Experimental investigation of the solid desiccant dehumidification system with metal organic frameworks

Abstract

• This paper investigate the dehumidification performance of MOFs desiccant coated heat exchanger. • Maximum water uptake capacity of MOFs desiccant was around 0.4 g•g −1 in given operating condition. • 90% of MOFs with 10% of solvent and binder mixture coated on the metallic fin of heat exchanger. • Increase of coating thickness can achieve the 131% of dehumidification performance. • The decrease of space velocity shows the over 160% enhancement of dehumidification performance. In this study, the comprehensive study of the performance investigation of Solid Desiccant Based Dehumidification (SDBD) system which involves the desiccant selection and desiccant coating with metallic heat exchanger was conducted at the mild humid conditions which represent the humid air conditions in summer, South Korea. The water uptake capacity of three different solid desiccants was investigated to find the proper solid desiccant in the SDBD system under the given operating conditions. Among the three different solid desiccants, the aluminum fumarate based metal organic frameworks (MOFs) was selected as the best solid desiccant for SDBD system and it has the maximum water uptake capacity around 0.398 g·g −1 for given operating conditions. The aluminum fumarate based metal organic frame works (MOFs) was coated on the metallic surface of heat exchanger by current developed coating method and the desiccant and binder solution is consistent of 10% of binder and solvent mixture and 90% of aluminum fumarate based MOFs. As a result, the increase of coating thickness from 0.05 mm to 0.2 mm and operating time from 150 s to 300 s can achieve the 113% and 131% of dehumidification performance enhancement in average, respectively. Remarkably, over 160% improvement of dehumidification performance in average can be achieved by the decrease of space velocity from 13 s −1 to 5.2 s −1 .