There is only so much water in the air. But of course, they just need a few billion in government money to further study.
I have noticed many new breakthroughs and discoveries at US colleges are done by those with Chinese names. Hmmm..
“In the atmosphere, however, are approximately 3,100 cubic miles of water vapor, almost enough water to fill the Great Lakes. Water vapor is an unlimited resource that is continuously replenished by the planet’s hydrologic cycles, so taking water from the air will not harm the environment.”
https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/6-innovative-atmospheric-water-generators
The hydrological cycle means there will always be water vapor to harvest. As long as winds blow over the oceans the lowest sink of gravity driven water flow. Nevada is only a few days or less air time for air that was over the Pacifica to be over Nevada. One only needs to look at how fast clouds move from the coast to coast big frontal systems can cross the whole USA in less than a week.
Harvesting water from the bottom 100 feet or less of the air column is not even going to touch the miles of air above it.
Neat tech using two absorbents you could grab water and co2 at the same time. Calcium chloride for water and sodium hydroxide for co2. Then the list of things you can make with desert solar power gets interesting. It’s already been proven you can make acetate 18 more yield per square meter than plants could do it via water+co2+ solar panels. Acetate is a base hydrocarbon from there you can culture via bacteria,yeast or archaea virtually any other biological output. First up would be microbial complete protein, starch or sugars too, lipids as well. The three things needed by every monogastric animal you and I included. Plants are less than 1% solar photons into biomass and less into corn kernels. Panels are 25% and the electrochemical cells turn water+co2+electrons at 90% Faraday into acetate a factor of 18 better. You could grow yeast that make alcohol on acetate in huge amounts too. Or use an archaea and make methane with it, or propane or butane really any of the alkanes or alkenes.
The process is spacefood because that’s how humans get off this rock. We are not taking chickens and pigs and cows no way the mass balance works for livestock. Space food is going to be electrochemical and hydroponic with engineered microbes that eat some base carbon molecule.
Having water plus co2 in a environment with 330+ days of full sun per year could feed billions more people where every acre makes 18 as much carbohydrates or proteins vs an acre in even a tropical jungle. Water from air in meaningful quantities changes the whole paradigm of desert use. Growing crops in the desert is stupid. Turning air into high yield hydrocarbons for human use is very smart we don’t need fusion power on earth to use the already giant thermonuclear reactor in the sky’s fusion power.