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Review Liqui Desiccant
Review Liqui Desiccant
art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t
Article history: It is important to decrease the energy cost of heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems
Received 5 November 2014 without compromising indoor air quality and comfort conditions due to the rising cost of fossil fuels and
Received in revised form other environmental concerns. Liquid desiccant cooling systems are one of the alternatives in this regard
19 August 2015
which is not only environmental friendly (no use of any refrigerant which deplete ozone layer) but at the
Accepted 21 November 2015
Available online 9 December 2015
same time make a good use of alternative sources of energy like, solar, biomass etc. This paper presents
different commercially available liquid desiccants and their composites which combines the properties of
Keywords: two or more desiccant materials for better performance. A good desiccant should have better moisture
Liquid desiccant absorption capability and lower temperature of regeneration. This paper also includes the different
Composite desiccant materials
configurations of liquid desiccant dehumidifiers and their advantages as well as drawbacks. Some new
Adiabatic dehumidifier
configurations of liquid desiccant dehumidifiers have been introduced which greatly improves the sys-
Inner cooling
tem overall performance. Moreover, a summary of the performance parameters has been made to
analyze the system performance. This review is meaningful for the research and technical development
process of liquid desiccant technology.
& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
1.1. Energy and environmental issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
1.2. Human comfort and building indoor air quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
2. Alternative cooling systems and dehumidification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
3. Liquid desiccant cooling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
3.1. Performance parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
3.2. Comparison of desiccant cooling to conventional cooling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
3.3. Advantages of using liquid desiccants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
4. Liquid desiccant materials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
4.1. Composite desiccant materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
5. Liquid desiccant dehumidifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
5.1. Adiabatic dehumidifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
5.2. Dehumidifier with inner cooling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
6. Developments of liquid desiccant dehumidifier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
7. Dehumidifier packing material selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
8. Flow pattern inside the dehumidifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
9. Future view of research on the field of desiccant cooling technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
9.1. Making the best use of technology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
10. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
n
Corresponding author. Tel.: þ 966 13 860 2950.
E-mail address: pgandhi@kfupm.edu.sa (P. Gandhidasan).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.11.061
1364-0321/& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
180 M.M. Rafique et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 56 (2016) 179–195
1. Introduction indoor air quality [11]. These alternative systems reduces the
building energy consumption largely through the utilization of
1.1. Energy and environmental issues some alternative resources of energy, for example, solar, biomass
etc. [12]. Some alternative thermal cooling systems which directly
The fast depletion of conventional energy resources and utilizes the thermal energy are desiccant cooling, absorption
increasing demand of human comfort conditions because of cooling and jet cooling [13]. Solar energy can be effectively used
increase in world population is becoming a major global envir- for these systems because of variation in cooling load in phase
onmental issue. These issues of energy, environment and tech- with the solar radiation during the day [14]. Fig. 3 illustrates some
nology are interrelated and for clean and greener environment methods to convert the solar energy for the purpose of air con-
these issues must be treated simultaneously and with inter- ditioning [15]. In Fig. 3 market available solar assisted systems are
connectivity as shown in Fig. 1 [1]. represented as dark gray and technologies available as pilot pro-
A large amount of greenhouse gases are emitted due to the jects are marked as light gray. The thermal cooling system utilizes
burning of conventional energy resources. The emission of CO2 is thermal energy to provide the cooling effect. Fig. 4 illustrates the
increasing every year mostly because of economic development general principle of thermal cooling [16].
and fast increase in population in developing countries of the
world. The use of air conditioning and heating devices plays a
major role in the emission of these gases which causes depletion
3. Liquid desiccant cooling
of ozone layer and other environmental issues [2–4]. All of these
cause an increase in global temperature which causes many cli-
The control of indoor air temperature and relative humidity for
matic and weather disturbance, that is, cyclones, flooding, etc. [5].
the human comfort divides the building’s cooling load into sen-
Fig. 2 represents the increase in greenhouse gases because of
sible and latent load, respectively. The conventional compressor
human activities which affects the human health and sustain-
based air conditioners can control the building sensible load
ability of civilization [6,7].
effectively but these systems are less efficient to take the building
latent loads. In these systems a lot of energy is wasted to overcool
1.2. Human comfort and building indoor air quality
the air below its dew point to remove the moisture from the air by
the process of condensation and then again reheating the air to the
Because of the fact that indoor environment is mostly used for
required supply temperature. Secondly, this process of overcooling
human activities so, residential as well as commercial buildings
provides the conditions for the growth of molds and bacteria
uses a large amount of primary energy for its maintenance and to
because of surface wetting which can cause health issues by
support its occupant’s activities [8]. This demand of energy is
affecting indoor air quality [17]. Some alternative is required to
expected to increase because of increase in population and higher
avoid this wastage of energy because of overcooling and reheating
standards of living which directly affects the energy consumption.
