High Volume Air Stream Water Recovery System
Recovers water for reuse with minimal energy expenditure
ERDC innovators have developed a novel high volume air stream water recovery system that harvests drinkable water from air or wastewater. Previously, one major limitation to the ability to recover water for reuse has been the amount of energy required. ERDC’s low-cost method uses minimal energy by relying on waste heat to recover and reuse water for a wide range of emergency back-up, environmental, and industrial purposes.
Instead of depending on an energy-intensive filtration system, ERDC’s breakthrough technology attaches to a separate apparatus that produces waste heat, such as commonly used diesel generators. Next, ERDC’s system uses the heat to accelerate evaporation. Then desiccant materials in the system recapture excess water and direct it to a regeneration air stream for collection. Thus, ERDC’s technology enables users to collect clean water from air or formerly unusable sources at an unprecedented scale while using almost no extra energy.
Benefits:
- Efficient: Uses waste heat to recover water (40 watt-hours per gal)
- Low-cost: Less expensive than existing water recovery systems
- Reliable: No filtration required, therefore fewer failure modes occur
- Robust: High purified water production of 1 gal/min
- Scalable: Can be customized based on application
Applications:
- Military (e.g., bases, command centers, expeditionary forces)
- Disaster relief
- Wastewater treatment
- Waste heat recovery
- Utilities (e.g., CHP, micro-CHP, renewable energy generation)
- Public works (e.g., water treatment, water purification, wastewater treatment, water recycling)
