Minimum work requirement for water production in humidification—dehumidification desalination cycle

This paper presents a theoretical analysis based on the second law of thermodynamics for estimating the minimum work required for air dehumidification process to produce potable water in a humidification-dehumidification (HD) desalination cycle. The general air dehumidification process is analyzed through an equivalent path consisting of an isothermal dehumidification followed by a sensible cooling Dehumidification is treated as separation process of an ideal mixture consisting of two components, namely air and water vapor. The present analysis assumes the dead state to be the dry ambient and the final state for complete dehumidification to be saturated air at 0.01°C. Contours of the minimum work are plotted on psychrometric chart and presented as a handy engineering tool to estimate the power requirement for complete and incomplete dehumidification process independent of the devices used.