Desiccant-Humidifier Cycle Refrigeration

Basics

• A type of Refrigeration Cycle that uses a combination of evaporative cooling (endothermic cool end), and dehumidification via desiccant(s) (exothermic hot end) to pump heat
• Can be used for Solar Air Conditioning
• Is also advantageous in it's design, and material simplicity

Plotting

• Should the columns be randomly packed, packed, spray, or some hybrid
• Little info on water evaporation (That User:Eric has found so far )
• A Whitepaper on CO2 Scrubber Tower Design (this was for co2 scrubbing via ammonia absorption but compared the Spray Towers and Packed Columns)

Process

Theory

• (Making this to double check myself)
• [1]

Evaporative Cooling Column

• Room Temperature air is pushed in to a counter flow water sprayer column with mesh/bioballs
• The water evaporates and cools the air (at the cost of increased humidity)
• It is then sent to the Desiccation Column

Desiccation Column

• This works in a similar manner as the Evaporative Column, but it has the opposite goal, Desiccation of the Air Stream
• It does this via a desiccant, most likely a Liquid Desiccant, due to ease of operation
• Produces Fully Dry Air, and Saturated Desiccant via Liquid Desiccant
• Make an identical unit to the Evaporative Cooling Column, and replace the water with ?percent concentrated calcium chloride solution
• Air sent to Humidity Control Column (Optional), Liquid Desiccant sent to Regenerator

Humidity Control Collumn

• This takes the Fully Dry Air, and brings the humidity up to comfortable levels
• It can use OTS humidifiers, or be a smaller version of the Evaporative Cooling Column
• This stage is OPTIONAL

Desiccant Regeneration Module

• This is a module where the Saturated Liquid Desiccant is Heated to Concentrate it and thus regenerate it.
• Passive solar is promising, but any heat source will do
• Also heat exchangers that utilize waste heat from the process for regeneration may improve efficiency further

Open Source Designs

• A design by the YouTube channel "Tech Ingredients"

OSE Design

• Open Source Desiccant-Humidifier Cycle Based Liquid Chiller (Used with a Hydronic Cooling system, or just a spray tower for the air?)

Internal Links

• Liquid Desiccants

External Links

• The Wikipedia Page on Solar open-loop air conditioning using desiccants
• A video on a design by the YouTube channel "Tech Ingredients"
• A Page by "Carter Mack" Mentioned in a Comment Thread of the First Video by "Tech Ingredients" (Look for the comment "Keith Higgs 2 months ago I would LOVE to see a PDF summary of this layout showing the material flows and generalized componentry.", then read more.) (I posted a comment asking if they can collaborate as well) (YouTube doesn't let you link to specific comments yet sadly)
  • A bunch of emails in that comment thread by interested people that i should probably contact as well