Air chiller/drier

A device for drying air comprising:

• means for cooling air from an air source to a temperature below the dew point to produce cooled air and to cause moisture in the air to condense to liquid;
• and
• means for separating said liquid from the air to produce cooled dry air, said air cooling means comprising:
• a refrigerant;
• means for evaporating said refrigerant to absorb heat from its surrounding environment;
• and
• means for ducting said air to the surrounding environment of said evaporating means to lower the temperature of said air to below its dew point, said evaporating means and said ducting means comprising conduits formed into a plurality of substantially planar spirals arranged horizontally, one above the other, each of said spirals comprising at least one pair of conduits formed from an evaporation conduit and a ducting conduit interposed in coaxial relation so that within each spiral, sections of said evaporation conduit alternate in intimate surface area contact with sections of said ducting conduit.

In an air drier having upper and lower cooling sections within an outer housing, said upper section comprising a pre-cooler section having conduits for ducting incoming warm, moist air and conduits for ducting outgoing cooled dry air, the temperature of said incoming warm, moist air being lowered by said outgoing cooled dry air to produce partially cooled air which flows into said lower section, said lower section comprising a chiller section having means for cooling said partially cooled air to a temperature below its dew point to produce chilled air which, when separated from liquid condensed from said chilled air, produces said cooled dry air which flows into said pre-cooler section, said means for chilling said partially cooled air including conduits for ducting said partially cooled air and conduits for ducting coolant and means for conducting thermal energy between said partially cooled air conduits and said coolant conduits, said thermal conducting means being located within said housing surrounding said chiller section, the improvement comprising:

• said pre-cooler section conduits being a plurality of spirals arranged horizontally, one above the other, each of said spirals comprising at least one pair of conduits formed from an outgoing cooled dry air conduit and an incoming warm air conduit interposed in coaxial relation so that, within each spiral, sections of said outgoing cooled dry air conduit alternate in intimate surface area contact with sections of said incoming warm air conduit;
• and
• said chiller section conduits being a plurality of spirals arranged horizontally, one above the other, each of said spirals comprising at least one pair of conduits formed from a partially cooled air conduit and a coolant conduit interposed in coaxial relation so that, within each spiral, sections of said partially cooled air conduit alternate in intimate surface area contact with sections of said coolant conduit.