Technologies to Reduce Water Requirements of Soldiers in the Field

"The U.S. military has a pressing need for technologies that are capable of reducing the logistical burden of supplying water to soldiers deployed in the field. We will demonstrate the feasibility of rapid swing isothermal adsorption/desorption combinedwith a mesochannel heat exchanger to eliminate water loss from a soldier's body due to respiration. The mesochannel adsorption water-recovery device will utilize a state-of-the-art, high-capacity adsorbent to separate water vapor from the soldier'sexhaled air. The water vapor will then be desorbed into the airflow as the soldier inhales. This cycle repeats, thus nearly eliminating water loss from the soldier's body through respiration.Recent advances in adsorbent-film-deposition techniques on mesochannel banks and microchannel heat-exchanger designs make this a viable approach. Adsorbent film deposition techniques developed by NanoPore Inc. and MesoSystems Technology Inc., allow theindependent and precise control of film thickness, composition, diffusion-pathway dimensions, and pore-throat diameter of high capacity adsorbents. The film will be deposited on the surfaces of a mesochannel adsorbent bank. A mesochannel heat exchangerwill be developed that will efficiently extract and store heat from the exhaled air and transfer it to inhaled air.The system will not require an energy source. It functions fully on differences in partial pressures of water vapor in the inhaled/exhaled