Optimization of Liquid Desiccant Regenerator Driven by Hybrid Solar Collector
Abstract
System performance of a novel Liquid-Air Transpired Solar Collector (LATSC) and a falling film type, parallel plate liquid desiccant regenerator (LDR) using lithium chloride as the desiccant is evaluated. A brief overview of the LATSC is provided followed by the development of a numerical model for the LDR. The LASTC and LDR are then coupled and a sensitivity analysis is performed on the system. The combined LATSC-LDR system is optimized for typical Abu Dhabi weather conditions. It is found that at LiCl desiccant solution entering and leaving concentrations of 0.2 and 0.4 the optimal water thermal capacitance rate per unit collector area, air thermal capacitance rate per unit collector area, and desiccant mass flow rate per unit collector area are 38.655 W/m2K, 10.979 Wm2K, and 0.00016645 kg/s-m2 respectively. The system efficiency under these conditions is almost 23%.