Applied Thermal Engineering 20 (2000) 309322

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Measurements of eectiveness in a silica gel rotary exchanger

S. Neti*, E.I. Wolfe
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA Received 10 January 1998; accepted 22 March 1999

Abstract Desiccant air conditioning systems that incorporate rotary heat and mass exchangers are getting a closer look in view of the pressure on the industry to decrease the use of chlorouorocarbons and for fuel economies. Heat and mass exchangers that utilize LiCl, silica gel and other desiccants have been considered as possibilities. The performance features of a silica gel rotary mass exchanger wheel, which is the primary component in a desiccant system, has been measured. The process air ow velocities and temperatures ranged from 0.5 to 2.5 m/s, and 20 to 308C with 30 to 100% relative humidities. Similar velocity and relative humidity conditions were used for regeneration air. The desiccant data are compared to two dierent theories from the literature; the method of characteristics and a numerical approach. The method of characteristics appears to be good for only a small range of conditions, generally for low values of specic capacities. The numerical approach appears to predict the trends well, though sometimes with large errors. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Desiccants; Desiccant air conditioning; Dehumidication; Eectiveness; Rotary heat and mass exchangers

1. Introduction Chlorouorocarbon (CFC) emissions have been reported to destroy the stratospheric ozone layer due to the chemical interactions in the stratosphere. Industry has begun to look for refrigeration systems with increased energy eciency that may use alternative processes that

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-610-758-4117; fax: +1-610-758-6224. E-mail address: sn01@lehigh.edu (S. Neti). 1359-4311/00/$ - see front matter # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 1 3 5 9 - 4 3 1 1 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 0 3 1 - 9

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Nomenclature A Ci Cr Cmin Cmax Fi h hm J mdd mp Mr Mmin Mmax nip N NN NTUt NTUm tm tf v wi Wi x xe gi y s t area for heat/mass transfer, m2 dimensionless rotational speed i 1,2), dl (dimensionless) mdd gi x eff amp t heat capacity of the rotor, J/K s minimum of the heat capacities, J/K s maximum of the heat capacities, J/K s Maclaine-Cross characteristic potentials i 1,2); F1 lines lie close to adiabatic saturation lines; F2 lines lie close to relative humidity lines heat transfer coecient, W/m2 K mass transfer coecient, kg/m2 s average uid lm transfer coecient per unit mass of uid, 1/s amount of dry desiccant in rotor, kg process dry air ow rate, kg/s mass capacity of the rotor, kg/s minimum of the mass capacities, kg/s maximum of the mass capacities, kg/s eectiveness for characteristic potential Fi rotational speed, rph number of discretization points number of transfer units, therma number of transfer units, mass matrix temperature, K uid temperature, K mean velocity of uid in matrix, m/s enthalpy i 1 or sorbate i 2 content of uid enthalpy i 1 or sorbate i 2 content of matrix distance from entrance of matrix in ow direction, m fraction of dry desiccant determined as eective characteristic specic capacity ratio for Fi time from the beginning of the period, s matrix to uid specic heat ratio, dl uid to matrix contact time, 1800/N, s

Subscripts avg average f uid i index, i 1,2, and for Fi , i 1 for enthalpy and i 2 for moisture content int intermediate, interpolated p process stream r rotor matrix, or regeneration stream t thermal, heat transfer m mass transfer or matrix conditions

