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Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the output quoted as suppression rather than as a dew point?
Because the bed can only take the air a fixed number of degrees below whatever arrives at it. Feed the dryer air at 35 degrees and the outlet dew point sits well above freezing; feed it cooler air and the outlet follows down. A refrigerated or desiccant dryer holds a dew point more or less regardless of inlet, and that is the fundamental difference in what the two can promise.
What makes this the right dryer for a remote site?
It needs no power, no controls and no purge air. A regenerative desiccant dryer throws away part of its own output to dry itself and a refrigerated dryer needs a compressor; a deliquescent vessel needs neither, so it works at a wellhead, on a trailer or at the end of a line where the only service available is the air itself.
What has to be done with the liquid that comes out?
It has to be collected and disposed of as a chemical effluent, not run to a drain. The brine is a concentrated solution of the tablet chemistry and is corrosive to carbon steel pipework and to concrete. A drain trap, a collection vessel and a disposal route are part of the installation rather than an afterthought.
How often does the bed need topping up?
As a function of how much water it has absorbed, so it follows flow, inlet temperature and humidity rather than running hours. A sight glass or a level port on the vessel shows the remaining charge, and sites in humid climates refill far more often than the same installation elsewhere. Running the bed low lets wet air pass with no alarm to say so.
Should anything be fitted upstream?
A separator and a coalescing filter, always. Liquid water arriving as slugs will wash the bed away in a fraction of its normal life, and oil carryover coats the tablets so they stop absorbing. The upstream separation is what makes the tablet consumption predictable.
Where is a deliquescent dryer the wrong choice?
Where a low or stable dew point is specified - instrument air, pneumatic controls in cold ambient, breathing air, paint that will not tolerate moisture. It cannot reach the sub-zero dew points a desiccant dryer reaches and it cannot hold a dew point independent of inlet temperature. It is a robust bulk-drying step, not a precision one.
Can the tablets be substituted with any desiccant?
No. Deliquescent tablets are formulated to dissolve as they absorb, whereas adsorbent desiccants such as silica gel and molecular sieve hold water on their surface and are meant to be regenerated. Putting an adsorbent in a deliquescent vessel gives a bed that saturates and stays saturated, because there is no regeneration cycle to dry it out.