Experimental analysis of an internally-cooled/heated liquid desiccant dehumidifier/regenerator made of thermally conductive plastic

• An internally cooled dehumidifier made of thermally conductive plastics was designed.
• Effects of air, desiccant and water flow rates on the performance are tested.
• Numerical model for the internally cooled dehumidifier is built and validated.
• Comparison between this new device and other devices from the literatures is made.
• The current plastic device shows a comparable heat and mass transfer performance.

Internally-cooled dehumidifiers that use liquid desiccant are supposed to be superior to the adiabatic type in terms of solution flow rate, device volume, etc. In the present study, an internally-cooled dehumidifier made of thermally conductive plastic was designed, and it achieved superior corrosion resistance. Its performance was investigated both experimentally and through simulation. An experimental chamber was built for this internally-cooled dehumidifier, and the experimental results in different working conditions were obtained using a lithium bromide (LiBr) aqueous solution. Performance indices including the moisture removal rate, dehumidification/regeneration efficiency, and volumetric mass transfer coefficient were analyzed in conjunction with the inlet parameters. Compared with the internally-cooled dehumidifiers made of metal materials described in the literature, the present analysis indicates that this plastic dehumidifier demonstrated comparable heat and mass transfer performance, providing a feasible approach for an internally-cooled process. In addition, with the help of the experimental results, a numerical model was built and validated for this internally-cooled dehumidifier using liquid desiccant.