Experimental Study of Productivity Enhancement in a Humidification-Dehumidification Desalination System Through Various Packing Materials and Configurations

In this study, the performance of the solar desalination using the humidifier-dehumidifier (HDH) system was assessed by varying several operational parameters as; (1) three types of packing materials: Cellulose kraft paper, PP and PVC cellular grid, and PP trickle grid. (2) Four packing material configurations with heights of 60 cm full, 45 cm full, 30 cm split, and 30 cm full. (3) Inlet water temperatures to the humidifier of 70 ˚C, 60 ˚C, and 50 ˚C. (4) Inlet water flow rates to the humidifier of 6 kg/min, 4 kg/min, and 2 kg/min. (5) Cooling water flow rates of 16 kg/min and 8 kg/min. 6) Air cycle type; the closed and open air cycle types. The optimal values were attained under the following operational conditions; using cellulose kraft paper type, a configuration height of 60 cm, an inlet seawater temperature of 70 ˚C, an inlet seawater flow rate of 6 kg/min, a cooling water flow rate of 16 kg/min, and a closed air cycle. The resulting values were 1.4 L/20 min for fresh water productivity, 0.63 for GOR, 1.2 for RR, $0.0076/L for fresh water cost, and efficiencies of 0.99 and 0.84 for the humidifier and dehumidifier, respectively.