Development of Hybrid AquaDyn

Water collection from the atmosphere water vapor is an attractive resource gathering technology since water vapor can be collected at almost any place on Earth, and once captured, has reduced contamination compared to other brown/black natural water sources.  One conventional collection methodology involves the use of metal oxide frameworks (MOF) in particulate form as an absorbing medium. These MOF materials have an S-shaped isotherm representing the mass of water that can be absorbed as a function of the relative humidity.  The shape of this isotherm allows for reduced energy to desorb the collected water.  These conventional systems often use passive diurnal temperature swings to perform the absorption, desorption, condensation, and subsequent collection but can also be integrated with thermoelectric coolers (TECs) to improve the condensation and collection process.  Passive systems cannot condense water in arid climates and TEC boosted systems are power intensive and have a coefficient of performance (COP), representing the ratio of heat pumped to power consumed, that are less than one.  We propose a hybrid design variant that integrates the conventional MOF with a vapor cycle (VC) refrigeration system to achieve large water production rates, operating under low-temperature and low relative humidity environments.  By taking advantage of COP values ranging 2 to 4 for a VC system, and applying co-generation between air-side and vapor-side process fluids, the hybrid MOV-VC system can process and collect and process the required 3.8 L/hr collection rates operating under adverse relative humidity of 10% and at temperatures nearing freezing at 4 °C.  The required power levels are approximately 7% of the total onboard production power for the Utility Lightweight Tactical Vehicle (ULTV), allowing for continuous vehicle operation and continuous water generation for deep penetration expeditionary missions.