Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 78 (2017) 517–529

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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

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A technical review on regeneration of liquid desiccant using solar energy MARK

a,⁎ b
Dhruvin L. Shukla , Kalpesh V. Modi
a
P. G. Research Scholar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Government Engineering College, Valsad, Gujarat, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Government Engineering College, Valsad, Gujarat, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A BS T RAC T

Keywords: In a global era, continuous increment in energy requisition with its associated cost and relevant climate
Liquid desiccant problems is causing accentuation in exploring more efficient ways to provide air conditioning in enclosed space
Non conventional energy resources: Solar without degradation of the environment. In the hot and humid area, major part of conventionally produced
energy electrical energy is consumed by air conditioning. Also in the rapidly growing world scarcity of clean water is
Dehumidification
dilemma as equal as green-house and ozone layer depletion. Thus, there is emergence of dehumidified air for
human comfort conditions with having potable clean water same time. In summer with largely available solar
radiation, use of hybrid solar system is viable option to overcome problems of dehumidification of liquid
desiccant as well as of potable water. Up till now the conventional dehumidification with desiccant solution has
been improved or replaced by less costly new systems. This paper provides an extensive literature review on
development of liquid desiccant regeneration using solar energy. The paper also includes the recent findings of
hybrid solar system in which either two sources of heat is used for regeneration of liquid desiccant or solar
energy is used for regeneration of liquid desiccant along with other application.

1. Introduction [11]. Further, required temperature of room can be accomplished with

Increased population, improved economy, comparatively lower cost
of air conditioning equipment for more suitable human conditions are
imposing major stress on our electricity production house [1,2]. Air
conditioners mainly work on Vapour Compression Refrigeration
System (VCRS), which consume large amount of electrical energy.
Conventional fossil fuel fired central power plants are the major
sources of electrical energy as they produce around 67% of total
production in India [3]. Solar energy can be utilized for air conditioners
as in summer as available in plenty [4–8]. Also being non conventional
renewable energy, solar energy can be helpful in reduction of green
house gases [9].
India having a hot climate all over year requires air conditioning for
comfort working conditions. In summer, air conditioning will consume
large amount of energy. The air conditioning load sums up of two basic
components: 1) Sensible load and 2) Latent load. These both loads will
be taken by cooling coil in air conditioners. Sensible load is the load
which account temperature change in as enclosed space. The latent
load of air conditioning is the load which controls the humidity level. In
hot and humid climates, the higher relative air humidity will produce
discomfort for human being [10]. In a conventional air conditioning,
return room air is cooled down, by cooling coil, below its Dew Point
Temperature (DPT) to achieve required temperature and moisture level
the help of some amount of reheating.
Solar cooling is an important solution to the global warming and
environment degradation [12–14]. Major option to the conventional
VCRS is solar operated Liquid Desiccant (LD) dehumidification
followed by evaporative water cooling. In LD based air conditioning,
after the adsorption of moisture from process air LD needs to be
regenerated. This weak LD solution can be regenerated by heating with
the help of solar radiation [15]. This heat can be supplied by solar
heated air in the stripping column or with the help of various process
solar equipments e.g. solar still [16–18], solar collector [19], falling
film [20,21], spray [22–24], packed bed [25–31], solar dryer [32–34],
solar pond [35–38] etc.
1.1. Desiccant
Whenever an air with low dew point is required, desiccant materials
are used as they have high affinity towards the moisture vapour. LD
technology has advantages like higher air dehumidification, low driving
temperature and storage capabilities up to 1350 MJ/m3 as compared to
solid desiccant wheels [39]. Designing a dehumidifier, the selection of a
desiccant material will have a major impact. Its selection depends on
various operating parameters, such as boiling point elevation, energy
storage density, regeneration temperature, thermo physical properties,

