Experimental Study of a Water Desalination System Based on Humidification-Dehumidification Process Using a Heat Pump

In this paper an experimental investigation on a lab scale HDH water desalination unit using a Heat pump was presented. From the thermodynamic view, it was found that the electric heater has a coefficient of performance equal unity, while the heat pump has a coefficient of performance greater than one; in other words the dissipated heat has a high scale. In addition, the refrigeration effect could be used as a secondary benefit. The proposed system utilizes the heat rejected and the cooling effect of the mechanically driven vapor compression heat pump for fresh water production. A test rig consisting of a fan, condenser duct, water spray humidifier and evaporator duct was constructed to study the performance under different operating conditions. The effect of air flow rate variation and water spraying direction (cross, counter or parallel) in the humidification process were studied. Experiments were carried out under variable inlet air conditions. Air flow rate was varied from 0.076 m3/s to 0.4054 m3/s. Results showed that cross water spraying humidification tests yielded the highest production rate. The unit’s maximum production rate was found to be 2.8 Liters/hour at a power 1.4091 kW.Copyright © 2015 by ASME