The detachable harvesting units in the jacket are placed in a foldable collector piece and heated to produce the water – Credit: University of Texas-Austin / SWNS
A new high tech jacket developed by engineers at the University of Texas can pull drinking water from thin air.
With the advance in fabric technology, the jacket can collect up to one-and-a-half pints of drinkable water a day, say scientists.
They suggest the ground-breaking technology could benefit anyone who spends a lot of time in areas without easy access to drinking water, like hikers, campers, runners, agricultural workers, and soldiers.
“Water harvesting from air is usually imagined as a stationary device such as a box, a panel. We wanted to rethink the form,” said research co-leader Professor Guihua Yu. By focusing on the fibers rather than building another bulky device, the researchers overcame a common problem in the field.
He explained that the textile incorporated into the jacket collects moisture and funnels it to detachable harvesting units, which are then “placed in a foldable collector and heated to produce the water”.
The jacket produced between 400 and 900 milliliters (0.7 to 1.5 pints) of drinkable water per day, depending on humidity levels, according to a study published in the journal Science Advances.
Compared with conventional water-harvesting materials, the textile showed a three- to 10-fold improvement at scale.
University of Texas – Austin / SWNS
“The important advance here is that the team did not simply make another material that absorbs water,” said study co-author Professor Keith Johnston.
“They designed a pathway for water to move quickly, from vapor in the air to liquid on the fiber surface, and then into the interior of the textile.
The researchers are now eyeing applications beyond clothing – including backpacks, tents, emergency shelters and other outdoor gear, allowing items people carry every day to help collect water. They also plan to look at applying the technology to remote field operations, disaster response, and water access in arid or infrastructure-limited regions.
A separate device developed by the same research team pulled a record amount of drinking water from the air using solar power—in both the arid climate of the Chihuahuan Desert and the humidity of Austin, Texas.
In tests, the researchers captured 1.3 liters (2.3 pints) of clean water per day in both locations. That equates to 4.3 liters (7.5 pints) of water per kilo of moisture-capturing materials per day—more than any other research group has achieved, according to a paper published in the journal Nature Water.
“This is a big stride toward practical atmospheric water harvesting,” said study co-lead author Weixin Guan.
OTHER ADVANCEMENTS:
• Ultrasonic Device Dramatically Speeds Harvesting of Water from the Air – Drinkable in Minutes Instead of Hours
• ‘Milking’ the Air for Water: Zero-Energy Technique Doubles Survival Rate for Young Trees to Reforest After Fires
• Device Pulls Dozens of Liters of Water from the Air–Already Being Installed in Jordanian Desert Homes
At the center of the team’s work is AirGel, a specially-engineered hydrogel fabric made from biomass-derived materials. The fabric absorbs moisture from the air, then releases it when warmed.
“This goal has been incubated over years of work, from molecular design to real-world operation, and it is especially meaningful to see those pieces finally come together in a field-ready system,” said Guan.
The University’s research commercialization unit, has filed a patent application for the technology.
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