Dessicant

Desiccant dehumidifiers depend upon a dry attraction to remove water from the air. Because they do not use condensation to remove water, they are not limited by low dew point temperatures; therefore, they produce the lowest vapor pressure of any dehumidifier on the market today. The cooler and drier the air going into the desiccant, the drier the air will be when it goes out of the unit. In conditions under 60 degrees Fahrenheit, the desiccant dehumidifier is the only dehumidifier that will efficiently remove moisture.

Desiccant dehumidifiers dehumidify air different from the other dehumidifiers in our industry. They use condensation coils to turn vapor into liquid, a silica gel or similar substance that is used to remove the water from the air. These units operate by processing moist air across a moisture absorbing material, then use extremely high temperatures to reactivate or bake the moisture and exhaust the reactivated air out of the unit and into the ducting which leads to the building’s exterior.

Desiccants strive where other units in the industry cannot properly operate, at cold temperatures and at low humidity’s. These units can bring the grains of moisture (GPP’s) inside the affected structure down to 10-155 GPP’s. The low GPP’s produced by the desiccants are preferred during specialty drying when moisture cannot easily be removed from the building materials.

Why do you need to use Desiccant Technology?

1. The driest of air can be achieved using these units
2. These units can dry your facility, regardless of how cold it is outside or inside the building
3. Thermodynamically efficient
4. Reduce the number of small pieces of equipment necessary for a restoration project
5. Typically more effective in drying dense materials such as plaster, lathe and plaster and hardwood flooring.

Key Components to the Desiccant Dehumidifier

1. Desiccant Wheel – A desiccant wheel with a grid of small air passages is impregnated with silica gel. The desiccant wheel rotates slowly through the different airflow zones of the desiccant, as it works to remove the moisture. The main costs behind these units lie within the desiccant wheel.

2. Blower – The blower on a desiccant moves the air through the desiccant wheel. Normally, 75% of the air is dried and sent through the wheel which exits the unit as warm or processed air. The remaining 25% of the air is used to remove moisture from the wheel, exiting the unit as warm wet reactivated air.

3. Heater – The heater boosts the temperature of the reactivation air, so that it can drive out the moisture that has collected on the desiccant rotor. Hot air removes moisture from the silica by adding enough energy to the water molecules to overcome the dry attraction they have to the desiccant media. This function of the unit requires a high level of power.

4. Outlets and Inlets – These are necessary to control the desiccants’ airstreams. The three components are the reactivation outlet, process outlet and the process inlet.