Contactor, particularly a vapour exchanger for the control of the air hygrometric content, and a device for air handling

Abstract

A contactor, particularly a vapor exchanger, working by the sorption or desorption of water vapor from or into an air stream (U) by an aqueous hygroscopic solution inside the contactor, is formed by at least a container (1, 1') with membrane walls (101) in contact with the air stream (U) whose air vapor content is to be controlled. The walls (101) of the container (1, 1') in contact with the air stream (U) are provided by many capillary open micropores so as to be impermeable to the solution but sufficiently permeable to the water vapor transfer to/from the solution. A device for handling air, particularly for dehumidification and/or humidification and air conditioning has at least one container (1) in combination with elements (6, 6'; 33, 34, 134) for adjusting the temperatures of the hygroscopic solution and/or of the air streams for controlling the transfer sense and rates of the vapor.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.