Experimental and Numerical Study on Heat and Mass Transfer of Cross-Flow Liquid Desiccant Dehumidifier/Regenerator

Abstract

A liquid desiccant air dehumidification system driven by heat pump was established. The performance of cross-flow dehumidifier/regenerator was experimentally investigated. The empirical correlations of Sherwood number for dehumidification/regeneration were obtained by fitting the experimental data. On the basis of the empirical correlations of Sherwood number and thermodynamics analysis of heat and mass transfer process for dehumidifier/regenerator, a cross-flow heat and mass transfer model was established. The effects of air and solution parameters on the dehumidification/regeneration performance were analyzed. The number of mass transfer units and the height-to-length ratio of the packing module were also studied. The results show that there exist optimal number of mass transfer units and height-to-length ratio in the dehumidifier/regenerator.