Using targeted performance criteria to experimentally evaluate a packed bed humidification system with thermodynamic balancing measures

Abstract

Purposefully, a packed bed humidification experimental setup implementing multiple water injections was employed to investigate the comprehensive thermodynamically-balanced performance, with newly designed packing. The corrugated wire mesh was arranged in a dislocation arrangement in the humidifier and, the water injection bypasses were installed in a suitable packing position. Two new criteria, humidification capacity per unit volume (HCUV) and humidification capacity per unit cost (HCUC), were respectively proposed to evaluate the thermodynamic and economic performance of the humidification system. Further, the effects of the main thermodynamic parameters on the humidification performance were addressed in detail. The experimental results showed that the humidification system established was robust and available, and the evaluation criteria could effectively characterize the balance of payments between the humidification capacity and the total cost. It was found that increasing the injection times could remarkably raise the value of the HCUV, while a reverse effect acted on the HCUC for all the cases. In addition, it was illustrated that a higher inlet water temperature was beneficial to enhance the humidification performance. An elevation amplitude of the HCUV emerged as 34.57 %, 39.48 % and 35.74 % for zero, single and double water injections when the liquid-gas ratio increased from 1 to 1.36, respectively, while a peak value of 9.66 kg$⁻¹ for the HCUC presented at m_r = 1.16. Increasing the injection ratio will prominently raise the thermodynamic performance, but reduce the economic performance for double injections. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the thermodynamic performance of the thermodynamically-balanced humidifier was improved by 38.16 % compared to the previous researches.