Experimental Performance Evaluation of Humidification–Dehumidification System With Direct-Contact Dehumidifier

Abstract

Abstract Humidification–dehumidification (HDH) desalination with direct contact dehumidifier system is designed and fabricated. Experimental tests are performed under various operating conditions in order to explore the influence of temperatures and mass flow rates of seawater and freshwater on system performance by utilizing non-dimensional parameters. It is shown that, for any case, there is an optimum flow rate ratio of water to air, which results in a maximum water production rate. A mathematical model is utilized to evaluate the system performance and compare the outcomes with the experimental results. In addition, the effect of feed water salinity from 0–30% on the water production rate is experimentally investigated. The results showed that the maximum achieved recovery ratio of the proposed HDH system is 5% under the working condition of seawater temperature at 73 °C with 3% salinity and cold freshwater at 28 °C. Furthermore, the system was able to produce water at nearly saturated seawater feed.