The study on the performance of plate type dehumidifier with lithuim chloride aqueous solution

The liquid desiccant cooling system has the benefits that use the latent and sensible heat of the air at the same time. Because the desiccant process operates under the atmosphere pressure, it works in stable state. Also, the performance of heat and mass transfer is high due to the direct contact between the moist air and the liquid desiccant. The conventional dehumidifiers are mainly packed-bed type, tube-bundle or desiccant rotor types. Sufficient desiccant amount should be supplied to obtain a larger contact area, which reduces the performance of dehumidification. However, as the liquid film thickness increases, the droplets of liquid desiccant could be scattered into the conditioned space. The place type dehumidifier has been developed in order to solve those problems. In this study, the mathematical model and the experimental results are compared and the combined heat and mass transfer analysis is carried out during the dehumidification process. Also the effects of the inlet conditions of the air, solution and coolant on the dehumidification performance are studied. It is found that the air velocity is the most important factor for performance enhancement during the dehumidification process.