[18]. The latent load is more dominant in hot and humid climates
It is expected that the consumption of electrical energy for indoor
and there is a need for air conditioning system to effectively
environment will increase 120% from 2002 to 2030 [9]. The con-
handle the latent loads [19]. The liquid desiccant cooling units
sumption of electrical energy for the agricultural sector increases
seem to be a feasible and cost effective alternative to provide the
to 56.7% in 2006 from 44.2% in 1973. The energy required to
human comfort conditions in hot and humid climates. It absorbs
provide human thermal comfort conditions (control of tempera-
and desorbs the moisture from and to the air during absorption
ture and relative humidity) is about 50% of building total energy
and regeneration processes respectively, as shown in Fig. 5 [20].
consumption which in most cases is in the form of electrical
In the liquid desiccant cooling system simultaneous transfer of
energy [10].
heat and mass occurs. The latent load is controlled by the transfer
of mass (moisture) from the humid air to the liquid desiccant
surface. For the process of mass transfer, three theories namely
2. Alternative cooling systems and dehumidification
penetration, film and surface renewable are mostly used. The film
In order to reduce the consumption of energy and to reduce the theory is mostly used for the mass transfer phenomenon. It was
greenhouse gases emissions some alternative methods are proposed by Nernset [21] by assuming the presence of resistance
required to provide the thermal comfort conditions and better to mass transfer within small region close to interference of two
streams. Two film theory was developed by Whiteman [22].
Fig. 3. Methods for the conversion of solar energy into air conditioning or cooling process [15].
Fig. 4. Principle of the thermally activated cooling systems [16]. The commonly used performance parameters which are utilized
to investigate the performance of the system are listed in Table 1.
Table 1
Performance parameters used for liquid desiccant cooling systems.
Moisture removal rate (g/s) It represents the removed water vapor from the humid process air by the liquid desiccant cooling unit.
Humidity or moisture effectiveness It is ratio between actual change in humidity ratio of the air across the dehumidifier to the maximum possible change in humidity
ratio of air.
Enthalpy effectiveness It is ratio between actual change in enthalpy of the air across the dehumidifier to the maximum possible change in enthalpy of air.
Sensible heat ratio It is the ratio between the sensible energy to the total energy removed from the process air by the dehumidifier.
Cooling capacity (kW) It is the overall cooling effect produced by the system. It is a difference between the enthalpies of inlet and process air.
Coefficient of performance It represents the ratio between the cooling capacity to the total consumed energy (electrical and thermal) by the liquid desiccant
cooling system.
Electrical coefficient of performance It is a ratio between the system cooling capacity to the consumed electrical energy by the liquid desiccant cooling system.
Thermal coefficient of performance It is a ratio between the unit cooling capacity to the consumed thermal energy in the liquid desiccant cooling system.
Fig. 6. Heat and mass exchanger configurations for various desiccant cooling technologies [35].
4. Liquid desiccant materials desiccant material will have a direct effect on the desiccant
dehumidifier design.
A desiccant material attracts the water vapor towards itself and The earliest used liquid desiccant is triethylene glycol but its
these materials are used where air of low dew point is needed. The use is limited because it has high viscosity which causes system
strength of a liquid desiccant can be measured by its equilibrium operation unstable because of liquid residence. They are low toxic
vapor pressure, which is water vapor pressure that is in equili- and compatible with most of the metals but all glycols are volatile
brium with liquid desiccant material. The vapor pressure expo- because of very low surface vapor pressure, some of it evaporates
nentially increases with the temperature of the water or desiccant with air into the conditioned space which sometimes makes them
and also increases as the water is absorbed by the desiccant, that unacceptable for air conditioning applications [38]. The dew point
is, equilibrium vapor pressure will be higher for a dilute liquid temperature of air by using a solution of triethylene glycol (96%)
desiccant than a concentrated one [37]. and water (4%) can be achieved with LiCl solution concentration of
Some other parameters which indicate desiccant materials 42% by weight. But at equilibrium point, the molar concentration
performance are: of the glycol in the air will be in the order of 1% that of the water
vapor which means annual loss of triethylene glycol in air con-
Energy storage density ditioning applications will be very high.
