SERI(Solar Energy Research Institute) Desiccant Cooling Test Facility. Status Report. Preliminary Data on the Performance of a Rotary Parallel-Passage Silica-Gel Dehumidifier

摘要

This report describes the SERI Desiccant Cooling Test Facility. The facility can test bench-scale rotary dehumidifiers over a wide range of controlled conditions. We constructed and installed in the test loop a prototype parallel-passage rotary dehumidifier that has spirally wound polyester tape coated with silica gel. The initial tests gave satisfactory results indicating that approximately 90% of the silica gel was active and the overall Lewis number of the wheel was near unity. The facility has several minor difficulties including an inability to control humidity satisfactorily and nonuniform and highly turbulent inlet velocities. To completely validate the facility requires a range of dehumidifier designs. Several choices are available including constructing a second parallel-passage dehumidifier with the passage spacing more uniform. (ERA citation 11:037794)