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US 12,472,464 B2Granted
Atmospheric water harvester having subcooler heat exchanger
AssigneeWater Harvesting, Inc.
InventorsIevgen Kapustin, David S. Kuo, Kent D. Penning
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Generally, an atmospheric water harvesting system useful in harvesting water from surrounding air. Specifically, a water harvester including a secondary heat exchanger operable in a first mode of the water harvester to absorb heat from the ambient environment to reduce the sensible heat penalty associated with increasing temperature to initiate desorption of water from a water capture material and in particular embodiments operable in a second mode of the water harvester to transfer heat from the desorbed water to the ambient environment.
Claims23
An apparatus, comprising:
- a first chamber thermally coupled to a condenser of a heat pump,
- said first chamber configured to fluidically couple to a water capture module or to receive said water capture module within an interior space of said first chamber;
- and
- a second chamber thermally coupled to an evaporator of said heat pump,
- said second chamber fluidically coupled to said first chamber;
- a secondary heat exchanger having a sub-cooler coil disposed outside of said first chamber and said second chamber,
- said secondary heat exchanger configured in a first mode to dispose said sub-cooler coil between said condenser and a compressor in a refrigerant loop of said heat pump bypassing said evaporator,
- said secondary heat exchanger configured in a second mode to:
- fluidically couple said condenser and said evaporator to said compressor in said refrigerant loop bypassing said sub-cooler coil;
- or
- fluidically couple said sub-cooler coil between said condenser and said evaporator in said refrigerant loop to said compressor.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.