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i o x

inlet outlet exchanger air conditions

are less likely to aect the environment. Due to these and other reasons, desiccant based cooling systems are proving to be an attractive alternative to traditional CFC based air conditioning. Desiccant based systems process atmospheric air by removing moisture from the air to a desired level and then cooling it using a heat exchanger, followed by some evaporative cooling. Heat and mass transfer for these devices is accomplished in rotary exchangers. Measurements of mass transfer in rotary exchangers are described here. 2. Desiccants and their sorption properties Most materials have desiccant properties, i.e., attracting and capturing moisture from air until its vapor pressure is in equilibrium with the surrounding air. This process of removing the moisture from the air is known as sorption, and includes sensible heat rise of the air equivalent to the latent heat of the water vapor removed from the air. There are two types of sorption: adsorption, where the desiccant's physical or chemical nature is not changed; and absorption, where the physical or chemical nature of the desiccant is changed. Examples of absorbers include activated charcoal and silica gel. Lithium bromide is a liquid absorber and lithium chloride is a solid absorber. LiCl can accommodate an extraordinary amount of H2O on a mass (per mass) basis, but has a tendency to `weep' at higher H2O loading when it goes through structural transformation. Desiccants have open empty spaces between the molecules of the adsorbent/absorbent called capillaries and they continue to ll with water as the vapor condenses. Thus, the capacity of the desiccant is not just dependent upon the desiccant physical/chemical properties, but on the total surface area, total volume of the capillaries, and the diameters of the capillaries. All desiccants work on the principle of moisture transfer driven by the vapor pressure dierence between the air and the desiccant. If the desiccant is cool and has low moisture content, it attracts the moisture from the air until its vapor pressure is in equilibrium with the air. The desiccant must then be regenerated to a vapor pressure larger than the surrounding air, where the desiccant will begin to release the moisture. An increase in temperature at the surface of the desiccant increases the vapor pressure and causes this process to occur. The desiccant is then cooled to a low enough temperature to allow it to attract the moisture from the surrounding air once again. The regeneration temperatures seen here for silica gel range between 70 and 1608C for the humidity conditions considered here. Other custom made, proprietary desiccants with better (lower) regeneration temperatures are starting to be introduced into the eld. A rotary exchanger (wheel) consists of numerous airow passages that provide large surface areas for mass transfer between the air and desiccant (see schematic in Fig. 3). The desiccant wheel has an internal matrix of a base material with a desiccant material impregnated on its surface. The wheel may be loaded with either an absorbent or adsorbent material. The process

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stream is the one that is to be aected, and the regeneration ow stream is used to regenerate the desiccant (bring it to original state) for re-use. The energy for the regeneration can be from the combustion of fossil fuels (oil, gas), or can be heat rejected by a vapor compression system heat exchanger (condenser). The size of rotary exchanger depends on the overall desired moisture removal rate. Rotary exchangers as large as 2 m (H6 ft) diameter are used in commercial operations to maintain low dew points in large storage areas. Such a rotary exchanger can have total exchange surface area in excess of 1000 m2. Rotary exchangers have high heat and mass transfer rates relative to their size, weight, and cost. Exchangers with absorbents face the danger of failure due to changes in its physical/chemical nature under some conditions. Rotary exchangers made of the adsorbent silica gel are proving to be eective for the rotary dehumidier applications and are the topic of discussion here.

3. Desiccant air conditioning The typical vapor compression refrigeration system cools the moist air below its dew point to start condensation of the water vapor in the air. The air may be cooled further along the saturation line removing water in the form of liquid (condensate) while further decreasing the air temperature. Since the air temperature at this condition is well below the desired value, air from the typical vapor compression refrigeration systems may require the addition of heat. Desiccant refrigeration utilizes a more direct method of reaching a desired level of cooling and dehumidication. The processes involved in the operation of a desiccant air conditioning system are shown in Fig. 1 on a psychrometric chart. The air is rst dehumidied to a low level by the desiccant but with an undesirable rise in temperature (12). This rise in

Fig. 1. Desiccant sorption and regeneration process.

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temperature corresponds to the latent heat equivalent of the moisture removed. The hot dry air is then cooled by a (rotary) heat exchanger (23) and is further cooled adiabatically using a trickle evaporator (34). The heat exchange wheel rejects this heat to the incoming regeneration air (56), which is further heated until the desired regeneration temperature is reached (67) and used for removing the water vapor from the desiccant (78). The process is continuous since dierent sections of the exchanger are used for the process and regeneration airows. If the process air temperature out of the trickle evaporator is above the desired value, the air may then be cooled further with the aid of a vapor compression refrigeration system. In such a case, the heat from the refrigeration might also be used for the regeneration of the desiccant. While the process is schematically and qualitatively shown on the psychrometric chart, the eectiveness of the heat and mass exchangers, and the desiccant isoster properties (related to the capacity of desiccant to hold moisture at dierent temperatures) determine the economic feasibility of such a system. The most advantageous desiccant will naturally have a low regeneration temperature, i.e., have a low moisture capacity at a low regeneration temperature but large moisture capacity at process air conditions (near ambient). Prediction of heat and mass transfer in a desiccant exchanger is essential for the design of desiccant air conditioning systems. Mass transfer eectiveness measurements in a silica gel wheel are presented in this paper.

