Modeling and Thermal Analysis of Small Scale Desalination System using Humidification-Dehumidification Process Driven by Solar Energy

Abstract

this work deals with modeling and thermal analysis of small scale desalination unit using Humidification-Dehumidification process and solar energy, for production capacities ranging between 20 and 100kg/h of distilled water. The mathematical model is carried out assuming a steady state operation and it is based on mass and heat balance, thermodynamics principals and the most recent correlations published in literature. MATLAB programming software and fixed point iterations method are used to resolve the developed equations model. The analysis consider the impact of dry air mass flow rate, feed seawater mass flow rate and its temperature at the humidifier inlet on distilled water mass flow rate, thermal power consumption and specific energy consumption. The most relevant results of this work show that the specific energy consumption could be reduced by increasing as much as possible feed seawater mass flow rate, decreasing the mass flow rate of dry air and decreasing the feed seawater temperature at the humidifier inlet.