Water harvesting device

Abstract

An apparatus extracts water from the air using a single circuit of gas containing a compressor, a cooling element, a heat exchanger and an ion source, where a single stream of air is used to provide water and to pre-cool the inlet air.

1 . An apparatus for collecting water from air, comprising:
 a compressor for compressing incoming ambient air;   a counter-flow heat exchanger having an inbound portion and an outbound portion, the heat exchanger receiving compressed air from the compressor in the inbound portion;   an adiabatic expansion cooling device to further cool the compressed air and to condense water therefrom;   an ion source for providing condensation nuclei to the adiabatic expansion cooling device; and   a water collector for collecting the condensed water from the cooling device;   wherein the outbound portion of the counter-flow heat exchanger is configured to receive the cooled dry air from the adiabatic expansion cooling device to pre-cool the compressed air in the inbound portion before the dry air exits the outbound portion.   
     
     
         2 . The apparatus of  claim 1  wherein ion source comprises an electrostatic ion generator. 
     
     
         3 . The apparatus of  claim 1  further comprising an air filter to filter the incoming ambient air. 
     
     
         4 . The apparatus of  claim 1  further comprising a humidity sensor. 
     
     
         5 . The apparatus of  claim 1  wherein the counter-flow heat exchanger comprises an air-to-air heat exchanger. 
     
     
         6 . A method for collecting water from air, comprising:
 flowing compressed air from a compressor to a counter-flow heat exchanger having an inbound portion and an outbound portion, the heat exchanger receiving the compressed air from the compressor in the inbound portion;   cooling the compressed air in an adiabatic expansion cooling device;   providing condensation nuclei to the adiabatic expansion cooling device from an ion source;   condensing water from the cooled compressed air; and   collecting the condensed water from the cooling device in a water collector;   wherein the outbound portion of the counter-flow heat exchanger is configured to receive the cooled dry air from the adiabatic expansion cooling device to pre-cool the compressed air in the inbound portion before the dry air exits the outbound portion.