4. Survey of literature Rotary dehumidiers are governed by heat and mass transfer conservation equations for their performance characteristics. Their eectiveness is a function of capacitances of the rotating wheel (Cr, Mr), the capacitances of the `hot' and `cool' uids (Cmax, Mmax and Cmin, Mmin) the convective coecients (hA's), and the number of transfer units (NTUt and NTUm). One of the earliest analyses performed on the periodic ow heat exchanger was done by Coppage and London [1] and continues to be the model for much of the work since then. The analysis involved equating the changes in the energy convected by the ow and the energy that is stored in the matrix. Considering the ow on the Cmax side, for unmixed cross ow with uniform temperature across inlets and outlets, the heat transfer for this side can be written as Q Cmax Txi Txo aNNx Cr Tro Tri aNNr Q hA x DTavg aNNr NNx with DTavg Txi Txo a2 Tri Tro a2 1 2

where T is the temperature, NN is the number of discretization spaces in the chosen direction, h is the heat transfer coecient and A is the area for the heat transfer. The subscripts used are avg average, r rotor, i inlet, o outlet, max maximum, and x exchanger air conditions. They derived a steady state theory from the fact that a single temperature characterizes the

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state of the uid at a section. This assumption leading to a peripheral temperature distribution enabled them to solve these equations. Lambertson [2] devised a numerical approach to solve the eectiveness of periodic ow systems. The analysis involved dividing the wheel into elements to evaluate the equivalence of heat transferred by the uid to that stored in the matrix and then deriving the temperature distribution Coppage and London [1] had approximated. The ow conditions are assumed to be known at the wheel inlets along with the initial matrix temperature. The temperature at the end of rotation is then calculated numerically using the basic energy equations of Coppage and London [1]. If the assumed temperature is correct, it would then have equaled the calculated temperature since the wheel had completed a revolution and is back to its original position (called the `reversal condition'). If the calculated temperatures were not the same as the assumed temperatures, the procedure is repeated until the `reversal condition' is met. An analytical solution of a periodic ow system has been presented by Romie [3] for essentially the same equations used by Coppage and London [1]. The temperature distribution and eectiveness are given in terms of Bessel functions yielding a summation series as a solution. Maclaine-Cross and Banks [4] predicted the performance of a rotary heat and mass exchanger analytically using the method of characteristics. This method describes the energy and moisture contents of the air stream and desiccant with characteristic potentials Fi i 1,2. The heat and mass transfer equations are then reduced to two sets of equations and are analogous to heat transfer in a periodic ow heat exchanger. The Fi functions are invariants of the mass and energy conservation potentials and are analogous to temperature in the heat transfer analogy. Associated with the Fi potentials are the characteristic specic capacity ratios gi analogous to the ratio of matrix to uid specic heat in the heat transfer analogy. The equations relating the Fi i 1,2 characteristic potentials in the uid and matrix are [4] dFi dFi dFim v mgi 0 dy dx dy mgi dFim JFim Fif 0 dy 4 5

where y is time, x is distance along ow direction, g is the specic capacity ratio, m is the ratio of matrix to uid mass and J is the average lm transfer coecient, with subscripts m for matrix and f for uid. For airwater vapor mixtures, the F1 lines lie close to adiabatic saturation lines and the F2 lines are close to the relative humidity lines. gi lines are similar to Fi lines, and constant Fi and gi lines may be plotted on a Mollier type Psychrometric chart. For a rotary exchanger with heat transfer alone, equations similar to the ones for Fi given below can be written for temperature, that are more easily recognizable, dtf dtf dtm v ms 0 dy dx dy ms dtm Jtm tf 0 dy 6 7

