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In a project funded by the US Army, two University of Florida engineers have designed, built and successfully tested a combined power-refrigeration system that can provide water, electricity and refrigeration. With further development, the system could be made compact enough to fit inside a military jet or large truck.

'If you’re in a forward base in Iraq, it costs you the same per gallon of water as it does per gallon of fuel,' said William Lear, a UF associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. 'It would be better to just have to send fuel out there, especially if you could get refrigeration and water out of it – which is what our system achieves.'

Lear and UF mechanical engineering professor SA Sherif have published several academic papers on various aspects of the system, which is being patented by UF. In November, they will present a paper discussing the system’s experimental results at the International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition in Chicago.