Experimental study of internally cooled liquid desiccant dehumidification: Application in Hong Kong and intensive analysis of influencing factors

Due to the complicated structure, experimental studies of internally cooled dehumidifiers are much less than those of adiabatic ones. The complicated structure also results in error in deciding the real contact area for calculating the mass transfer coefficient. Moreover, it was found experimental studies of liquid desiccant dehumidifiers in Hong Kong were still limited and the analysis of influencing factors was not comprehensive. Therefore, in present work, a single channel internally cooled dehumidifier was designed for comprehensive investigation of its performance under various conditions. It was easy to observe the contact area with the test rig, making the calculation of mass transfer coefficient more accurate. The air state points were set on the basis of Hong Kong climate. The results indicated that the liquid desiccant dehumidification was very suited to this region. The experimental results also showed good agreement with our previous simulation results in terms of the influence of the air flow rate. In particular, the advantage of present study was that more intensive analysis of the influences of various factors was reported.