Temperature for regeneration Salts of Halides such as LiCl and LiBr can dry air to 15% and 6%
Boiling point elevation (BPE) relative humidity, respectively but these salts are naturally corro-
Availability sive. LiCl is a very good desiccant because at ambient conditions it
Cost will not vaporize and it has low viscosity which reduces the
required pumping power but its mixing with the process air must
A good desiccant should have the following properties: be avoided. Halide salts are relatively expensive in nature [39].
Another alternate of low corrosive and non-volatile desiccants
Large saturation absorption capacity are salts of weak organic acids such as, potassium or sodium for-
Low regeneration temperature mate and acetate. Potassium acetate is less expensive it can dry air
Low Viscosity up to 25% relative humidity but its viscosity becomes very high. At
High heat transfer a temperature of 27 °C and concentration of 70% by weight of
Non-volatile potassium acetate has a viscosity of about 28 cp (0.028 Pa/s) but
Non-corrosive LiCL solution concentration of 43.l% by weight at the same tem-
Odorless perature, has almost half of that viscosity.
Non-toxic Weak organic acid salts like sodium formate or potassium and
Non-flammable acetate are less corrosive and less volatile as compared to halide
Stable salt. Formate salts are less viscous than acetate salts at con-
Inexpensive centrations with equivalent equilibrium relative humidity.
Although potassium formate is a relatively weaker desiccant as
Surface tension plays important role in static hold up and compared to LiBr or LiCl but it has the ability to dry the air below
surface wetting of heat and mass exchanger of liquid desiccant 30% relative humidity and it can be a good alternative desiccant for
system. many applications.
Commonly used liquid desiccants in the industrial dehumidi- Zuber et al. [40] and Ahmed et al. [41] provided thermo-
fiers are glycols and solutions of halide salts which include lithium dynamic properties of single desiccants. Among different desic-
chloride (LiCl), lithium bromide (LiBr), calcium chloride (CaCl2), cants LiCl has lowest vapor pressure and found to be most stable
triethylene glycol and mixture of salts etc. The selection of a but this desiccant is very expensive as compared to other liquid
184 M.M. Rafique et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 56 (2016) 179–195
One of the adiabatic dehumidifiers namely packed bed dehu- Fig. 8. A liquid desiccant dehumidification system with liquid–liquid heat
exchanger [64].
midifier is the main focus of most of the researchers. Fumo and
Goswami [57] modeled a packed bed dehumidifier for heat and
dehumidifier which makes the system well feasible for continuous
mass transfer using packing of polypropylene having a volumetric
operation.
surface area of 210 m2/m3 and experimentally measured its per-
Lof [66] by using triethylene glycol as the desiccant material,
formance with LiCl solution. They concluded that because of the
suggested and experimentally tested the earliest liquid desiccant
high surface tension, solution of LiCl did not wet the packing
system and found the system well feasible for hot and humid
uniformly. An empirical formula for estimation of fraction of bed
climatic conditions. Patnaik et al. [67] developed a liquid desiccant
wetted surface area was developed and the performance results of
dehumidification system which compromises of packed bed
the theoretical model were found in good agreement with the
dehumidifier which utilizes aqueous LiBr to dry the air. The results
measured results.
showed that cooling capacities of about 3.5–14.0 kW can be
Khoukhi et al [58] experimentally studied the twin rotor
achieved with such systems.
desiccant cooling system and Enteria et al. [59] made a parametric
Nagaya [68] made an investigation for the desiccant dehumi-
investigation for a modeled twin rotor desiccant cooling. Enteria difier performance for automobile air conditioner and the results
and Mizutani [16] summarized thermally activated desiccant obtained showed that this system is more efficient as compared to
cooling systems. Enteria et al. [60] made a comprehensive inves- conventional cooling system. Camargo et al. [69] investigated the
tigation of different thermally activated desiccant cooling systems desiccant cooling unit for equatorial and tropical climates of dif-
and experimentally showed the system dependence upon climatic ferent cities and investigated the system performance for different
conditions and different components performance. operating parameters.
