Texas Engineers Create Water From Clothing

Want a drink of water on a baking hot El Paso day but don't want to get up and grab a glass or a bottle? Check your pockets ...

People  have been trying to figure out how to create water forever and, as our climate warms and our lakes dry up, finding more water is becoming pretty damn important. Scientists in Texas just figured out a new way to produce water that you can hang in your closet.

Experiments with equipment that can pull water out of the air, near El Paso and elsewhere, have met with a good deal of success. The Colonias, located east of El Paso, started using water producing gizmos in 2023.

READ MORE: El Paso Colonias Make Their Own Water

Extracting Moisture From The Air

It sounds like something from a Sci - Fi movie but it's totally doable using a device called a "Hydropanel" and the process is pretty simple ...

Solar panels power fans that pull vapor from the air and warm air raises the dew point which condenses the water vapor. (Kinda like the water that forms on the outside of your beer bottle.) The vapor flows into a reservoir where it can be cleaned and then pumped or transported wherever it's needed. Pretty slick, huh?

Now, a bunch of scientists at the University of Texas at Austin have come up with an even cooler, (get it?), way to generate H2O - a jacket that you can wear.

How Can A Jacket Produce Water?

The jacket is made from "hydrogel" textile fibers.

A hydrogel is a water-loving material that can absorb moisture like a super sponge, then release it when heated.

After the fabric captures moisture, the detachable units are placed inside a foldable collector and heated. That heat makes the hydrogel release the water, which can then condense into liquid form. - ecoticias

That's the dumbed down explanation, you can read the more complicated answer here.

It's not science fiction at all, this s**t works and the timing of this tech couldn't be better. From building up dwindling water supplies to water for peeps in remote areas where importing it is tough, to simply allowing hikers a little extra agua - this is game changing, (possibly, life saving) stuff.

Now, if we could just do this with beer ...