A Porous Powder That Pulls Water From Dry Air Moves Toward Factory Scale

German researchers scaled a metal-organic framework that harvests water at low humidity, producing a 30 kg batch at an estimated $12–14 per kilogram.

Researchers at Kiel University in Germany have scaled up a porous material called CAU-10-H, a metal-organic framework (MOF), for pulling water out of the air. In lab conditions the material captures up to 0.17 grams of water per gram, begins working once relative humidity passes 18% at room temperature, and releases its water when heated to about 70 degrees Celsius. The team projects up to 1.8 liters of water per day per kilogram of composite, and adding conductive carbon structures shortened the cycle to a few hours.

The notable step is manufacturing, not chemistry. The group produced roughly 30 kg of the material — about 60 times more than any previous lab batch — at an estimated $12 to $14 per kilogram, and published the work across two journals. Lead author Norbert Stock noted the compound was discovered around 15 years ago; in cooling applications it reportedly triples the performance of silica gel.

Atmospheric water harvesting matters wherever piped supply is scarce or unreliable. A cheap material that works at low humidity and modest heat could underpin off-grid water access, and the field is drawing serious backing: MOF pioneer Omar Yaghi, who won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, founded Atoco, which plans shipping-container units yielding up to 1,000 liters a day with first commercial systems in the second half of 2026.

The caveats are real. Kiel's figures describe raw material in the lab, not a finished machine with fans and heat exchangers, and the 1.8-liter number is projected. Without standardized benchmarks, cross-system comparisons are hard, and real-world deployment remains the untested next step.

Source: New Atlas