Isobaric specific heat capacity of typical lithium chloride liquid desiccants using scanning calorimetry

• Typical lithium chloride liquid desiccants were concerned.
• Up to date heat capacity data of high quality were measured.
• Scanning calorimetry technology was applied.
• A universal empirical formula was correlated for the heat capacity of solutions.

Three kinds of lithium chloride desiccants were selected, which are considered to be potential and interesting working fluids for a desiccant/dehumidification or absorption refrigeration system, and their isobaric specific heat capacities were determined in this context. Experiments were conducted at a high accuracy twin-cell scanning calorimeter. The temperature accuracy and heat flux resolution of the calorimeter are ±0.05 K and 0.1 μW respectively. The data of lithium chloride + water and lithium chloride + triethylene glycol (TEG)/propylene glycol (PG) + water systems were achieved at temperatures from 308.15 K to 343.15 K and atmospheric pressure. The mass fraction of LiCl ranged from 15% to 45% in the LiCl + H2O system, and the mass fraction of LiCl and glycol ranged from 10% to 23.3% and 20% to 46.7% in the ternary systems respectively. Based on the experimental heat capacity data, a universal empirical formula was correlated as a function of temperature and solute mass fraction. In the experimental mass fractions and temperatures range, the average absolute deviation (AAD) between experiment results and calculated values is no more than 0.15%, and maximum absolute deviation (MAD) is within 0.38%. These thermodynamic data of lithium chloride solutions can be effectively used for analysis and design of desiccant/dehumidification systems and absorption refrigeration systems in both refrigeration and chemical industry.