Abstract The invention is a multiple compartment packed bed absorberdesorber heat exchanger. The absorber-desorber heat exchanger includes at least one set of upper and lower compartments containing suitable tower packing. Gas inlets, gas outlets and liquid distributors are provided for each packed bed chamber. The gas flows in the upper and lower compartments are isolated from each other by a liquid seal. The upper and lower packed beds are wetted by a common irrigation liquid or heat exchange fluid which gravitates downwardly through the packed beds to a sump and recycling pump. The dual packed beds can be operated to absorb and desorb gases, to concentrate gaseous contaminants, or to transfer heat and to condense vapors. Preferably, the dual packed bed chambers are of modular construction.
Inventors
👤 R Huntington
Bibliographic Details
Application Number—
JurisdictionUS
Data Sourcegoogle_patents
Last Synchronized2026-10-30 09:17
CPC Classifications
B; B01; B01D; B01D47/00
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 6
Claim 1
Independent Claim
78 words
A multiple compartment horizontal cross flow packed bed absorber-desorber heat exchanger comprising, in combination, upper and lower hollow shells, said shells being upwardly open and vertically aligned, said shells having side walls, corrugated bottom walls, and opposed inlet and outlet means, and partition means for defining upper and lower packed bed compartments, said packed bed compartments including packing material means for distributing liquid downwardly through said upper and lower packed bed compartments and means for collecting the liquid.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
42 words
A multiple compartment horizontal cross flow absorber-desorber heat exchanger as set forth in claim 2, wherein said packing material in said packed bed chamber includes an upper layer of small diameter tower packing and a lower layer of large diameter tower packing.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
35 words
A multiple compartment horizontal cross flow absorber-desorber heat exchanger as set forth in claim 2, wherein said partition means comprises grills having spaced cross members, said grills being tilted in the direction of gas flow.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
45 words
A multiple compartment horizontal cross flow packed bed absorber-desorber heat exchanger as set forth in claim 2, wherein said distributing means includes a flow distributor having a corrugated bottom wall, with said distributor being positioned on said upper shell above said upper packed bed compartment.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
45 words
A multiple compartment horizontal cross flow packed bed absorber-desorber heat exchanger as set forth in claim 5, wherein said distributing means includes a perforated distributor for distributing the liquid to said lower shell, said perforated distributor being positioned between said upper and lower hollow shells.
Claim 6
Independent Claim
116 words
A method of recovering heat and moisture from warm ventilation air comprising the steps of irrigating with a common recycled heat transfer liquid stream two or more stacked packed bed chambers, whereby a warm ventilation air stream and a cold ventilation air stream are passed in differential contact with the common recycled heat transfer liquid stream comprising an admixture of liquid paraffin and polypropylene glycol, continuously absorbing heat and moisture from said warm ventilation air by contact with the heat transfer liquid stream in an upper packed bed chamber and continuously desorbing said heat and moisture to the cold ventilation air stream by contact with the heat transfer liquid stream in a lower packed bed chamber.