High Tech Jacket Prototype Pulls Drinking Water From Thin Air – Up to 1.5 Pints Per Day
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High Tech Jacket Prototype Pulls Drinking Water From Thin Air – Up to 1.5 Pints Per Day
New Water-Harvesting Jacket Pulls up to 30 Ounces of Drinking Water From the Air Daily
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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. “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.
How 🏛 SciTechDaily Covers It
Engineers have created innovative materials that pull drinking water from the air, including a water-harvesting jacket and a record-setting collection system. Engineers at the University of Texas at Austin have created a jacket that can generate drinking water from moisture in the air. The innovation could help people who spend long periods in places where clean water is difficult to access, including hikers, campers, runners, farm workers, emergency responders, and military personnel.
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