correct terminolgy for extracting water

Condensate recovery.

Thanks Dvader,

Condensate Recovery sound closest to the mark. I have been researching to sort the wheat from the chaff with manufacturers and there is far more "blurb"
than facts on most of their websites. Truly, engineers and marketing types (self included) need to spend more time together BEFORE we publish "sinful spin" , much appreciated....and now I have revealed my true colours can I please stay on this forum?, I DID come from an engineering background...........honest :)

"Can anyone please advise the correct scientific or engineering term for the process or equipment designed to extract potable water from air?"

The process is usually referred to as dehumidification and the equipment dehumidifiers. It can also be referred to as condensate recovery.

dew harvesting

drying (?)

De-humidifyer! How many would you like?

They give serious water harvest in the tropics.

Cheers.

S.

The weather forecasters collectively call it 'precipitation' - that avoids having to say whether it is rain, sleet, hail, snow or frost.

But engineers call it condensation (or maybe distillation).

I don't know the generic name for a machine to do the job.

Yes, Horace, you're right. The de-humidifyer condenses the airborne moisture, catches it and then directs it to storage, sometimes on-board, depending on the brand and type of machine.

They are in common usage here in the tropics. The humidity is so great sometimes that mold is an enormous problem. There is a Company which now uses this principle to produce significant amounts of pure distillate water for consumption.

I guess if it was practised in enough quantum there would be no more rain. Eh?

Cheers,

S.

" I guess if it was practiced in enough quantum there would be no more rain. Eh?"

I know you meant this as humor, but sit down and calculate how much water is "up there" in the clouds when Monsoons drop inches of rain over hundreds of thousands of square Km. That's a lot of dehumidifiers!!!

Condensation?

Timpatco,

I believe that the term you are looking for is known as dehydration. Many natrual gas plants and refineries have dehydrators units to remove the water from the process fluids prior to futher downstream processing.

Greywolf

Greywolf,

No it's not. He wants 'potable water from the air'. We have the machines. All you need is an A/C single phase power supply.

Cheers,

S.

Stueywright,

You are absolutley correct, dehumidification is the correct process name for what Timpatico is asking for. I guess I should learn to read a little slower and be sure I catch all of the components of the query before I answer. Thanks

Greywolf

Greywolf,

You're very welcome. You should visit here. Slow down a little. Like me- you have to sight me up with a post to see if I'm moving.

Good. Eh?

S.

I am not sure if this is what you are talking about, but there are very old methods using natural swings in ambient temperature and large mass (rocks) devices to remove moisture from air.

Google some of these terms and see what you find out:

Air Well, Fog Fence, Dew pond

There are some really weird and likely impossible to use items on this page, but if you scroll down to the "air well" section I think you will find some good background info:

http://www.rexresearch.com/airwells/airwells.htm

Obviously, these are all types of dehumidifiers.

Stephan