Liu et al. [61] used structured packing with a solution of LiCl for Babakhani [70] developed an analytical solution for simulta-
estimation of a cross-flow desiccant dehumidifier performance. neous transfer of heat and mass in an adiabatic liquid desiccant
They presented the experimental results in term of rate of dehumidifier. The results showed that, a better prediction of
moisture removal and the dehumidifier performance for various dehumidifier performance can be made by using Lewis number
values of desiccant flow rates, air flow rates, desiccant and air inlet (Le) of 1.1 instead of 1. Similarly, Diaz [71] developed a transient
temperature, desiccant inlet concentration, and specific humidity heat and mass transfer model for a liquid desiccant dehumidifier.
of inlet air. The liquid desiccant falls down the walls of dehumidifier as a thin
Liu et al. [62] and Liu and Jiang [63] presented an analytical film. The transient distribution of water vapor and instantaneous
solution for the coupled heat and mass transfer for a packed-bed average Sherwood and Nusselt numbers along desiccant-air
system by using the assumptions of minimal change in desiccant interface were studied.
concentration and Lewis number of one. The results of analytical Seenivasan et al. [72] investigated the effect of different para-
solutions are closely in agreement with exact numerical solutions meters like desiccant concentration, desiccant solution tempera-
and with experimental data. ture, desiccant and air flow rates, and relative humidity on the
Jain and Bansal [64] used empirical relations to predict the effectiveness of liquid desiccant dehumidifier using CaCl2 as the
performance of packed bed dehumidifiers compromising of three desiccant material. The optimum values of these parameters were
different liquid desiccant materials (CaCl2, LiCl, and triethylene found for high effectiveness of dehumidifier under the following
glycol). It was found that, the value of dehumidifier effectiveness operating conditions: desiccant temperature 25 °C, concentration
varies from 10% to 50% or more. The results also showed that, more 40%, desiccant flow rate 2.25 kg/m2 s, air flow rate 1 kg/m2 s, and
comprehensive empirical models are required for better estima- RH 85%.
tion of liquid desiccant dehumidifier performance. The perfor- Gommed et al. [73] experimentally measured the performance
mance of liquid desiccant dehumidifier can be improved by using of packed-bed heat and mass exchangers using LiCl solution. The
a liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger between the absorber and copper and polypropylene tubes were used as contact surfaces in
regenerator as shown in Fig. 8. the dehumidifier. The results showed that the copper tubes are
Katejaneken et al. [65] experimentally studied a liquid desic- more active to corrosion while in contact with the desiccant
cant (LiCl) ventilation preconditioning system. The results showed solution and on the other hand wetting is much difficult while
that system can reduce the relative humidity by about 11% while using polypropylene tubes. Then the researchers employed adia-
the temperature remains almost equal to the ambient air tem- batic packed beds of 285 m2/m3. The results showed that dripping
perature. It has also been found that evaporation rate remains of LiCl solution over the packing with suitable drop size to avoid
always greater than the absorbed moisture by the liquid carryover of the desiccant is better than spraying.
186 M.M. Rafique et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 56 (2016) 179–195
Gommed and Grossman [74] made a field test of 16 kW capa- regenerating chamber, the both chambers are filled with liquid
city liquid desiccant cooling system using LiCl solution flowing desiccant to the level where the porous material is completely
through the dehumidifier to absorb moisture from the air. The submerged. The COP of the system was found in the order of
results showed the system can achieve the coefficient of perfor- 0.3 even at lower regeneration temperature of 50 °C which makes
mance of 0.8. the use of solar energy feasible for the continuous operation of the
Chen et al. [75] used four cross flow packed bed dehumidifiers system.
with 42–48% (by weight) LiBr solution to conduct a field test for Koronaki et al. [80] developed an analytical model for coupled
liquid desiccant cooling system. The air flows in series through all heat and mass transfer performance of the liquid desiccant
the four beds. The flow of air and the desiccant was in counter dehumidifier and whole cooling unit under Mediterranean cli-
flow so that the air can flow in direction of increasing desiccant matic conditions and investigated the effect of ambient tempera-
concentration through the bed. Hot water at about 69 °C and 73 °C ture and humidity ratio on thermal COP of the system, load cov-
was used as regeneration sources for the desiccant. The obtained erage and dehumidification rate.
