Experimental Study and Performance Analysis of a Portable Atmospheric Water Generator

Wei He, Pengkun Yu, Zhongting Hu, Song Lv, Minghui Qin and Cairui Yu
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Wei He: Department of Building Environment and Equipment, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China
Pengkun Yu: Department of Building Environment and Equipment, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China
Zhongting Hu: Department of Building Environment and Equipment, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China
Song Lv: Department of Thermal Science and Energy Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Minghui Qin: Qinghai College of Architectural Technology, Xining 810002, China
Cairui Yu: Department of Building Environment and Equipment, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China

Energies, 2019, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Found in some specific scenarios, drinking water is hard for people to get, such as during expeditions and scientific investigations. First, a novel water generator with only two thermoelectric coolers (Model A) is designed for extracting water from atmospheric vapor and then experimentally studied under a small inlet air flow rate. The impact of operating conditions on surface temperatures of cold/hot sides and water yield are investigated, including the air flow rate and humidity. Alternately, to determine the super performance of Model A, a comparative experiment between Model A and a reference model (Model B) is carried out. The results suggest that both the cold/hot temperature and water yield in Model A increases with the humidity and air flow rate rising. Seen in comparisons of Model A and Model B, it is found that, at an air humidity of 90% and air flow rate of 30 m 3 /h, the total water yield was increased by 43.4% and the corresponding value reached the maximum increment of 66.7% at an air humidity of 60% and air flow rate of 30 m 3 /h. These features demonstrate the advantage of Model A especially in low air humidity compared to Model B.

Keywords: atmospheric water generator; thermoelectric cooling; hydrophobic material; water yield rate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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