Thermodynamic analysis of a novel evaporation and crystallization system based on humidification processes at ambient temperature

Power consumption in the field of evaporation and crystallization has attracted extensive attentions all over the world. In this paper, humidification and cooling crystallization methods are involved simultaneously to constitute a novel evaporation and crystallization configuration. In light of the thermal processes included, mathematical models based on the mass and energy equilibrium are established. The characteristics of the adopted evaporation and crystallization system (ECS) at the designed parameters are first simulated and analyzed, and the corresponding influence laws from the appointed key parameters are analyzed. Furthermore, a scale and economic analysis is also achieved to explore the application prospect of the evaporation crystallization system. The practicability of the novel evaporation and crystallization system at ambient temperature is verified, with a descent amplitude of 52.88% for the energy consumption of evaporated water within the prescribed range of the air mass flow rate. The simulation results indicate variation of the inlet air parameters, including the relative humidity and temperature, is not effective to improve the thermal efficiency of the evaporation and crystallization system, while an evident reduction for the energy consumption of evaporated water (ECEW) as 45.08 kWht−1 is achieved in response to the volume growth of the packings from 15 m3 to 30 m3. Finally, it is also found that the cost of heat and mass transfer areas will rise significantly with the increase of the volume although the energy conversion is improved.