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: d_shukla92@yahoo.com (D.L. Shukla).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.04.103
Received 25 December 2016; Received in revised form 5 April 2017; Accepted 27 April 2017
1364-0321/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
D.L. Shukla, K.V. Modi
availability, cost, etc. Among these parameters, the surface vapour
pressure is the major problem and many researchers have investigated
its effects [40].
Solid desiccants can adsorb a large amount of water vapour on their
own surface and has large drying capacity than LD. Due to this
advantage; solid desiccants are widely used in various cooling devices
than the LDs. However (Factor et al. [25]) have quoted the below
advantages for LDs: Easy manipulated more mobile, across desiccant
less pressure drop of air, also used for filtering for contaminant
removal with very low regenerating temperature than solid one.
Some other parameters which show desiccant materials perfor-
mance are [41–43]:
• Availability and cost
• Energy storage density
• Regenerating temperature
• Boiling Point Elevation (BPE)
Ideal properties of LD are as following:
• Non-toxic, Non-flammable, Non-volatile, Non-corrosive and chemi-
cally stable
• Large saturation absorption capacity
• High heat and mass transfer coefficients
• Less power required for the blower/fan
• Odorless
• Less expensive
• Low viscosity
• Continues absorption-desorption process
• Low regeneration temperature
• Air sterilization is possible as required in hospitals
Commonly used LDs are glycols and solutions of hygroscopic salts
which include Lithium Chloride (LiCl), Lithium Bromide (LiBr),
Calcium Chloride (CaCl2), Potassium Formate (KCOOH), Triethylene
Glycol (TEG) and mixture of salts [44–54] etc. They had lower surface
vapour pressure at low temperature and high concentration than that
of the highly moisturized process air.
1.1.1. Working principle of liquid desiccant cooling
Fig. 1 shows basic LD cooling system. In desiccant based cooling
system humid process air is allowed to flow through desiccant
dehumidifier. LD adsorbs moisture from process air and this moisture
gets condensed. This latent heat of condensation of moisture will
convert into sensible heating of air. Thus, the hot and dried air comes
out from dehumidifier and gets cooled down in evaporative cooling.
Now, in able to reuse this desiccant material, it needs to be regenerated
by removing condensed moisture from it. This removal can be done by
heating a desiccant material. Low grade heat source can be also used
for regeneration.
A solar powered LD system having evaporative pad for greenhouse
food production applications in hot and humid climates is shown in
Fig. 1. Basic liquid desiccant cooling system [55].
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 78 (2017) 517–529
Fig. 2 [56]. System consists of solar regenerator, greenhouse, evapora-
tive bad and Magnesium Chloride (MgCl2) as desiccant solution in
desiccators.
As an alternative option of Solid Desiccant Cooling Systems (SDCS),
Liquid Desiccant Air conditioning (LDAC) systems have emerged
rapidly in last few years. The lower regeneration temperature around
45–70 °C [57–66] allows LD to be used in air conditioning system
rather than solid desiccant having temperature range of 70–120 °C
[67–69].
The prime objective of the study is to present the development in
solar energy based LD regeneration techniques utilized for the air
conditioning system and also to draw the attention of research
community towards the viable option of LD regeneration in integration
with the conventional solar energy based equipment: the concept of
hybrid solar system. Hence, with the hybrid solar system, the problem
of cooling in summer and drinking water can be resolved. The layout of
paper is as follows: Introduction of LD with working principle is
presented in Section 1. Literature review on solar LD regeneration is
presented in Section 2. Various hybrid solar systems are discussed in
Section 3. At the end, conclusions and future scope are provided in
Section 4.
2. Literature review on solar liquid desiccant regeneration
As early in history of solar operated LD air conditioning, Lof [70]
reported the use of LD TEG in dehumidification followed by evapora-
tive cooling system as shown in Fig. 3. An auxiliary heater was also
used for supplying the heat. The whole process was followed by
regeneration of LD for the supply of evaporatively cooled air to
enclosed space. They regenerated LD around 80 °C temperature with
the help of solar heated air.
Based on the experimentation of Lof [70], Sheridan et al. [71]
prepared a LiBr water regeneration system with a temperature range of
70–85 °C as shown in Fig. 4. All this experimentation gave hope in
exploration of use of solar energy in cooling application as LD
regeneration comes in the temperature range of solar collector.
Lof et al. [72] have concluded from the previous experimentation
that the ambient parameters such as temperature and air velocity will
affect more when a solar still act as a distillation device. But they have
found from the theoretical calculation that ambient parameters were
not important when solar still was used as a LiCl (LD) regenerator.
Based on this result, Hollands [16] measured experimental perfor-
mance of LiCl regeneration in a conventional solar still as shown in
Fig. 5.
He plotted variation of efficiency for experimentation and theore-
tical observation as shown in Fig. 6. He obtained the higher efficiencies
in a solar still at higher surrounding temperatures. This could be
explain as at large surrounding temperatures still was forced to operate
in the steeper part of the vapour-pressure curve of water. In this part, a
small temperature difference was required for the same evaporation
rate in which radiative and convective losses were less.
Gandhidasan [73] has also showed the use of tilted solar still for the
regeneration of LD (Fig. 7). He derived that solar energy for the
regeneration of LD would be feasible in hot and humid climate rather
than dry climate. Also, Gandhidasan et al. [74] had simulated the open
solar regeneration system for the humid climate and discussed the
various parameters affecting the performance of the system.
Kaushik et al. [75] presented the theory for a transient heat and
mass transfer analysis of an open roof surface as a solar collecting
device which act as regenerator system in adsorption air conditioning.
In the experimentation, they have used LiCl solution (LiCI-H2O) which
flows over the open roof surface of a building to remove moisture by
evaporation from solution. From the Experimentation in typical hot
and dry climate, they found the average daily Coefficient of
Performance (COP) of the cooling system was in the range of 0.36–
0.57.
D.L. Shukla, K.V. Modi Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 78 (2017) 517–529

