Parametric and Performance Investigations on Novel Multipurpose Liquid Desiccant Drying/Desalination System

Abstract

In humid climates, due to high relative humidity present in the ambient air, traditional air drying system is becoming inefficient for drying the agricultural/food products. On the other hand, there is a scarcity of useful drinking water in many parts of the world. In order to meet the aforementioned requirements, a novel multipurpose liquid desiccant drying/desalination system has been proposed in the present study by replacing water as a working fluid instead of air in the liquid desiccant regenerator and by adding an energy efficient heat exchanger to the conventional liquid desiccant air conditioning system. A thermal model has been developed for assessing the performance of the novel system and for comparing the performance of the novel system with conventional system. Using the developed model, parametric studies on novel and conventional systems are carried out by choosing the system efficiency as a performance criterion and Lithium chloride as a liquid desiccant. From the parametric studies and performance comparison analysis, it is observed that novel system efficiency is 20.8% higher than the conventional system and the amount of pure water extracted from the novel system is observed to be 4.3 l/min as a byproduct.