Evaluation of a dehumidifier with adsorbent coated heat exchangers for tropical climate operations

This paper presents the evaluation of a solid desiccant dehumidifier equipped with adsorbent powder coated heat exchangers (PCHX). The main component of the solid desiccant dehumidifier includes two heat exchangers that are coated with silica gel RD type powders in order to increase water adsorption uptake by improving its heat and mass transfer. A series of experiment are conducted to evaluate two key performance indices, namely, moisture removal capacity (MRC) and thermal coefficient performance (COPth), under various hot and humid air conditions. Conventional granular adsorbent packed heat exchangers (GPHX) are employed to benchmark the performance of the adsorbent coated heat exchanger (PCHX). Results reveal that the PCHX exhibits higher uptake performance due to better heat and mass transfer. It is found that the moisture removal capacity increases from 7.4 g/kg to 11.0 g/kg with air flow rates of 35 kg/h, resulting in the extended contact time of the water vapor. Experiments also demonstrate that the moisture removal capacity is highly affected by inlet air humidity ratio. In addition, marked improvement in COPth can be achieved by a lowered hot water regeneration temperature. •An adsorbent coated heat exchanger (PCHX) is investigated for dehumidification.•Comparative analysis is conducted with conventional adsorbent bed (GPHX).•PCHX’s adsorption capacity is almost two times higher than GPHX.•Moisture removal capacity (MRC) and COPth increase at higher humidity ratio.•The maximum MRC and COPth of PCHX are found to be 11.0 g/kg and 0.62.