Dynamic Performance Characterization of Bound, Porous Silica Gel Desiccant

摘要

Drying of air with silica gel is a well established procedure. However, for the specific use of silica gel in a novel desiccant air conditioning system, which continually cools the silica gel and utilizes solar energy for silica gel regeneration, conventional packed bed devices are not suitable. For this system to operate effectively the silica gel must not rise in its temperature or its capacity will be greatly diminished. Dynamic dehumidificatuion performance was investigted for a silica gel desiccant fabricated in bound, porous paper-like sheets. Sheets of various thickness (0.7 to 3 mm) were fabricated and tested under several dynamic flow conditions in a flat rectangular channel apparatus. During each experiment conditions of inlet moisture, air flowrate, and sheet temperature were maintained constant. Comparisons were also made with conventional silica gel pellets and with other forms of bound silica gel. The sheets show superior utilization of silica gel in short times (30 minutes or less). Tests were also made to examine the sheet structure in order to explore the effect of temperature on the porous structure, and to obtain pore size distributions. (ERA citation 05:025691)