results showed that the unit had an average coefficient of perfor-
mance of 1.5. 5.2. Dehumidifier with inner cooling
Kumar [76] developed new cycles for the improvement of the
overall system performance and experimentally studied the The adiabatic dehumidifiers are widely used for commercial as
influence of different parameters on dehumidifier and regenerator well as residential cooling applications because it allows large
individual performance. To avoid the desiccant carry over with the contacting area between air and desiccant with simple configura-
air, mist eliminators (droplet filters) are utilized. These mist tion. The heat and mass transfer efficiency of these dehumidifiers is
eliminators can decrease carryover of desiccant to parts per billion very high but it causes a large pressure drop on process air side
of process air flow, but air side pressure drop is increased due to while flowing through the packing material. Another drawback of
these eliminators and more maintenance is required. these dehumidifiers is the desiccant temperature increase during
Saman and Alizadeh [77] tested a liquid desiccant air condi- removal of moisture from the process air which decreases the
tioner with evaporative cooler by using a plastic plates of 0.2 mm dehumidifier performance and in turn air temperature and
thickness and of 600 m2 as contact surface area inside the dehu- humidity cannot be controlled efficiently. Also, for complete wet-
midifier. A solution of 40% CaCl2 was used as the desiccant which ting of packing material and to avoid desiccant solution tempera-
was sprayed on the plates. For the value of maximum process air ture to rise, the flow rates should be high in packed bed dehumi-
flow, the mass flow rates ratio of desiccant to air was 0.1. The difiers. The condition of complete wetting can be fulfilled at low
results showed that with 0.3 kg/s of process air flow rate, effec- desiccant flow rates by the addition of surfactants to the desiccant
tiveness (process air enthalpy change/maximum theoretical limit) or by increasing surface energy of the packing by different treat-
of 0.75 can be achieved. ments. However, again in order to keep the desiccant at low tem-
Hamed et al. [78] proposed and experimentally tested a new perature, a high flow rate will always be required.
liquid dehumidifier having a rotary shape of 50 cm diameter and In order to avoid these problems and to remove heat generated
thickness of 10 cm. The rotor of the wheel consists of multiple inside the dehumidifier, dehumidifier with inner cooling is gaining
narrow slots as shown in Fig. 9. These narrow slots are filled with a attention, as shown in Fig. 11. These are good alternative in which
thick cloth impregnated with LiCl solution. The experimental high wetting of surface as well as lower temperature of desiccant
results showed that 95 g water per hour can be absorbed in the solution can be achieved without high flow rates and desiccant
absorption cycle and at regeneration temperature of 85 °C, the droplets carryover as well as the higher pressure drop can be
absorbed and desorbed amount of water becomes equal. avoided [81].
So'Brien and Satcunanathan [79] proposed a liquid desiccant Scalabrin and Scaltriti [82] simulated a dehumidifier with
cooling system with simultaneous dehumidification of air and internal cooling and heated regenerator of an open processed
regeneration of desiccant solution without using any mechanical summer air conditioning system. At a low temperature of liquid
circulation as shown in Fig. 10. The proposed system consists of desiccant more moisture can be absorbed because of low vapor
two chambers made of stainless steel. One chamber is dehumi- pressure. Gommed [83] experimentally analyzed the performance
difying chamber and the other one is regenerating chamber. The of packed bed heat and mass transfer exchanger with a solution of
chambers are interconnected by two passages. The upper passage LiCl. The dehumidifier (conditioner) and regenerator used were
is filled with porous material and lower one is unfilled. In order to internally cooled units with contact surfaces made of copper tubes
avoid the mixing between the air flowing over the surface of the or polypropylene tube. But main drawback of using copper and
solution in the dehumidifying chamber and that in the polypropylene tubes is that copper can be easily corroded and
wetting is very difficult in the case of polypropylene tubes.
During the dehumidification, the embedded cooling coils in the
packing material removes heat from the dehumidifier and the
outer insulation layer serves to prevent transfer of heat from
outside air to the dehumidification unit. A cross flow dehumidifier
unit, as shown in Fig. 11 [81], requires relatively large flow rate of
desiccant solution for the better control of humidity. This config-
uration can be replaced by counter or parallel-flow.
The embedded cooling coils in the consecutive plates of the
packing layers are another possible configuration for inner cooled
dehumidifier to remove the heat during moisture removal process.
In order to increase the desiccant and air contacting area corru-
gated plates can be used instead of consecutive plates. Yoon et al.
[84] proposed dehumidifier with different channels with one for
Fig. 9. Desiccant bed details [78]. 1, Rotating desiccant bed; 2, spring with cloth
layer; 3, spring; 4, rotating shaft hole; 5, desiccant bed cover; 6, ball bearing sup- the flow of air and desiccant solution and the other for the flow of
port; 7, ball bearing holder; 8, ball bearing; 9, slot. cooling water or cooling air, as shown in Fig. 12.
