ANALYSIS OF HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER PERFORMANCE OF INTERNALLY HEATED LIQUID DESICCANT REGENERATORS

摘要

The use of liquid desiccant cooling and dehumidification system in a hybrid configuration shows definite advantages in terms of enhanced COP and increased possibility for low grade thermal energy application such as solar energy. A rigorous parametric analysis of heat and mass transfer performance of an internally heated liquid desiccant solution regenerator (IHLDR) is presented in this paper. The purpose of this paper is to better understand the performance behavior of IHLDRs for different operating parameters and to explore the possibility of solar energy application for solution regeneration. Several parameters that determine the heat and mass transfer performance of an IHLDR are identified. Two parameters namely; water removed from the solution and the recoverable sensible heat from the exit air are used to report the performance. It was concluded in this study that the solution can be regenerated at temperatures easily available from a solar collector system in an IHLDR and that it is highly desirable to use a heat exchanger to recover the sensible heat from the air leaving the regenerator.