New England cable TV pioneer Peter Ottmar wants to capitalize on a technology that extracts moisture from the air to create drinkable water.

Ottmar, CEO of Water Generating Systems (WGS), recently completed a $21 million fundraising round. He has planned to open an Attleboro marketing office for the research and development company.

WGS aims to develop machines that transform moisture in the atmosphere into drinkable water. The company expects to release its first commercial units later this year.

Ottmar said the company uses a cooled coil to condense the moisture, like a dehumidifier. The system can be powered by electric or solar energy without producing waste.

Ottmar's Inland Cable was one of the first to offer cable TV service in Massachusetts in the 1980s. It has been involved in a number of business ventures in his career, which ranges from radio to direct mail advertising. However, he said that he's now devoting his full-time energies to WGS.

He said, "I felt I was getting a little stale in some of the things I had been doing and thought there were younger and smarter people who could do it better at this point".

Although most Americans think turning on a faucet to get a clean and readily available drinking water is just a dream, a number of companies still working on alternatives that suck water from the air.

The most common method of producing drinkable water is seawater desalination. However, that only works where there is an ocean.

Two main approaches are involved. One includes passing air over a refrigerated coil onto which water vapour condenses or the other hygroscopic methods which use desicants to suck in moisture from the air.

Ottmar added that the major limiting factor for water-from-air technology is the amount of moisture in the air. Machines can't produce a drop where humidity is nil, such as in the desert.