Experimental Investigation of Thermal Performance Parameters of Drying Air Unit with a Different Flowrate of Liquid Desiccant Solution

Abstract

Liquid desiccant air-conditioning systems remove directly the latent load from moist air and remove indirectly sensible load of this air by using an indirect evaporative cooling process. The liquid desiccant must subsequently be regeneration once again with a low-grade heat source like solar energy. In this study, calcium chloride solution was used as a desiccant. For the desiccant solution regeneration process, a flat plate solar collector was employed. Different variables, such as the primary airflow rate and desiccant flow rate, were changed during the experiments. The impact of these variables on the performance parameters of the desiccant systems such as moisture removal rate, moisture efficiency, enthalpy efficiency, sensible heat ratio, and the mass transfer coefficient was studied. The obtained results revealed that as the flow rate of primary air increases, the moisture removal rate, sensible heat ratio, and the mass transfer coefficient increase. For example, from 0.006 m/s to 0.0125m/s when the mass airflow rate increased from 0.1 kg/s to 0.18 kg/s.