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Pressure dew-point

At a specific temperature, when gas, that is loaded with moisture (gaseous water), cools
down, liquid water will arise in the form of fine mist in the gas or dew on solid surfaces.
This specific temperature is called dew-point temperature or simply dew-point.

However, neither liquid water nor the tendency of forming liquid water within the gas are
wanted or permitted for many application processes. Thus, drying methods are applied
in order to reduce the dew-point of the process gas (e.g. compressed air) in a way that
no condensation takes place and no liquid water forms within the process gas.
The dew-point is a temperature measured in C or F. Therefore, it is easy to
understand and directly related to many processes parameters, which is why the dew-
point is a favoured expression when measuring or indicating the moisture content in a
gas.
Compared to indications of a concentration, which describe the ratio of amounts of
water and gas (e.g. stated as g/m), the dew-point describes the "behaviour" of moisture
within a gas depending on the gas temperature. Thus, the dew-point itself is not suitable
for a mass balance indication, but can be converted by means of formulas or tables
(see water vapour content table).
However, there is a direct relationship between the dew-point and the relative humidity
(rh). Identical gas and dew-point temperatures mean a relative humidity of 100% and
thus a gas saturated with moisture.

Furthermore, it is important to distinguish between dew-point and pressure dew-point:

dew-point is related to non-pressurised, atmospheric air (atmospheric dew-point)

pressure dew-point is related to a compressed gas (e.g. compressed air) at a specific
operating pressure

When expanding a compressed gas to atmospheric pressure, its volume expands. The
moisture, solute in the gas, is dispensed to a bigger volume the gas gets drier. As a
consequence, the dew-point of a gas, measured at atmospheric conditions, is much
lower than the pressure dew-point of the same gas, measured in compressed
conditions. Therefore, when indicating a dew-point, the related pressure must always be
stated as well, in order to avoid a mix-up and thus mistakes when selecting and sizing a
dryer.
Dew-points of compressed air dryers are usually stated as pressure dew-points, but it is
always worth to double-check! In case it should be necessary, atmospheric dew-points
and pressure dew-points can be converted into each other.

Example
Summertime sitting in a beer garden. The waitress serves a cold glass of beer.
Fantastic but something is going on at the beer glass. The cold glass cools down the
warm, non-saturated but moisture containing ambient air on its surface. As long as the
temperature does not fall below the dew-point, the glass stays dry. Below dew-point, the
moisture condenses to water on the cold glass surface first as a thin wet film, later by
forming droplets.

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