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Maclaine-Cross and Banks developed charts for the Fi potentials and specic capacity ratios gi for airwater vapor with various desiccants. Jurinak [5] utilized their work and has produced Fi potential and specic capacity ratio gi expressions and charts for silica gel with airwater vapor. Solutions based on nite transfer coecients for Fi potentials and specic capacity ratios gi are useful in modeling rotary dehumidiers. Maclaine-Cross and Banks [4], and Bharathan et al. [14] describe the performance of these devices with eectiveness values. For the process side (p), the eectiveness nip are dened as ipo ipi ori op int iri ip int opo opi 8 n2p ip int ipi ori op int iri ip int op int opi n1p opo opi op int opi n2p ori op int ori op int 9

To model the dehumidier's performance Van Den Bulck et al. [6] have applied the shock wave theory proposed by Lax [7] and expressed the conservation of energy and mass accordingly. The wave analysis models an ideal dehumidier utilizing the method of shock wave theory. The ideal dehumidier equations are then combined with dimensionless transfer coecients to provide a set of relations in determining the eectiveness. More recently, numerical simulations of rotary exchangers and the associated heat/mass transfer calculations have been conducted by Zheng and Worek [8], San [9] and Konrad and Eigenberger [10]. San's work takes into account the wall conduction eects and Zheng et al. determined an optimum rotational speed for the exchanger. Experimental measurements in Silica gel rotary exchangers have been presented by Kodama et al. [11,12] along with temperature distributions in the rotor and an empirical expression for the optimum rotational speed. Kodama et al. [13] also presented a method of evaluating a silica gel rotary exchanger using a psychrometric chart. The primary focus of the present investigation is toward the understanding of mass transfer in silica gel rotary desiccant systems. Experimental measurements are done on a silica gel desiccant rotor. 5. Experimental system and measurement techniques The experimental system consisted of a desiccant wheel with a motor pulley assembly and two blowers pulling the airwater vapor mixture through the desiccant. The ow rate on each air stream was controlled with a damper with the capability of limiting the ow to as low as approximately 0.009 m3/s (19 SCFM). The ow areas for the process and regeneration air steams were set to be equal. The test setup used here is shown schematically in Fig. 2. The desiccant wheel is 320 mm (12.7 in.) in diameter and 400 mm (15.7 in.) long. The wheel is driven by a variable speed motor. The wheel consists of silica gel coated triangular air passageways along the length of the wheel with a hydraulic diameter of about 1.2 mm. Fig. 3 shows some details pertaining to the wheel. The desiccant wheel is equipped with Teon coated rubber seals to minimize intermixing of the two streams. Leakage of the streams is a dicult

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Fig. 2. Schematic of the experimental setup.

aspect of operating a rotary exchanger such as this and is a major hurdle to operating the exchanger at maximum possible eectiveness. Great care was taken to eliminate (minimize) leakage. The total dry mass of the exchanger was 11.97 kg and contained 9.04 kg of silica gel with a total frontal ow area of 0.08 m2. The ow through the system was measured using a Dwyer hot lm anemometer (m in Fig. 2) by determining the velocity proles in the 100 mm (4 in.) PVC pipes at a specic location for the system ow conguration. Mean velocities and total mass ow through the two streams were established based on the velocity distributions. The air streams could be humidied with 2 kW steam humidiers (H) when necessary. The regeneration air could be heated with 8 kW electrical heaters (E) to the desirable temperature, and then humidied as needed. The regenerating stream was exhausted to the outdoors after passing through the desiccant wheel. The process air could also be heated with a 1 kW heater and humidied to meet the desired test conditions. The airow in this stream was measured using a Pitot tube (m) and a Validyne dierential pressure transducer (DP 103-10 and CD 379). This air stream was also exhausted to the outdoors after passing through the silica gel. Air temperatures at several locations before and after the exchanger were measured using type K thermocouples by establishing temperature distributions across the pipes. Humidity was measured using wet and dry bulb temperature measurements. Wet bulb temperatures were measured by exposing wet wickcovered type K thermocouples to airow. Care was taken to ensure that the thermocouples were electrically isolated despite being wet to read proper wet bulb temperatures. Relative humidities of the air streams were also measured to verify the wet and dry bulb temperatures. Relative humidity was measured using a Vaisala electronic RH meter with an uncertainty of one percent. The wheel rotational velocity was established by counting the revolutions in a nite amount of time. Each data set consisted of the air ow rates, temperatures (wet and dry), relative humidity, and wheel speed and were all recorded for steady operating conditions.

