UT austin researchers develop a jacket that pulls drinkable water from the air
UT austin researchers develop a jacket that pulls drinkable water from the air
https://www.designboom.com/technology/ut-austin-jacket-drinkable-water-air-harvesting/
Publish Date: 2026-06-13 15:17:00
Source Domain: www.designboom.com
a jacket designed for water harvesting
Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin are experimenting with a prototype jacket capable of atmospheric water harvesting. Their piece gathers moisture directly from the air through a specially engineered textile, thus turning a familiar piece of outdoor clothing into a mobile water-collecting surface.
The project shifts a technology often imagined as a box, panel, or fixed sorbent bed into fabric. Developed by engineers at UT Austin’s Cockrell School of Engineering, the jacket uses a biomass-derived hydrogel fiber that absorbs ambient moisture and moves it through the textile toward detachable harvesting units.
Once removed, those units are placed inside a foldable collector and heated, producing drinkable water from the moisture held in the material.
the prototype uses hydrogel fibers made from biomass derived material. images courtesy the University of Texas at Austin
hydrogel fibers move moisture through cloth
Inside the water harvesting jacket, the textile works through transport as much as absorption. The researchers at UT Austin designed a pathway that carries water from vapor in the air to liquid on the fiber surface, then into the fabric system, which allows the material to operate at the scale of a wearable piece instead of remaining a small laboratory sample.
In testing, the jacket produced between 400 and 900 milliliters of drinkable water per day, around 14 to 30 ounces, depending on humidity levels. Compared with conventional water-harvesting materials, the textile showed a three- to ten-fold improvement at scale, pointing to the importance of fiber structure and movement within the cloth.
the textile absorbs moisture and directs it toward detachable harvesting units
from jacket pocket to outdoor gear
The prototype jacket is still a research object, but its form gives the water harvesting technology an immediate design language. A black jacket fitted with pale woven material suggests how…