M.M. Rafique et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 56 (2016) 179–195 187
Fig. 10. (a) Overall view of the system under study; (b) Cross-sectional view; (c) Side view [79].
use of direct evaporative cooling unit. This configuration of the problems. The desiccant is usually sprayed or dripped onto these
system is shown in Fig. 14. In this unit a stream of secondary air is tubes and air is drawn past them. An internally cooled conditioner
brought in contact with the spray of water in order to cool down does not require high thermal capacitance of the desiccant to
the desiccant solution flowing in another channel. lower the desiccant temperature during absorption but for com-
The droplet carryover from liquid desiccant dehumidifiers in plete wetting of the packing, still high flow rate is required. Coil or
which halide salts are used is a dangerous and discouraging issue tube-type dehumidifiers are rarely used with halide salts desic-
for air conditioning applications. This problem can be eliminated cants because of corrosion and high cost.
by using internally cooled dehumidifiers which can work at rela- Mesquita et al. [88] developed three models of laminar flow
tively very low flow rates. Laevemann et al. [87] and Lowenstein and water-cooled liquid desiccant conditioner. Using published
et al. [39] proposed desiccant dehumidifiers in which desiccant is data with simplest model, mass and energy balances on a discrete
directly delivered onto the conditioner cooled plates. The velocity control volume, heat and mass transfer coefficient between the air
of air at the gap is less than 4.5 m/s in this system which avoids the and the desiccant was calculated. For concentration gradient and
desiccant carry over with the air. the temperature across the desiccant and air films, the most
Packed-bed is most commonly used for the contact surface sophisticated model was used in order to calculate the thickness of
between air and desiccant solution and in some conditioners inner the film. Queiroz et al. [89] developed a model for the calculation
cooling is also utilized. The contact surface between the air and the of operating conditions for a non-adiabatic liquid desiccant
desiccant is a bundle of tubes and the material of these tubes dehumidifier. Triethylene glycol and air flows counter currently
depends upon the nature of the desiccant material. For example, outside the falling film staggered copper tubes. Water flows inside
for halide salts copper tubes are used to limit the corrosion the tubes to increase the mass transfer potential.
Yin et al. [90] designed an internally cooled/heated dehumidi-
fier/regenerator based on plate-fin heat exchanger (PFHE) as
shown in Fig. 15. The schematic of PFHE is shown in Fig. 15(a). The
designed unit consists of six PFHEs stacking up along the vertical
direction as illustrated in Fig. 15(b). The effects of the air flow rate,
cooling water temperature, and desiccant solution temperature on
cooling efficiency and the performance of internally cooled
dehumidifier were observed. The results showed that cooling
efficiency decreases with the increase in cooling water tempera-
ture and at lower desiccant solution temperature, system has
better dehumidification performance. It was also concluded that
internally cooled dehumidifier has better thermal performance as
compared to the adiabatic dehumidifier.
Fig. 14. Inner cooled dehumidifier (cross flow): (a) directions of air flow (b) fluid
sprays contacting with different air streams [77]. Fig. 15. A new type of internally cooled/heated dehumidifier/regenerator [91].
M.M. Rafique et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 56 (2016) 179–195 189
Fig. 22. Internally cooled vertical flat plat dehumidifier [101]. (a) Solid view; (b) Inner view.
counter [130,131] or cross [130,132]. Some of the presented In the future, desiccant systems are likely to expand their range
models are summarized in Table 4. of applications. Trends which suggest this conclusion include:
Fig. 24. Schematic diagram of hollow fiber membrane module type multistage dehumidifier [94].
Table 4
Details of adiabatic/internally cooled dehumidifiers.
Model Desiccant Adiabatic/internally cooled Air-desiccant flow pattern Desiccant-cooling fluid flow pattern Cooling fluid
conservation benefit of desiccant technology can also be improved government and research institutions will be needed to fully
through research and development: realize the benefits of this established, but under-utilized
Other important benefits of desiccant system include technology.
improvements in indoor air quality. Desiccants provide the low
humidity needed to eliminate the growth of microorganisms in
duct work, building structures and in furnishings. The materials Acknowledgments
can also be used to absorb many volatile organic compounds from
indoor environments. Research and development can also help The authors would like to acknowledge the support provided
enhance these end user benefits. by the Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR) at King Fahd Uni-
versity of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) for funding this work
through Project no. RG1321-1.
10. Conclusions
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