dehumidifier

dehumidifier [‚dē·yü′mid·ə‚fī·ər]

(mechanical engineering)

Equipment designed to reduce the amount of water vapor in the ambient atmosphere.

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Dehumidifier

Equipment designed to reduce the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere. There are three methods by which water vapor may be removed: (1) the use of sorbent materials, (2) cooling to the required dew point, and (3) compression with aftercooling.

Sorbents are materials which are hygroscopic to water vapor. Solid sorbents include silica gels, activated alumina, and aluminum bauxite. Liquid sorbents include halogen salts such as lithium chloride, lithium bromide, and calcium chloride, and organic liquids such as ethylene, diethylene, and triethylene glycols and glycol derivatives.

Solid sorbents may be used in static or dynamic dehumidifiers. Bags of solid sorbent materials within packages of machine tools, electronic equipment, and other valuable materials subject to moisture damage constitute static dehumidifiers. A dynamic dehumidifier for solid sorbent consists of a main circulating fan, one or more beds of sorbent material, reactivation air fan, heater, mechanism to change from dehumidifying to reactivation, and aftercooler.

The liquid-sorbent dehumidifier consists of a main circulating fan, sorbent-air contactor, sorbent pump, and reactivator including contactor, fan, heater, and cooler. This unit will control the effluent dew point at a constant level because dehumidification and reactivation are continuous operations with a small part of the sorbent constantly bled off from the main circulating system and reactivated to the concentration required for the desired effluent dew point.

A system employing the use of cooling for dehumidifying consists of a circulating fan and cooling coil. The cooling coil may use cold water obtained from wells or a refrigeration plant, or may be a direct-expansion refrigeration coil. In place of a coil, a spray washer may be used in which the air passes through two or more banks of sprays of cold water or brine, depending upon the dew-point temperature required.

Dehumidifying by compression and aftercooling is used when the reduction of water vapor in a compressed-air system is required. This is particularly important, for example, if the air is used for automatic control instruments or cleaning of delicate machined parts. The power required for compression systems is so high compared to power requirements for dehumidifying by either the sorbent or refrigeration method that the compression system is not an economical one if dehumidifying is the only end result required.