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A static wheel capacity test was conducted to determine the mass exchanger (rotor) gel fraction. This was done by rst determining the dry rotor weight after completely regenerating the silica gel with a 1408C air stream with the process stream shut o, and then measuring the maximum water uptake by the rotor at two dierent process stream temperatures. The gel fraction is then determined as the ratio of fractional change in the rotor mass based on the maximum water uptake per kg of desiccant. The eective gel fraction for the present rotor was about 62% and is used in the calculation of the exchanger specic capacity. Mass transfer (adsorption) data has been obtained covering the practical range of independent variables; regeneration and process ow rates, inlet temperatures and inlet humidities. The air ow mean velocities were in the range of 0.52.5 m/s corresponding to Reynolds numbers of about 25125 in the ow passages. Process air conditions were varied from 20 to 308C with relative humidities in the range of 30100%. Regeneration temperatures were between 70 and 1608C with relative humidities of the order of 3090%. The mass exchanger rotor velocity was varied between 4 and 16 rph. The primary independent variables, airow rates, air temperatures and rotational speeds have measurement uncertainties of 22%, 20.58C and 21.5%, respectively. Heat and mass transfer balances of inlet verses outlet conditions was established with an uncertainty of 10% including any possible leakages between the two ow streams. These uncertainties translate to uncertainties in eectiveness and specic capacities of 12 and 10%, respectively.

Fig. 3. Experimental desiccant wheel dimensions and parameters.

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6. Results Results are presented as variations of n1p and n2p eectiveness, used by Maclaine-Cross and Banks [4] with C1 and C2 dimensionless specic capacity (rotational speed). As discussed earlier, Maclaine-Cross and Banks describe the heat and mass transfer behavior in terms of Fi characteristic potentials. For a wheel with heat transfer alone Fi would correspond to temperature. In this case, the eectiveness n1 will be the ratio of actual to maximum possible temperature changes. For airwater vapor mixtures, Fi i 1 corresponds to adiabatic saturation lines (H enthalpy) of mixture, and i 2 corresponds to relative humidity (moisture content). F1 lines lie close to adiabatic saturation lines and F2 lines to relative humidity lines. The set of equations for Fi i 1,2 are the same as the equations for heat transfer with Fi replacing temperature and the characteristic specic capacity ratio replacing the matrix to uid specic heat ratio. n1p and n2p eectiveness for F1 and F2 are evaluated based on the inlet/ outlet states for the corresponding variables [4]. The graph in Fig. 5 is a comparison of experimental eectiveness data for n1p (p for process stream) and the theoretical n1p results using the theories of Maclaine-Cross and Banks [4] for various dimensionless rotational speeds, C1. At low, dimensionless rotational speed, the theory predicts the performance of the experimental data reasonably well. However, at higher dimensionless rotational speeds, the theory begins to over predict the performance of the desiccant. The theory assumes a linear dependence of the desiccant wheel performance on the dimensionless rotational speed and is a possible cause for the disagreement with the experimental data. For dimensionless rotational speeds greater than 0.4, the theory is not capable of accurately predicting the performance of the desiccant wheel. This deviation may be due to the assumption that the capacity rate ratio of the matrix is constant.

Fig. 4. Predicted desiccant water vapor removal vs. regeneration temperature.

