlike traditional atmospheric water generators (AWGs) that rely on energy-intensive cooling to reach the dew point, Yaghi’s materials use adsorption.

Most machines use the dew point, which is the exact temperature where air gets so cold that it can no longer hold moisture, forcing it to turn into liquid droplets, much like the fog we see on a cold window or a chilled soda can. This takes a massive amount of electricity. Adsorption, however, is a much more natural and elegant process. Instead of forcing the air to get cold, the water molecules are simply glued to the surface of a material because they are chemically attracted to it. This shift in approach is the secret to the efficiency of Yaghi's technology. By removing the need to refrigerate massive amounts of air, the system avoids the huge energy bills and heavy, noisy machinery that make old-school water harvesters impractical. Instead, these molecular sponges do the work for free, using their natural hunger to pull in water even when the air feels bone dry. It turns a forced, high-energy mechanical struggle into a quiet, natural chemical process. The true struggle of previous atmospheric water generators has been their dependence on high humidity. Most fail when relative humidity drops below 45 per cent, leaving desert communities stranded. However, Atoco has designed its technology to be resilient, functioning efficiently even in environments with less than 20 per cent humidity. This means it can produce water in places where it almost never rains and where the air feels like a furnace.

Closer to home, the same vision is being driven by AKVO, an Indian cleantech company that pioneered indigenous Atmospheric Water Generators. Unlike Yaghi’s deep-tech molecular sponges, AKVO utilises advanced condensation technology to provide sustainable water security across India.