Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have unveiled an innovative water-harvesting jacket capable of extracting drinkable water directly from the atmosphere, potentially transforming how people access clean water in remote and water-scarce regions.
The breakthrough wearable technology, recently detailed in the journal Science Advances, integrates advanced moisture-harvesting textiles into a lightweight jacket capable of producing between 410 and 894 milliliters of drinking water per day, depending on environmental humidity levels. The achievement represents a major advancement in atmospheric water harvesting, a field traditionally dominated by stationary devices and large-scale collection systems.
Led by Professor Guihua Yu from the Cockrell School of Engineering and Texas Materials Institute, the research team sought to rethink conventional water-harvesting technologies by embedding moisture-collecting capabilities directly into wearable fabrics.“Water harvesting from air is usually imagined as a stationary device such as a box, a panel or a large sorbent bed. Here, we wanted to rethink the form of the technology. If the fabric itself can collect water from air, it opens a new direction for personal and portable water access,” Yu explained.
At the core of the innovation are specially engineered hierarchical open porous fibers woven into a hydrogel-based textile. Developed using biomass-derived materials and enhanced with lithium chloride (LiCl), the fibers efficiently capture moisture from the air and transport it through a network of interconnected pores, significantly improving water collection performance.According to the researchers, the textile demonstrated a three- to ten-fold improvement over conventional atmospheric water harvesting materials. Unlike traditional sorbent systems that often lose efficiency when scaled up, the new fiber architecture maintains strong performance even in larger wearable formats.
The prototype jacket incorporates four detachable moisture-capture units positioned on the front and back. Once saturated, the units can be removed and placed into a compact foldable collection device. A heating mechanism then releases the absorbed moisture as vapor, which condenses into clean drinking water.Field tests conducted in Austin, Chengdu, and Xichang demonstrated the system’s effectiveness across a wide range of environmental conditions. In the dry climate of Xichang, the jacket generated approximately 410 milliliters of water daily, while performance increased significantly in more humid environments. The harvested water met World Health Organization drinking water standards and contained minimal lithium residue.
Beyond wearable clothing, the research team believes the technology could be integrated into backpacks, tents, emergency shelters, military gear, and disaster-response equipment. Such applications could provide reliable access to clean drinking water in areas where traditional infrastructure is unavailable or unreliable.The development comes as global water scarcity continues to affect billions of people worldwide. By transforming everyday textiles into portable water collection systems, the researchers hope to create practical solutions for outdoor workers, travelers, emergency responders, military personnel, and communities facing chronic water shortages.
While the jacket remains a prototype, the study demonstrates how atmospheric water harvesting can move beyond fixed machines and become a portable, wearable resource. The researchers believe their fiber-based approach could pave the way for a new generation of flexible water-harvesting technologies designed for real-world deployment.
