US 12,274,974 B2
Continuously-cycled water harvesting for dry cooling tower operated power plants
Mehdi Asheghi, Oakland, CA (US); Kenneth E. Goodson, Portola Valley, CA (US); Alexandros Terzis, Salonika (GR); and Juan G. Santiago, Stanford, CA (US)
Assigned to The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University, Stanford, CA (US)
Appl. No. 17/764,800
Filed by The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University, Stanford, CA (US)
PCT Filed Sep. 30, 2020, PCT No. PCT/US2020/053568
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Mar. 29, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/067454, PCT Pub. Date Apr. 8, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2022/0370951 A1, Nov. 24, 2022
Int. Cl. B01D 53/02 (2006.01); B01D 53/12 (2006.01); B01D 53/26 (2006.01); B01D 53/28 (2006.01)
CPC B01D 53/12 (2013.01) [B01D 53/261 (2013.01); B01D 53/28 (2013.01); B01D 2253/204 (2013.01); B01D 2257/80 (2013.01); B01D 2259/4009 (2013.01)] 3 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of harvesting water in a power plant, the method comprising:
providing a heat engine that has a waste heat gas output;
providing a sorption/desorption device having an input and having a gas flow through it, wherein the sorption/desorption device has a sorption mode where it removes water vapor from the gas flow by sorption, wherein the sorption/desorption device has a desorption mode where it adds water vapor to the gas flow by desorption;
cycling the sorption/desorption device between the sorption mode and the desorption mode at a cycle frequency f, wherein the input to the sorption/desorption device during the sorption mode is ambient air, wherein the input to the sorption/desorption device during the desorption mode is either i) a gas stream heated by the waste heat gas output or ii) the waste heat gas output;
providing a heat exchanger configured to receive an output gas flow from the sorption/desorption device during the desorption mode, and configured to condense and recover liquid water from the output gas flow;
wherein the sorption/desorption device comprises a fluidized bed of a sorbent powder;
wherein the gas flow passes through the sorption/desorption device in a direction opposite to gravity so that the gas flow causes at least some particles of the sorbent powder to move upward levitated by drag force from the gas flow.