The 'Frig-Enerator-Water Supply': A Working US Army Sponsored Prototype
by John Laumer, Philadelphia 
on 08. 7.06
Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends has in-depth coverage of two "Engineers at the University of Florida [who] have developed and built a system that can provide power, water and refrigeration from a single unit. This project, funded by the U.S. Army, will lead to units small enough to fit inside a military jet or a large truck. The prototype system is already more efficient than conventional turbines. And it is also environmentally friendly because it can use traditional fossil fuels as well as biomass-produced fuels or hydrogen and releases only small amounts of pollutants. This kind of system could be used as a mobile unit in case of hurricanes or wars. But it might also be connected to the normal power grid in fixed locations". See the Gainsville Times article for some local Florida coverage of the story.
This is how distributed power was meant to be. When the owner is consuming less than full output of the generator, but the refrigeration portion is still "on demand," surplus electricity is sold to the grid operator. Conversely, when the owner needs more electricity than the generator can provide, either the grid or a solar panel makes up the difference. Total fuel efficiency is very high (remember there is no transmission line loss), as is owner autonomy. We assume that potable water production is contingent upon running this guy with pure H2.
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We assume that potable water production is contingent upon running this guy with pure H2.
Aren't we forgetting condensate water from the evaporator cooling the air?
From the linked article: The refrigeration makes the gas turbine more efficient, while also producing cool air and potable water.
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=== author'sr esponse follows ====
yeah maybe in Florida it would air harvest enough water. But in all those desert envrionments that the US Army is likely to be sent, not a chance. However, now that you mention it, it might be possible to take condensate out of the turbine exhausts even with natgas fuel and then polish the condensate with a carbon filter. Anyone else?
I worked on a project once where we were cooling diesel ehaust to try to make it quieter. Although we knew that water was a big part of the combustion process, none of us expected the large amount of water that was produced from the cooled exhaust. It was quite amazing. It definitely needed to be processed to remove soot from it but overall, it was probably producing more water by volume than the diesel that was being burned.
C'mon now, in the desert one would use a swamp cooler. A swamp cooler can use saline or otherwise non-potable water for a significant cooling effect.
Subsequent evaporative conditioning of the humidified air would produce very cool dry air and easily treated potable water.
Joe also makes a very good point reminding us of the large volumes of water contained in the by-products of hydrocarbon combustion.
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We have built and demosntrated an On Boratd water system for us on Military truck is the field.
Why isnt the army using it?
www.miragewatermaker.com