Producing Drinking Water from Air?

The manufacturer should be able to supply a minimum RH value for sustainable operation. Then consumers can measure the RH in their environment and make an informed decision.

I agree with you, and though I haven't seen the literature from the machine that he is purchased. He was told it would work inside an air-conditioned environment, such as office building by the sales representative.

One of the functions of air-conditioning is dehumidification, not only as a basic operating principle of the system, but also as a technique of improving comfort.

As a rule of thumb, a properly designed and functioning air conditioning system will have between 17 and 20°F temperature drop across a coil, this relatively high temperature drop Is there to ensure dehumidification.

The relative humidity inside an air-conditioned building is relatively constant regardless of the outside environment. Of course there are fluctuations particularly in arid environments, where the humidity can run substantially lower than ideal. Either way, the machines may well have their use,again, my personal opinion is that it's a scam to promote them as producing an adequate water supply inside an air-conditioned environment.

In this case apparently the sales representative did not advise the customer that the output will be substantially lower than the rated output, inside a temperature controlled building.

The machines may well be able to supply high-quality drinking water and may be practical in some limited situations. I would also have to question the amount of energy they use , the process of freezing water and then boiling it is fairly energy intensive.

I believe the quality of the drinking water will be less than palatable unless the dehumidification is done in an atmosphere free of all contaminamts found in the average living space air.

The average lving space air carries a lot more than humidity that can be condensed along with the water vapor. That is one of the reasons for warning against using the Frost on an old refrigerator that had to be defrosted manually on a regular basis.

OTOH, If I were dying of thirst I would be inclined to drink condensed water from almost any atmosphere.

Agreed, this unit is nothing more than a dehumidifier and I would not want to drink that water either.

As a means of demonstration of the point, have theboss get a sample of the condensate analyzed. It wall contain virtually any soluble pollutant in the air in contact with the condensate. That includes moisture from the sweat of the workers and other unpleasant materials.

In Houston some buildings run de humidifiers to reduce AC load. It may be that they can optimize controls between the AC and the water machine to produce sufficient water and save AC cost...

Hello Steve:
Just out of curiosity are they running desiccant type dehumidifiers, or are they precooling makeup air. It would seem to me that desiccant type would be the only one to offer energy savings.

I did a little problem solving at a federal facility in Texas. The Air Force trained person that was responsible for maintaining their air-conditioning was a little short on problem solving skills. He couldn't maintain temperature on a summer's day so he set the thermostats at about 64° to over cool the building at night.

When I got there it was literally raining inside the buildings. The economizer was jammed open. I learned two things from the experience. I can certainly understand where it would be advantageous to dehumidifie the air in eastern Texas or southeastern Texas to reduce the air-conditioning load.

Our Air Force pilots are more courageous than I first thought not only do they have to deal with hostile fire, but Air Force mechanics.

In that the HVAC is already dehumidifying the air there will be less moisture in it for this device to draw out of it. I would think it would be more costly than some type of water purification system. It is also creating heat so that the HVAC is working harder maybe not much but some.

The unit would be more useful if it set out side and pumped the water back into the building to a dispenser.

It seems that the company already has a machine that produces water from air. Their air conditioning system. Tell them to use the condensation from that machine.

Or, you could sell them a new machine that produces water. It would attach to their existing air conditioning air handler. you could make it work on 120, 240 volts, perhaps even 208 3 phase. low power consumption, low maintenance, and high profits. If you need the blueprints for that machine, I would be glad to send them to you, for 10% of the service contract you sell them.

Did you notice the source of the link?

In Hawaii, it will work fine (with an outside air source). Did you ever watch the water dripping (no, running) from the air conditioner of a bus or building in Hawaii?

Cypress is at a higher latitude and a bit inland, so the humidity will usually be lower, but the machine should still work if provided an outside source of air.

It would be a sign of ignorance to try to use one with an air conditioned air source, in any climate!

Hi,

I'm interested in knowing the concept behind the Producing Drinking Water from Air.

Could anybody help to know it...

Hari

Whenever you cool a surface below the dew point, moisture will condense on that surface. In humid climates, this is very obvious on glasses containing iced drinks, or on air conditioning units that remove large quantities of moisture from the air. If you collect that condensate, it is essentially distilled water (admittedly with a few contaminants, but NOT containing much of the odorous compounds emitted by nearby people, since those compounds have a significantly higher condensation temperature, as indicated by another post...).

In Hawaii (Kona coast), they actually irrigate small amounts of crops, simply by running sea water brought up from the deep (and therefore cool) through plastic tubes. Moisture from the air condenses on the outside of these cool tubes, and drips down onto the ground, providing enough moisture for the crops to grow. If I recall correctly, one of the crops I saw was strawberries.

While I agree with your point that in theory at least the moisture condensed SHOULD be close to distilled water (and that it should not contain other compounds (eg. pollutants from the air) or very few at most), I have operated dehumidifers (with clean air filters on the inlet) in mill atmospheres and can attest to the fact that a multitude of pollutants will end up in the condensate generally in fairly direct proportion to the concentration of the pollutant in the air. I suspect it may relate to the solubility of the contaminant in water but I am not certain. Any thought what else could cause this?

You have a good point on the solubility of the pollutants, since the 'distillate' is in direct contact with that contaminated air.

If you are referring to a compressed air dehumidifier, there will probably be considerable oil mixed in - just look at the stuff you empty from the bottom of the air tank! Now you have got me curious - I'm going to have to take a look at the condensate from our dryer, which of course is after the tank has already removed some of the water, and I presume, most of the oil.

Hello Haricool,

that was they claimed "The innovation of the 21st century"

Harnessing the natural process of condensation, coupled with advanced filter technology

Delivering pure dringking water worldwide.

