Systems and methods for efficient heating of sorbents in an indoor air scrubber

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9919257-B2
Application number	US-201415022800-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 17, 2014
Priority date	Sep 17, 2013
Publication date	Mar 20, 2018
Grant date	Mar 20, 2018

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to systems and methods for regenerating a sorbent material of a scrubber, configured for scrubbing a contaminant from indoor air from an enclosed space. Some embodiments include a sorbent material portion (SMP) including a sorbent material, which may be configured to be cycled between an adsorption phase for adsorbing a contaminant from indoor air, and a regeneration phase configured for releasing at least a portion of the contaminant adsorbed by the sorbent material during the adsorption phase thereof, via temperature swing adsorption, into a purging airflow.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for regenerating a sorbent material of a scrubber configured for scrubbing a contaminant from indoor air from an enclosed space comprising:
a sorbent material portion (SMP) including a sorbent material, the SMP configured to be cycled between at least two operational phases including:
an adsorption phase for adsorbing a contaminant from indoor air, and
a regeneration phase configured for releasing at least a portion of the contaminant adsorbed by the sorbent material during the adsorption phase thereof via temperature swing adsorption into a purging airflow, the purging airflow configured to flow over and/or through the sorbent material during the regeneration cycle;

a heater configured to heat at least one of the sorbent material and the purging airflow to a regeneration temperature;
a heat exchanger configured to transfer heat from the purging airflow exiting the SMP after flowing over and/or through the sorbent material to an incoming fresh purging airflow;
an outdoor air inlet configured to receive the outdoor air at an outdoor air temperature, and a conduit configurable to establish a closed loop or shunt arrangement with the SMP, wherein:
the purging airflow comprises outdoor air,
the received outdoor air is heated directly and/or indirectly by the heater to at least the regeneration temperature, and
the conduit configurable to establish the closed loop or shunt arrangement with the SMP such that during at least an initial phase of the regeneration phase, the purging airflow exiting from the SMP is directed back to an inlet of the SMP to be flowed over and/or through the sorbent material again.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the enclosed space comprises a building, a house, a vehicle, or a vessel.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the contaminant is selected from the group consisting of: carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds, sulfur oxides, radon, nitrous oxides and carbon monoxide.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the heater is selected from the group consisting of: an electrical coil, a hot fluid coil, a furnace, and a solar heating device.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein configuration of the heat exchanger is selected from the group consisting of: a shell and tube configuration, an air coil configuration, a plate configuration, a counter-flow configuration, and a fin configuration.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the heat exchanger further comprises an outdoor air inlet for receiving an incoming fresh purging airflow and/or an exhaust air outlet for discharging an exhausted purging airflow.

7. The system of claim 1 , further comprising an incoming purging airflow conduit and an exhausted purging airflow conduit, wherein the heat exchanger is configured to transfer heat from the exhausted purging airflow to the incoming purging airflow via thermal communication between the exhausted purging airflow conduit and the incoming purging airflow conduit.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the heat exchanger is configured to transfer heat from the exhausted purging airflow to the incoming purging airflow in an amount approximately equal to H given by the expression H=(T e −T 0 )×E×F, wherein E is an efficiency coefficient of the heat exchanger, F is a flow rate of the incoming purging airflow, T o is the temperature of the outdoor air, and T e is the temperature of the exhausted purging airflow.

9. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a fan to at least aid in the flow of indoor air and/or the purging airflow.

10. A system for regenerating a sorbent material of a scrubber configured for scrubbing a contaminant from indoor air from an enclosed space comprising:
a sorbent material portion (SMP) including a sorbent material, the SMP configured to be cycled between at least two operational phases including:
an adsorption phase for adsorbing a contaminant from indoor air, and
a regeneration phase configured for releasing at least a portion of the contaminant adsorbed by the sorbent material during the adsorption phase thereof via temperature swing adsorption into a purging airflow;

a heater configured to heat at least one of the sorbent material and the purging airflow to a regeneration temperature; and
a shunt conduit configurable in a closed loop arrangement with the SMP, such that during at least a first phase of the regeneration phase, the purging airflow exiting from the SMP is directed back to an inlet of the SMP to be flowed over and/or through the sorbent material again.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the conduit is configured in the closed loop arrangement at least until the temperature of the sorbent material reaches the regeneration temperature.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein during a second phase of the regeneration phase the shunt conduit is closed off by one or more dampers and the purging air flow is exhausted to the outdoor environment.

13. A method for regenerating a sorbent material of a scrubbing system for scrubbing a contaminant from indoor air from an enclosed space, comprising:
during at least an initial time period prior to a regeneration phase for regenerating a sorbent material, operating a closed loop airflow over and/or through a sorbent material; and
heating, during operation of the closed loop airflow, at least one of the closed loop airflow and/or sorbent material at least until the temperature of the sorbent material reaches a regeneration temperature.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
receiving a flow of outdoor air configured as an incoming fresh purging airflow to regenerate the sorbent material during at least a portion of the regeneration phase, such that at least a portion of the contaminant previously adsorbed by the sorbent material is released into the incoming fresh purging airflow as it flows over and/or through the sorbent material.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising directly and/or indirectly heating the incoming fresh purging airflow to at least a regeneration temperature.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the contaminant is selected from the group consisting of: carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds, sulfur oxides, radon, nitrous oxides and carbon monoxide.

Assignees

• Enverid Systems Inc

Inventors

• Meirav Udi
• Biran Israel

Classifications

• B01D2259/4508

  for cleaning air in buildings · CPC title

• B01D2257/402

  Dinitrogen oxide · CPC title

• B01D2257/302

  Sulfur oxides · CPC title

• B01D53/0462 Primary

  Temperature swing adsorption · CPC title

• Y02C20/10

  of nitrous oxide (N2O) · CPC title