How to Dry Things Using Desiccant Technology?

Dehumidifier can be divided into commercial dehumidifier and industrial dehumidifier. The industrial dehumidifier fall into two categories, industrial cool dehumidifier and industrial warm dehumidifier. Besides, you can choose different kind of dehumidifiers according to different occasions. If you want to breathe fresh air at office, there is industrial humidifier for office for you and if you work in the basement, there is industrial humidifier for basement for you. If you are in constant movement, you can choose a portable dehumidifier and better, a mini portable dehumidifier.

Desiccant dehumidifiers have become an important tool for many contractors. Although most of the dehumidifiers in the company's equipment are LGRs, the desiccant has some unique performance characteristics, making it more suitable for certain specific drying situations. The main difference between desiccant and refrigerant-based dehumidifiers is how they remove water and what happens to exceptionally dry air desiccants.

Typical desiccant dehumidifiers used in restorative drying are capable of drying air to single-digit grains per pound (GPP) levels, which is about 4% RH at 70 °F. These are dew points several degrees below freezing. The LGR dehumidifier under the best situations cannot dry areas below a 32°F dew point; therefore, desiccants can create a drier environment.

Restoration desiccant dehumidifies the air by exposing the humid air to a desiccant that absorbs moisture. The moisture is then removed from the desiccant and discharged from the desiccant dehumidifier in the form of water vapor. There are two air flows through the separate sealed chambers. The first path is to dry the air. This is called process air, and the second type is the regeneration or reactivation air that exhausts the moisture. The process air flow is directed through a thick rotating honeycomb disk (called a rotor), which is coated with a desiccant material that adsorbs water vapor. The desiccant material is usually a silica gel compound. The rotor is usually four to eight inches thick and can be one foot to several feet in diameter.

The water vapor is removed from the desiccant rotor (or "wheel") by exposing the "wet" part of the rotor to a hot air flow. This is called reactivation, and it releases water vapor from the surface of the desiccant material and enters the reactivation airflow. Then, exhaust the humid hot air from the equipment. The power for the regenerated heat is electric on portable desiccants, and on large desiccants can be electric, propane, natural gas or sometimes diesel.

The desiccant wheel rotates slowly in the processing (drying) chamber and reactivation chamber. The airflows of the two airflows usually pass through the wheels in opposite directions. This tends to blow away any airborne debris that may have been captured from the process air. The regeneration air flow rate is usually 1/4 to 1/3 of the process air flow. This is a continuous cycle; processing part to regeneration part. Load-up with moisture in the process section and then unload in the regeneration section.

A desiccant with a completely separated airflow is commonly referred to as a 4-hole desiccant (separate inlet and outlet for processing and reactivation). They are usually specified by the process airflow rate, because this gives an understanding of the drying capacity of the desiccant. A variation of this design is the 3-hole desiccant, which uses a single air inlet to simultaneously treat and reactivate air, and then transfers a portion of the treated air for reactivation. The 3-hole desiccant usually has better performance in a cool and humid environment because the activated air has been heated and dried during the process stage. The warmer and drier the regeneration air source, the higher the efficiency of the desiccant. Desiccants have been used for many years to promote the drying of industrial processes such as pharmaceuticals and food processing. They are increasingly used in water damage restoration industry.