Innovation Exchange Challenge: Condensation Removal

Several UK Government bodies, notably, those working in the field of law enforcement, have a requirement to operate discreetly from unventilated, confined spaces. A typical scenario would be police officers in a parked car undertaking surveillance of suspected criminal activity. Such scenarios take place all year round. When the weather is particularly cold, humid or hot, problems can arise from excessive condensation in the work area. This is exacerbated in high-stress situations, where officers may be perspiring or breathing more heavily than normal. It’s often undesirable to open doors or windows, and in the case of discreet vehicle-based work, it’s not feasible to drain the battery through use of the vehicle’s own ventilation system, or to mitigate this by leaving the engine running to maintain a good state of battery charge.

There is a range of commercial and domestic active and passive portable dehumidifiers that could help to remove excessive moisture from the air and alleviate the problem of condensation forming on windows and within sensitive electronic equipment in confined spaces. Active dehumidifiers, however, invariably require a mains electricity supply to operate which, in many scenarios, would not be available. Passive, desiccant-type dehumidifiers have the advantage of not requiring power, but they’re unable to absorb moisture at a sufficient rate to provide an effective solution to this challenge.

The gap, therefore, is for a portable, either self-powered or unpowered, and discreet (quiet) in operation means to either prevent or significantly reduce the formation of condensation on windows and other surfaces caused by people working in confined spaces.

Briefing Call

At an open Briefing Call via MS Teams at 10.00am – 11.00am on 05/07/23, members of the Op-Tech CCS Challenge Team were available to provide additional context and information on this Challenge, and attendees could ask Clarification Questions. NB; please note that failure to attend the Briefing Call does not exclude Community Collaborators and suppliers from submitting a proposal by the deadline stated below.

Click here to watch the recorded briefing.

Click here to download the FAQs following the briefing.

Entrants must be established businesses, startups, SMEs or individual entrepreneurs. Applications from SMEs are welcomed. Academic institutions may apply. You may be based in the UK or in any of the “Five Eyes” countries (UK, US, Canada, Aus, NZ).