Watermaker africa 2007 supplied me 4 aw 310 soho units for free, it works nicely infact our staff enjoying drinking from this units.

Technical Data:

Production capacity: 28liters/day

Input power: 500watts

Refrigerant r134a

Ideal working condition: 20 C- 40C

UV: 11watt

Internal water tank: 16 liters

Machine noise level: 45 db

The system process on my understanding it producing water through evaporator unit with drip collector then passes through small sedimentation filter, carbon filter, small Filmtec Reverse Osmosis water system and finally through UV. I tried to send the product water to the water laboratory test and the result was safe for drinking.

Comments from the member was mostly correct, as it will not be effective inside air-conditioned room as understand condensation is the reaction between hot and cold, how do the evaporator effectively condensate if no hot air hitting him? then the pan collector will not collect any condensate water and the filtration as well as the RO and UV will work nothing.

best regards

Why don't try to search from their website www.watermakerafrica.com

well you can do it by using deep cooling ie achieving air temperature of say 16Degree centigrade in side the conditioned space off course who bothers about the occupant who has to put up with low RH,and its effects on occupants.water from air sounds crazy but a claver idea to make few cents

crm

I am inventor of one new type of such water condensation unit that would spend much less electricity, be practically maintenance free (save for changing water filter once or twice a year) and use no harmfull gases like Freon.

Problems with some of existing units are due to high temperature, as they dont work if temperature reach 40 degrees Celsius or is higher than this.

Device works properly if supply of fresh air is provided regardless if there is no air conditioning unit used, since if same air is used over and over, all moisture has been taken out and then device dont produce water any more. Naturally, aircondition unit also dehumidifies air, so air is faster depleted of moisture.

I agree that if there is air conditioning unit, then just reservoir for condensed water is enough, provided that condensate is passing trough reverse osmosis and carbon filter first to remove polutants.

However, I would recommend larger scale units situated on flat roof or some other high position in house, hotel, factory or on top of BIG reservoir in case of agriculturall or vilage use........

Yes, higher oversea levels have more rarefied air, therefore less humidity also.

But that is not so important because condensation is caused by negative temperature difference inside unit, compared to surrounding air, but for this reason too low environment temperature also preclude unit from working.

Of course, higher relative humidity gives more water in principle, at same cooling temperature, but even in Death Walley there is 10% of RH in air.....

Even in deserts animals survive because of great temperature drop during night when moisture from air condenses on grass and other plants or objects, enough to produce moisture drops.....

My devices are intended for desert and sub desert areas, specially those that are near sea as this provide lot of vapour in the air, even if not enough temperature difference to vield rain......

Naturally, wherever there is any water source, then filtering or destilation, specially using some Solar concentrator is better solution and more ecconomic than using electricity, however sparingly as in my units.

I am just trying to find investor in producing such type of devices, so I cannot yet offer units for sale......

Even if I plan to produce house units, which would have to have both air intake channel and chimney for warmer air it produces if used indoors or would have to be set on balcony, my main aim is to provide water where it is lacking or is too poluted for making it drinkable some other way, specially for growing crops and watering of animals. There would also water vapour be recycled, as plants exhale water vapour also, and used water is flowing off untill it evaporate.....

That would help growing food for nearly bilion hungry people and their animals as well.

Since my units use electricity, I have also projects of Solarpower stations that would be able to work 24 hours per day, and even continue trough rainy day or two, and Windpower stations working on different principles, without complicated controls and much more effective than contemporary ones, that could be made from relatively cheap materialls, and therefore produce extremely cheap electricity, specially once big seriall production would start. Both powerstations could be scalled down to one house use, but larger capacities are more economicall and produce cheaper electricity, therefore I would reccommend later. Solarpower stations would use less space than contemporary units, and could be gradually enlarged if funds for full scale station are not available or present power consumption dont require big capacity at once, so Power station can grow according to demand........

I am in process of negotiating cooperation contract for this all with factory that could produce them, so perhaps soon they would be available for sale......

Regards from Zagreb, the capitol of Croatia, Europe!

Here is some more on Wataire;

http://www.willienelsonswaterfromair.com/

Willie Nelson's Water From Air of Spicewood, TX, USA is the official gulf coast distributor of the

http://www.wataireinternational.com/

Wataire International atmospheric water generator units

http://www.austin360.com/recreation/content/recreation/stories/2008/10/1014williewater.html

By Pamela LeBlancAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

As I recall the article didn"t exactly mention that you needed a room with a fair amount of humidity in it, but they were only claiming eight gallons of potable water per day from Austin area humidity--"four to five gallons in drier environments"-- enough for two adults to consume, not bathe or flush with

It probably has been mentioned above that it is simple physics, if you use a window air conditioner and wonder why it drips, it's pulling water out of the air--for that matter I expect that's why "old fashion" refrigerators had drip pans.

This device does work, but only when the R_H level is extremely high. This is because it is nothing more than a condensation unit. Since the air in an airconditioned room is cold and dry, thereisn't sufficient moisture in it for the device to work. A more effective design would be to compress the air to high pressure, then cool it to close to 0^oC to precipitate out all the moisture. Some of the energy used to compress and cool the air can be recovered by using the cold compressed air to cool down the heat exchanger. Note though that while a design like this will be able to recover water far more effectively than what your wife's office is currently using, it will also be a lot costlier to purchase an operate.

I have discoverd a procedure to obtain water from the atmosphere.

I am ready to cooperate with a person or a company that could afford the expenses of the construction and development of the equipment needed to obtain water ftom the atmosphere.

In case you know somebody interested in this prospection, please contact me at

apr@arrakis.es

Thanks,

Best regards,

Arturo Pérez

Dr. Industrial Engineer