University of Texas Researchers Develop Water-Harvesting Textiles for Portable Drinking Water from Air

Researchers at UT Austin's Cockrell School of Engineering have published two related breakthroughs in atmospheric water harvesting. The first, detailed in Science Advances, involves a wearable jacket whose textile funnels moisture from the air into detachable harvesting units, which are then heated in a foldable collector to produce drinkable water. Scatter plot data from the study shows the new textile outperforms competing materials — including MOFs, hydrogels, and salt composites — at every tested humidity level, yielding roughly 410 ml at 28% relative humidity, 590 ml at 50%, and 890 ml at 68%. A key innovation is the engineered transport pathway that moves water rapidly from vapor to liquid on the fiber surface and into the textile, enabling real-world wearability rather than just lab performance. The team also reported a separate record-setting solar device, published in Nature Water, that captured 1.3 liters of clean water per day in field tests across the Chihuahuan Desert and Austin, Texas — equivalent to 4.3 liters per kilogram of sorbent material per day, surpassing all previously reported results. Both technologies are being eyed for applications including backpacks, tents, emergency shelters, disaster response, and water access in arid or infrastructure-limited regions across North Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa.