Method and device for cooling a fluid stream of an electrolysis unit and for obtaining water

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10815649-B2
Application number	US-201716477140-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 21, 2017
Priority date	Jan 13, 2017
Publication date	Oct 27, 2020
Grant date	Oct 27, 2020

Abstract

A method for cooling a fluid from an electrolysis unit and extracting water from ambient air comprising: conducting moist air having a first molar amount of water and raw water into an evaporator unit in a counterflow at a temperature at or below the boiling temperature of the water; evaporating pure water from the raw water into the moist air and cooling the raw water; conducting the cooled raw water into a heat exchanger thereby cooling the fluid stream of the electrolysis unit; conducting the moist air and the pure water into a water extraction unit; separating a second molar amount of the pure water off from the moist air in the water extraction unit, wherein a third molar amount of water remaining in the air is less than the first; conducting the preheated raw water back to the evaporator; and conducting the cooled fluid back into the electrolysis unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for cooling a fluid stream of an electrolysis unit and extracting water from the ambient air, the method comprising:
conducting moist air having a first molar amount of water into an evaporator unit;
conducting raw water into the evaporator unit in a counterflow to a flow of the moist air at a temperature at or below the boiling temperature of the water;
evaporating pure water from the raw water into the moist air and thereby cooling the raw water; conducting the cooled raw water into a heat exchanger;
conducting the fluid stream of the electrolysis unit into the heat exchanger, wherein heat is transferred from the fluid stream to the cooled raw water;
conducting the moist air and the pure water into a water extraction unit;
separating a second molar amount of the water from the moist air in the water extraction unit, wherein a third molar amount of water remaining in the air after the separation of the second molar amount is less than the first molar amount;
conducting the raw water from the heat exchanger back into the evaporator unit; and
conducting the cooled fluid stream back into the electrolysis unit.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising extracting the raw water from the moist air.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the temperature in the evaporator unit lies in a range from at least 40° C. to at most 55° C.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the water extraction unit comprises a condenser or an absorption unit.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4 , further comprising, for the case in which the water extraction unit comprises an absorption unit, regenerating the absorbent in a pressure and/or temperature-driven manner.

6. The method as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the condenser is cooled by ambient air.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising conducting the second molar amount of water at least partially as educt into the electrolyzer.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the evaporator unit operates at a lower pressure than the water extraction unit.

9. An apparatus for cooling a fluid stream of an electrolysis unit and extracting water from the ambient air, the apparatus comprising:
an evaporator unit providing a counterflow of a moist air via a feed, the moist air having a first molar amount of water against raw water at a temperature at or below a boiling temperature of the water, for evaporating pure water from the raw water into the moist air stream;
a heat exchanger receiving the raw water after leaving the evaporator unit and the fluid stream from an electrolyzer of the electrolysis unit and transferring heat from the fluid stream to the raw water;
a water extraction unit receiving the moist air from the evaporator unit and separating a second molar amount of water from the moist air, wherein a third molar amount of water remaining in the moist air after the separation of the second molar amount is less than the first molar amount, the water extraction unit comprising an outlet for exiting air;
wherein the raw water leaves the heat exchanger and flows into the evaporator unit; and
the fluid stream from the electrolyzer is cooled by the raw water in the heat exchanger.

10. The apparatus as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the heat exchanger comprises a liquid-liquid heat exchanger.

11. The apparatus as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the evaporator unit comprises a packing.

Assignees

• Siemens Ag

Inventors

• Hanebuth Marc
• Reiner Andreas
• Ungerer Markus
• Siegert Knut

Classifications

• B01D5/006

  with evaporation or distillation · CPC title

• B01D1/16

  by spraying (B01D1/22 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B01D1/0058

  Use of waste energy from other processes or sources, e.g. combustion gas (for water treatment C02F1/16) · CPC title

• C02F1/12

  Spray evaporation · CPC title

• C25B1/04 Primary

  by electrolysis of water · CPC title