A jacket embedded with textile fibres capable of extracting and storing drinking water from the air offers a new approach to atmospheric water harvesting.
Researchers at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin have developed a textile that can be incorporated into a jacket to harvest moisture from the air as the user is moving around. The moisture is funnelled into harvesting units, which can be detached once full and placed into a foldable unit that can be heated to produce water.
The textile is capable of producing between 400ml and 900ml of drinkable water per day depending on humidity levels, according to the researchers.
While water harvesting technologies are not new, with this particular design the team was focused on a wearable system that would allow for easy access to drinking water for various users in arid or remote areas, from hikers and campers to emergency responders and soldiers.
“The important advance here is that the team did not simply make another material that absorbs...