A Study of Liquid Desiccant System Performance

• Main Authors: Salarian, Hesamoddin, Taherian, Hessam, Ghadamian, Hosain, Khalaji Assadi, Morteza
• Format: Article
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://eprints.utp.edu.my/11885/1/24A%20Study%20of%20Liquid%20Desiccant%20System%20Performance.pdf; http://eprints.utp.edu.my/11885/
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Petronas

Desiccant systems have been proposed as energy saving alternatives to vapor compression air conditioning for handling the latent load. Desiccants are classified as either liquid or solid. The main components for a liquid desiccant system are the dehumidification and regeneration towers. Use of liquid desiccant offers several design and performance advantages over solid desiccant, especially when solar energy is used for regeneration. For liquid-gas contact, packed towers with low pressure drop provide good heat and mass transfer characteristics for compact designs. This paper presents the results from a study of the performance of a packed tower absorber for lithium chloride desiccant dehumidification system. A finite difference model was developed to determine the packing height of the dehumidification towers. The finite difference model was written in MATLAB language which is a suitable model to measure the optimum height of a tower. The paper also examines the effects of different design parameters on the height of a packed tower using a mathematical model. The effects of air and liquid flow rates, air humidity, desiccant temperature and concentration were reported on the packing height and humidity effectiveness of the column. In conclusion the results of the present study are compared with previous experimental studies.