Performance intensification of regeneration process for non-corrosive plastic plate vertical falling film tower

Abstract

Recent interest in falling film tower put them ahead of the contemporaries for the development of low flow hybrid liquid desiccant air-conditioning system targeting residential applications. Air-liquid desiccant contacting surface in case of metal suffer from corrosion problem thus require frequent replacement. Non-metallic surface such as plastic suffers from poor wettability. In the current experimental study, regeneration of aqueous lithium chloride solution over adiabatic single polypropylene (PP) plate vertical falling film tower has been carried out. Two types of PP plates: Plain and Modified are prepared and tested. Regeneration rate of the Modified PP plate is around 54.6% superior to the Plain PP plate for the tested conditions. Also, new correlation for the estimation of air humidity effectiveness of the falling film regenerator has been developed using wetting factor information. Developed correlation predicts accurately the performance of the metallic as well as non-metallic surfaces for both adiabatic and internally heated conditions. The mean effective error for the current correlation is 18.1% for the eight datasets. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd