# Texas researchers turn food scraps into machine that pulls water from air 2026-08-16T12:56:57+00:00 | Technology | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a new class of hydrogels from natural biomass that can capture moisture from the air and release it as clean water using mild heat. The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Advanced Materials by Weixin Guan, Yaxuan Zhao, Chuxin Lei, Yuyang Wang, Kai Wu and Guihua Yu, describes a molecular engineering strategy that converts polysaccharides such as cellulose, starch and chitosan into water-absorbing materials. The cellulose-based hydrogel produced up to 14.19 kg of water per kg of sorbent per day in outdoor tests using electrical heating. Conventional sorbents typically yield 1, 5 litres per kg per day, according to the university. The material captured 0.86, 1.32 grams of water per gram at 15, 30% relative humidity and released 95% of it at 60°C. The approach aims to enable portable water harvesters and decentralised systems in areas without conventional water infrastructure, using inexpensive and renewable feedstocks like food scraps, branches and seashells. ## Coverage - timesofindia.indiatimes.com This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: cellulose, Guihua Yu, University of Texas at Austin Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/texas-researchers-turn-food-scraps-into-machine-that-pulls-water-from-air/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/texas-researchers-turn-food-scraps-into-machine-that-pulls-water-from-air/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/