Latent energy and water harvesting system

A latent energy and water harvesting system (10), comprising:

• plural chambers (22) each comprising a heat exchanging contactor coated with an adsorbent material, and each having at least one pair of doors (38) configured to open and close, wherein the adsorbent material is formulated to adsorb gas molecules from an air stream;
• a conduit connecting the plural chambers to enable thermal transfer by enabling transfer of heat of adsorption accumulated by the coated heat exchanging contactor of one open chamber to the coated heat exchanging contactor of one closed chamber to assist the desorption of the gas molecules and to enable transfer of heat of desorption to one open chamber to assist the adsorption of the gas molecules;
• a condenser (24) configured to recover thermal energy and liquid condensate from condensation of the gas molecules in a partial vacuum within the condenser;
• and
• a variable compression vacuum pump (28) configured to draw a partial vacuum within the chamber when the doors are closed, wherein the adsorbent material is formulated to desorb the gas molecules in the partial vacuum when the doors are closed, said variable compression vacuum pump compressing the gas molecules to a pressure sufficient to cause condensation to occur within the condenser.

A method (236) of harvesting thermal energy and water from air, the method comprising:

• receiving a flow of water vapor containing air over a first heat exchanging contactor contained in a chamber in a non-sealed state, the first heat exchanging contactor coated with an adsorbent material that adsorbs water vapor (238);
• desorbing water vapor from a second adsorbent-coated heat exchanging contactor contained in a chamber in a sealed state under a partial vacuum (240);
• exchanging thermal energy between the first heat exchanging contactor and the second heat exchanging contactor, wherein heat gained by heat of adsorption in the first heat exchanging contactor transferred to heat the second heat exchanging contactor to aid desorption, wherein heat lost due to the heat of desorption in the second heat exchanging contactor is transferred to cool the first heat exchanging contactor to aid adsorption (242);
• drawing a vacuum in the sealed chamber to pull air out and desorb, compress, and heat the water vapor (244);
• condensing water vapor in a condenser under a partial vacuum (246);
• recovering heat of condensation and liquid condensate from the water vapor in the condenser (248);
• and
• repeating the method with the first heat exchanging contactor used for desorbing in a sealed-state and the second heat exchanging contactor used for adsorbing in a non-sealed state (250).