Dehumidification Effect of Polymeric Superabsorbent SAP-LiCl Composite Desiccant-Coated Heat Exchanger with Different Cyclic Switching Time

This study investigated a composite polymer desiccant material’s performance, which is prepared by impregnating solid desiccant such as sodium polyacrylate (SAP) on to hygroscopic salts such as lithium chloride (LiCl). Dehumidification performance of the proposed composite polymer desiccant (SAP-LiCl) was analyzed by coating the suitable weight percentage (wt %) of the desiccant onto a single fin-tube heat exchanger (FTHE) system and testing the desiccant-coated heat exchanger (DCHE) in a testing tunnel under various operating conditions. Net dehumidification efficacy of DCHE in terms of sorption and desorption amount and thermal performance (COPth) were analyzed. For instance, with processed air inflow temperature, relative humidity and regeneration temperature setting of 30 °C, 80% RH and 70 °C, DCHE’s sorption, desorption amount and COPth were recorded as high as 945.1 g, 1115.1 g, and 0.39, respectively. It was further realized that the performance of the DCHE could be enhanced by modulating the cyclic switching time for dehumidification and regeneration processes. For instance, with the aforementioned processed airflow conditions, when the cyclic switching time tuned as 60 min instead of 10 min for a total time period of 120 min, there is a net 58% improvement to the COPth of the system. It was further observed that, under the same time period corresponding to the increase in cyclic switching time, the overall COPth can be enhanced; however, the water vapor sorption and desorption amounts of desiccant were decreased.