Scientists have developed a new material that can capture water directly from the air, offering a promising way to provide drinking water in some of the world’s driest regions.
The technology could help communities facing growing water shortages caused by climate change, especially in hot, dry areas around the Mediterranean.
Researchers at Kiel University in Germany, working with international partners, have designed a highly porous material that acts like a sponge, absorbing water vapor from the air and releasing it as liquid water.
Their latest findings, published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A and Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, also show that the material can now be produced in much larger quantities and operates more efficiently than earlier versions.
The material belongs to a family of advanced substances called metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs.
These materials contain millions of tiny interconnected pores that give them an enormous internal surface area. This unique structure allows them to quickly capture water molecules from the air, even when humidity is relatively low, and then release the water when heated.
The Kiel research team focused on a MOF known as CAU-10-H, named after Kiel University, where it was first developed. The material begins collecting water at room temperature when the relative humidity is at least 18%, making it suitable for many dry environments.
Once the material has absorbed water, only moderate heating—about 70 degrees Celsius—is needed to release the collected moisture. To make this process faster, the researchers combined the MOF with conductive carbon materials. This allows the system to be heated efficiently using electricity or even sunlight, shortening the time needed for each collection cycle.
Because the material can repeatedly absorb and release water within just a few hours, it can operate continuously throughout the day. Under dry conditions, one kilogram of the composite material could produce up to 1.8 liters of clean drinking water every day.
The researchers say this makes the technology especially attractive for areas where rainfall is becoming less reliable and freshwater supplies are limited.
In addition to producing drinking water, the material could also improve cooling systems. The researchers found that CAU-10-H delivers up to three times the cooling performance of silica gel, a common moisture-absorbing material used in many air-conditioning systems.
Future cooling systems using the new material could run on waste heat from places such as data centers, factories, or bakeries instead of relying heavily on electricity. This could reduce energy use while making cooling more environmentally friendly.
Another important advance is that the researchers have moved beyond small laboratory experiments. They successfully scaled up production from tiny research batches to around 30 kilograms of material, about 60 times more than they had previously manufactured.
They also analyzed the production process and estimate that the material could eventually be produced for about $12 to $14 per kilogram, suggesting it may be practical for commercial use.
The team believes these advances bring the technology much closer to real-world applications.
With larger-scale manufacturing now demonstrated, the material could one day provide an affordable way to generate drinking water from the air while also supporting more energy-efficient cooling systems in regions facing increasing heat and water shortages.
