Desiccants made in any solid form

Tom Shelley reports on a development to do away with bags of desiccant A range of moisture and vapour absorbents has been developed that can be moulded or machined into solid shapes. The VMAP range from Brownell - the initials stand for Vapour capture solids for Moisture And Odours - is the outcome of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Reading University. Made of silica gel molecular sieves bound into a polymer, the products offer the big advantage of producing no dust as well as making best use of limited space availabilities. A patent application was filed on April 25th 2006 only 12 months into the 27 month partnership, which has included the provision of graduate student Pierre Tchale and supervision by Professor Howard Calquhoun and Dr Wayne Hayes at Reading. The material is able to absorb most vapours but absorbs water first in order of preference. Each cubic centimetre of the usually cream coloured material has an effective surface area of 600 square metres. The material recovers about 50 per cent of its absorbing capacity on regeneration. The material can be readily fixed in place using screws, adhesives, or by mechanical methods. Applications are seen in electronics, optics, telecommunications, underwater systems, high voltage switchgear, instrumentation, defence and aerospace. Brownell