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Fig. 6 illustrates a comparison of experimental eectiveness data n2p with those of MaclaineCross and Banks' nip results for various dimensionless rotational speeds C2. Here, the deviation between theory and experimental data are noticeable for speeds (C2) between 2 and 4. This is an area where the linear portion of the theory transcends into the nonlinear portion. The theory attempts to dene this transformation, but not very satisfactorily. Most of our data for n2p vs. C2 was in the medium speed range, and thus the eectiveness has been calculated with the medium speed assumptions. The overall deviation of theory from data may then be explained by the linear capacity assumption of the theory in predicting medium speed test data. However, at higher dimensionless rotational speed, the theory predicts the experimental data somewhat better. Lambertson's [2] procedure gives a way of determining heat exchanger eectiveness in terms of parameters such as NTU, Cmin/Cmax, Cr/Cmin etc. (see Eqs. (1)(3)). Here the eectiveness calculated for the heat transfer wheel is also used in evaluating the mass transfer eectiveness in the silica gel wheel. As mentioned earlier, the equations governing the two processes are essentially the same and good estimation of the mass transfer is expected by replacing Cmin/ Cmax by Mmin/Mmax (corresponding to sorbate capacities), Cr/Cmin by Mr/Mmin, and NTUt by NTUm. The desiccant water removal predicted by this procedure is presented in Fig. 4 as a function of the regeneration temperature. The sorbent removal is almost linearly dependent on the regeneration temperature and the changes at higher wheel RPM are smaller. Figs. 7 and 8 (n1p and n2p) present comparisons pertaining to these eectiveness calculations. The abscissa in these gures are set to be the same as those in Figs. 5 and 6, the dimensionless rotational speeds Ci ). Fig. 7 shows the experimentally measured eectiveness n1p and that is predicted by

Fig. 5. Experimental and Maclaine-Cross and Banks' Fi transfer eectiveness n1p vs. non-dimensional rotational speed C1.

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Fig. 6. Experimental and Maclaine-Cross and Banks' F2 transfer eectiveness n2p vs. non-dimensional rotational speed C2.

Lambertson's nite dierence procedure [2] for various dimensionless rotational speeds C1. The theory predicts the trends of the experimental data well, throughout the entire dimensionless rotational range presented. The theory slightly but consistently under predicts the n1p eectiveness values. Despite that, there is reasonable similarity between the theoretical data and the desiccant wheel behavior over the range of parameters considered here. Fig. 8 compares the experimental values of eectiveness n2p and the eectiveness n2p

Fig. 7. Experimental and Lambertson's numerical prediction of eectiveness n1p vs. non-dimensional rotational speed C1.

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Fig. 8. Experimental and Lambertson's numerical prediction of eectiveness n2p vs. non-dimensional rotational speed C2.

predicted using Lambertson's method for various dimensionless rotational speeds C2. The experimental data and Lambertson's data again have the same trend, but the numerical procedure over predicts the data by as much as 250%. Over the entire range of dimensionless rotational speeds the experimental data is over predicted by about the same amount (about double its actual value). This may be due to the fact that Lambertson's procedure in eect assumes the wheel to have a gel fraction of 100%. It is conceivable that with the use of better estimates for gel fraction, these numerically predicted n2p (eectiveness) results could be closer to the measured values. 7. Conclusions 1. The performance of a silica gel rotary heat and mass exchanger has been characterized for low-speed and medium-speed test data. The rotation of the wheel for a desiccant exchanger is slow enough to indicate that the eectiveness is mostly governed by the capacity of the matrix and less so by heat and mass transfer rates. 2. Maclaine-Cross and Bank's theory [4] appears to be good for only a small set of conditions. The theory appears to be inadequate for non-dimensional rotational speeds (C1) greater than 0.5 and C2 values between 2 and 4. The larger deviations in these regions are probably due to a linear approximation of the specic capacities for medium-speed test data. The accuracy in predicting the eectiveness in the other regions was better than 15% for most cases. 3. Lambertson's theory [2] predicts the trends of the experimental data, but was in error as

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much as 250% of the measured eectiveness values. The over prediction resulted in a higher exit temperature and higher exit specic humidity, for the most part, as compared to the data. Thus Lambertson's numerical scheme may be used as a conservative estimate for a desiccant air conditioning system.

Acknowledgements The authors gratefully acknowledge the support provided by the Pennsylvania NET Ben Franklin Technology Center. We also acknowledge the work of Mr. Henry Mark, Mr. Emerson Wagner and others that went into the development of the experimental apparatus. References
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