Sustainable Management of Air-Conditioning Systems Condensate Water Recovery

The global water crisis represents one of humanity’s most pressing challenges, with over 2 billion people lacking access to safely managed drinking water. This study presents the implementation and evaluation of an innovative air-conditioning condensate recovery system at Building F of the Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (FIEE), Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico. The system integrates twenty-six 24,000 BTU air-conditioning units across twelve classrooms and two laboratories, recovering approximately 520 L of condensate water daily. An initial physicochemical characterization of the recovered condensate was conducted through pH, electrical conductivity (EC), and total dissolved solids (TDS) measurements. In addition, the dried residue obtained after evaporation of the condensate was examined using semi-quantitative X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis. The XRF results describe the relative elemental composition of the dried residue and must not be interpreted as aqueous concentrations or as evidence of compliance with water-quality standards. The recovery system includes a nominal 0.5 µm polypropylene sediment cartridge, activated-carbon filtration, and a Crystolite® treatment medium. Because paired measurements before and after treatment were not performed, the removal efficiencies of these components were not determined. The recovered water is subsequently stored and processed in a dual-tank configuration: a primary 3300 L storage system and a secondary 200 L tank used to prepare fertilizer-amended condensate for ornamental-plant irrigation. A fully water-soluble monopotassium phosphate fertilizer (MKP, 0 (–52–34) was incorporated at a gravimetric proportion of 1:10 (1 g MKP per 10 g recovered condensate water).