Experimental and numerical investigation on the performance of an internally cooled dehumidifier

Abstract

Liquid desiccant based dehumidifiers are important components of the air conditioning applications. Internally cooled dehumidifiers with liquid desiccants are deemed to be superior to the adiabatic types, thanks to the cooling medium which takes away the latent heat of vaporization occured when moist air contacts with liquid desiccant. However, its utilization in industrial applications is restricted due to the inherent corrosive characteristics of the liquid desiccants. In this study, an experimental chamber is built for epoxy coated plate fin type dehumidifier which is used in order to diminish the corrosive effect of the lithium chloride aqueous solution. Dehumidification effectiveness and moisture removal rate, two parameter indices, are adopted to measure the performance of the air conditioning system. The effect of inlet operating parameters on moisture removal rates is extensively analyzed. Two dimensional numerical model adapted from the conservation principles is utilized for obtainment of output parameters. Experimental results are compared with the numerical model and comparisons show that numerical outputs agrees with the experimental results. And also, dehumidification performance of lithium chloride and lithium bromide aqueous solutions are evaluated and compared against each other.