Review of internally cooled liquid desiccant air dehumidification: Materials, components, systems, and performances

Abstract

Energy-efficient air dehumidification process plays an important role in achieving energy conservation of air-conditioning systems in buildings. Internally cooled design for liquid desiccant air dehumidification system is regarded as promising to achieve energy-efficient air dehumidification. Different from the conventional adiabatic liquid desiccant dehumidifier, the cooling medium is installed inside the internally cooled dehumidifier (ICD) to provide cooling to the heat and mass transfer interface between desiccant and air. Thus, the increase of solution temperature and vapor partial pressure during the moisture absorption process can be decelerated, contributing to achieving better dehumidification performance. This paper aims to overview current research on the ICD design, including the materials of the desiccant and device, component design and system configuration, as well as the dehumidification performance assessment at the component level and energy performance evaluation at the system level. Moreover, chief limitations of current internally cooled liquid desiccant air dehumidification systems for real engineering application are then discussed and illustrated. This review helps comprehensively understand the development and research status of the ICD technique, and provides reference for widely applying the design to real engineering applications.