Department of Mechanical Engineering

Progress report
Course :
Refrigration and Air Conditioning
Project title:
Dehumidification system
Submitted to:

Engr. Muhammad Ahmad Jamil

Submitted by:
Vijay Kumar [ME171057]

Waqar Ahmad [ME171031]

Muhammad Tanveer [ME171012]

Abdul-Rehman [ME171014]
Dehumidifier
A dehumidifier is an electrical appliance which reduces and maintains the level of humidity in the
air, usually for health or comfort reasons, or to eliminate musty odor and to prevent the growth of
mildew by extracting water from the air. It can be used for household, commercial, or industrial
applications

Refrigerant dehumidifier
The way our refrigerant dehumidifiers work is similar to how condensation forms on a cold
window. A dehumidifier contains a compact refrigeration system which makes it the coldest place
in the room. Air is drawn into the cold dehumidifier where any moisture in the air condenses on
the hydrophilic coils and is collected into a container. The dehumidifiers are fully self-contained,
packaged units which incorporate an air circulation fan and refrigeration circuit. The fan draws
room air into the machine passing it firstly across a refrigerated heat exchanger (evaporator). This
cools the air, causing the moisture in the air-stream to be precipitated onto the evaporator as water.
The electrical driving energy, the energy recovered from the air-stream and the latent energy
gained from the dehumidification process is combined and fed to the refrigeration condenser which
is thereby heated. The cool dry air from the evaporator passes across this heated condenser before
being passed back into the room, dry and warm. The moisture collected from this process is fed
away to waste.

Figure 1 Refrigerant Dehumidifier

Desiccant dehumidifier
Our desiccant dehumidifiers use moisture-absorbing materials like silica gel. They are used for
when very low relative humidity is needed, work is being carried out at extremely
low temperatures, a low dew point is essential, or for when the unit has to be ducted into the area
that needs drying. Desiccant materials (such as silica gel) have a high affinity for absorbing water
vapour. Today, most desiccant dehumidifiers use the desiccant material in a ’rotor’ form. Rotors
are manufactured from alternate layers of flat and corrugated sheets impregnated with the active
component (desiccant). This forms a vast number of axial air channels running
parallel through the rotor structure. As air passes through these channels, moisture is transferred
between the air and the desiccant.

Figure 2 Desiccant dehumidifier

Dehumidification by Vapor compression cycle

One of the dehumidification process methods is by lowering air temperature until its dew point[1].
At dew point, a part of moisture content in the air will be condensed. The rest portion will be as
dried-air with lower relative humidity. The aim of dehumidifier design is how to use energy
efficiently. Evaporator and condenser take a role in the amount of internal heat loss effects. Most
refrigeration system based-dehumidifier perform far away from efficient points. The varies design
condition of the dehumidifier will lead to varies optimum points. Inappropriate dimensioning of
the heat exchanger component leads to this inefficient design conditions. Heat exchanger
components size and arrangement will be one of the most critical challenges of a refrigeration
based-dehumidifier design.
 Figure 3 Dehumidification by vapor compression cycles

Mathematical modeling
To model the refrigeration based dehumidifier the following assumptions are taken
✓ Heat losses to the surroundings are neglected.
✓ Pumping and fan powers are negligible compared to compressor power input.
✓ The system runs in a steady-state condition.
✓ Kinetic and potential energy terms are neglected in the energy balance.
Evaporator
The Heat absorbed during evaporation stage,

𝑄̇𝑒𝑣𝑝 = 𝑚̇(ℎ1 − ℎ4 )
Where,
𝐾𝐽
ℎ1 = 𝑒𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑦 𝑎𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑙𝑒 𝑖𝑛
𝑘𝑔
ℎ4 = 𝑒𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑝𝑦 𝑎𝑡 𝑒𝑣𝑎𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝐾𝐽/𝑘𝑔

Compressor
The power consumed by compressor is calculate as,
𝑊̇𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝 = 𝑚̇(ℎ2 − ℎ1 )
Where,
ℎ2 = 𝑒𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑝𝑦 𝑎𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑜𝑟 𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝐾𝐽/𝑘𝑔
Condenser
For the heat rejection by the condenser, the following expression on the energy balance in the
condenser can be used:
 𝑄̇𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑 = 𝑚̇(ℎ2 − ℎ3 )
Where,
ℎ3 = 𝑒𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑝𝑦 𝑎𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑛𝑠𝑜𝑟 𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑡

Effectiveness of dehumidifier
The effectiveness of dehumidifier is calculated as,
ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑟,𝑖𝑛 − ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑟,𝑜𝑢𝑡
𝜖𝑑𝑢 =
ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑟,𝑖𝑛 − ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑟,𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑙
where the ideal outlet air enthalpy (ha,out,ideal) is calculated when the outlet air is fully saturated
at the refrigerant inlet temperature.
Gain Output Ratio (GOR)
GOR is the most important performance indicator for DH system. it is defined as the ratio of latent
heat of evaporation of the distillate produced to the total energy input into the system, and it is
generally expressed as:
ℎ𝑓𝑔
𝐺𝑂𝑅 =
𝑊̇ 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝
The specific work consumption (sW)
The specific work consumption is the amount of electrical energy (in kJ) consumed to produce one
kilogram of fresh water, and can be expressed as,
𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑑𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑏𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑜𝑟
𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 =
𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑔𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑡

𝑊̇ 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝
𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 =
𝑚̇

Mathematical modeling using Engineering Equation Solver(EES)

"Refrigerant Dehumidifer"

"Thermophysical properties of air "

P_atm =101.3[kPa]
T_room=30[C]
phi = 60[% ] "Relative Humidity"
rho_air =1.1614 [kg/m^3] "Density of air @30C"
C_p_air =1.007[kJ/kg·K] "Specific heat"
P_s = 2.545[kPa] "Pressure at 30[C]"
P_t =P_atm "Atomospheric pressure"
"Humidity Ratio"
w= 0.622*P_s/(P_t-P_s)

"Enthalpy of moist air"

h= enthalpy(water, P =P_s, T =T_room )
h_moistair =(T_room*C_p_air)+(w*h)

"Specific volume of air @30[C]"

R_a =0.287[J/kg·K]
T =303[K]
v=R_a*T/(P_t-P_s)

"Refrigeration cycle"
P_cond =1354[kPa]
P_evp =354.3[kPa]
R$ ='R134a'

"Compressor"
m_dot_r =0.001[kg/s]
x[1] =1
h[1]=enthalpy(R$, P=P_evp, x =x[1])
s[1]=entropy(R$, P=P_evp, x=x[1])
T[1]=temperature(R$, P=P_evp, s=s[1])

W_dot_comp =m_dot_r*(h[2]-h[1]) "The power consumed by the compressor"

"Condensor"
s[1]=s[2]
h[2]= enthalpy(R$, P=P_cond, s=s[1]) "Super-heated state"
T[2]=temperature(R$, P=P_cond, s=s[1])
Q_dot_cond =m_dot_r*(h[2]-h[3]) "The heat rejection by the condenser"

"Evaporator"
x[3] =0
h[3]=enthalpy(R$, P=P_cond, x=x[3])
s[3] =entropy(R$, P=P_cond, x=x[3])
h[3]=h[4]
Q_dot_evp =m_dot_r*(h[1]-h[4])

"Coefficient of Performance"

cop =Q_dot_evp/W_dot_comp

"Gain Output ratio"

h_fg =h[1]-h[4]
GOR =(m_dot_r*h_fg)/W_dot_comp

"Specific Work Consumption"

SWC =W_dot_comp/m_dot_r
Results
After running the programm we get the following results,