System and method for sorbtion distillation

A method of distilling water, comprising the steps of:

• a. providing a plurality of stages, each stage comprising a hot bed and a cold bed;
• b. beginning a forcing phase, wherein the forcing phase comprises the steps of:
• i. providing heat source to heat the hot bed of a first stage to a first temperature;
• ii. desorbing water vapor from the hot bed of the first stage and flowing water vapor into a first condenser;
• iii. condensing water vapor in the first condenser to form a liquid water and removing at least some of the liquid water from the first condenser;
• iv. providing a solution comprising water and at least one dissolved impurity to a first evaporator;
• v. transferring the latent heat from the first condenser to the first evaporator to evaporate the solution comprising water and at least one dissolved impurity to form water vapor;
• vi. adsorbing water vapor from the first evaporator into the cold bed of the first stage;
• vii. transferring the heat of adsorption generated by the cold bed of the first stage to heat a hot bed of a second stage to a second temperature less than the first temperature;
• viii. repeating steps ii-vii for each of the plurality of stages until each of the beds has had water vapor desorbed from the bed or adsorbed into the bed;
• ix. exhausting the heat of adsorption generated by the cold bed of the final stage externally;
• and
• c. ending the forcing phase and beginning a relaxing phase, wherein the relaxing phase comprises the steps of:
• i. transferring heat from the hot bed of the first stage to the cold bed of the first stage;
• ii. desorbing water vapor from the cold bed of the first stage into a first condenser;
• iii. condensing water vapor in the first condenser to form a liquid water and removing at least some of the liquid water from the condenser;
• iv. providing the solution comprising water and at least one dissolved impurity to a first evaporator;
• v. transferring the latent heat from the first condenser to a first evaporator to evaporate the solution comprising water and at least one dissolved impurity to form water vapor;
• vi. adsorbing water vapor from the first evaporator into the hot bed of the first stage;
• vii. repeating steps i-iv for each of the plurality of stages.
• d. ending the relaxing phase.