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University of Texas Engineers Create Prototype Jacket That Pulls Drinking Water From Air
A team at the University of Texas created a wearable prototype using hydrogel and solar energy to pull moisture from the air. The jacket produced 14 to 30 ounces of water depending on humidity. Researchers published details in Science Advances.
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University of Texas engineers developed a jacket that converts water vapor from the air into drinking water. Fox News reported that the garment forms part of a broader technology called AirGel, which relies on hydrogel material and solar energy to absorb moisture and release it when heated by sunlight for collection. The researchers published their findings in a report in Science Advances.
Yaxuan Zhao, one of the developers, stated that AirGel provides a complementary solution to existing water-processing systems and differs from centralized setups that require long-distance transport. The wearable prototype produced between 14 and 30 ounces of water depending on humidity levels, representing a threefold to 10-fold improvement over other materials, Fox News reported.
The fabric absorbs moisture from the air then releases it under sunlight so the water can be condensed and collected.
A separate device built with the same technology pulled a record amount of drinking water from the air in the Chihuahuan Desert of New Mexico and in Austin. Keith Johnston, co-author and chair professor at the Cockrell School of Engineering, said the team designed a pathway for water to move quickly from vapor in the air to liquid on the fiber surface and then into the textile.
UT's Discovery to Impact unit has a patent pending on the AirGel technology.
Zhao and Weixin Guan won international innovation awards for the work, which also received a Patent Acceleration Certificate from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Guan said the team hopes to send AirGel to places globally that need water most to study field performance and cost-effectiveness.
