Small-scale single-panel liquid-to-air membrane energy exchanger (LAMEE) test facility development, commissioning and evaluating the steady-state performance

A new test facility was developed to assess the performance of a small-scale single-panel liquid-to-air membrane energy exchanger (LAMEE). Mass and energy balances of the exchanger were computed for each test. The steady-state performance of the small-scale LAMEE was experimentally investigated under different operating conditions. Water was used as a liquid transfer media for the experiments and the exchanger was tested for air heating and humidifying (H&H), air cooling and humidifying (C&H), and air cooling and dehumidifying (C&D) at three different NTU values (2.5, 3.5 and 4.5) and Cr* = 7. The experimental results were compared to results from a numerical and two analytical models. In most cases, reasonable agreement among the experimental, numerical and analytical results was achieved except for the sensible effectiveness in the H&H and latent and total effectiveness in the C&H test cases. The results showed that the effectiveness of the small-scale LAMEE always increased with NTU for all test conditions. Sensible and latent effectiveness contour maps of the small-scale LAMEE were generated numerically for different inlet air conditions and for NTU = 3.5 and Cr* = 7, while the water inlet temperature was set at 22 °C. Finally, the effectiveness contour maps were compared with three experimental test conditions.