Thermal modelling of potassium formate based cross-flow liquid desiccant dehumidification system

•A cross-flow dehumidifier with Potassium formate as the working fluid is studied.•Validation of the recursive algorithm of a dehumidifier arrangement is performed.•Effect of operating parameters of the dehumidifier is investigated.•Maximum heat transfer effectiveness of 0.782 is obtained.•The dynamic recursive algorithm can be adapted to different operating conditions. Liquid Desiccant systems for dehumidification of air are best suitable to be coupled with solar modules as they make use of low-grade heat energy and are flexible to operate under different conditions. They are clean and eco-friendly alternatives for dehumidification of air when compared to traditional methods that require a lot of energy to be supplied to achieve the same level of performance. A comprehensive analysis and mathematical simulation of the working characteristics of a liquid desiccant dehumidifier in cross-flow arrangement using potassium formate as the working fluid has been performed in this study. The numerical simulation has been carried out using recursive backtracking algorithms in Matlab R2018b. The change in parameters across the dehumidifier, along with the difference in output by varying the operating parameters, has been analyzed and compared to obtain useful insights. The usage of potassium formate as the primary liquid desiccant solution provides better performance and functional advantages as compared to possible alternatives.