Fig. 2. Schematic of the solar powered liquid desiccant system with evaporative pad [56].

Fig. 3. Schematic of an open cycle air conditioning system [70].

Fig. 4. Schematic of a LiBr regeneration system [71].

Kaudinya et al. [76] had developed an experimental set up (Fig. 8) have carried out an experiment for two different LDs: LiBr and LiCl.
for the regeneration of LD to validate the theoretical studies developed The main aim of experiment was to find out diurnal response of
by Kaushik et al. [75] on open and forced flow solar regenerator. They working fluids with concentration of 35%.

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Fig. 5. The conventional solar still for liquid desiccant regeneration [16].
Fig. 6. Comparison of theoretical and experimental equilibrium efficiencies [16].
Fig. 7. Tilted solar still as the regenerator [73].
Fig. 9(a) shows water removal rate calculated at every hour of whole
day for 35% LiBr-H2O solution operated in open regeneration. This
figure indicates that water desorption rate increases as day progresses.
The primary reason behind this increment was improvement in
affecting parameters, heat and mass transfer coefficient and water
desorption driving potential. After the peak point at afternoon, the
performance reduces due to reduction in affecting parameters. Similar
comparison is shown in Fig. 9(b) for LiCI-H2O with 35% initial
concentration. One can observe that sharp increase in the mass
removal rate which was due to large amount of insolation and great
wind velocity during the same time period. They concluded that LiBr
LD is more superior than LiCl in terms of mass desorption rate for
same concentration of 35%.
Chung et al. [77] experimentally studied the vapour pressures of the
aqueous desiccants such as LiCl, LiBr, CaCl2, TEG, Propylene Glycol
(PG) and different mixtures of them at various concentrations. Within
the operating temperature range of 25–40 °C, the test results, as shown
in Fig. 10, indicates that about 80% of the data points fall within (10%
deviation).
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Fig. 8. Experimental set-up of open and forced flow solar regenerator [76].
Results shows that comparatively to other desiccant, 40% LiCl
solution is best one having quite low vapour pressure. But simulta-
neously in comparison to the organic desiccants, the vapour pressures
of the aqueous glycols were lower than that of LiCl at similar
temperatures. But the glycols have disadvantage of higher value of
viscosities leads to more pumping cost as compared to corrosion
problem in salt solutions. One may find out that this work is basically
focuses on vapour pressure, one of the leading parameters for finding
system effectiveness.
Alizadeh et al. [78] used parallel flow type forced flow solar
collector/regenerator as shown in Fig. 11 for the regeneration of
CaCl2 LD at Adelaide, Australia. They studied the effect of air and
solution mass flow-rates and the climatic conditions on the perfor-
mance of solar collector.
Gandhidasan [79] predicted the regeneration of LD in a packed bed
by applying two methods A and B as shown in Fig. 12. In method A,
regeneration was carried out with the help of heat exchanger where
supplied air was heated with the help of solar energy. In this method A,
researcher has studied the influence of the heating fluid inlet tempera-
ture and the effectiveness of the heating fluid-to-desiccant heat
exchanger on the performance of the regenerator. In method B, air
was being heated with the help of convectional heater. In this method,
the effects of energy input on the evaporation rate of water with the
scavenging air flow rate were studied.
Rane et al. [80] demonstrated energy efficiency of two stage
regeneration as shown in Fig. 13, with High Temperature
Regeneration (HTR) and with Low Temperature Regeneration (LTR)
in LD based dryer. Steam and partially regenerated LD from HTR were
separated and steam was supplied to internal channels in LTR.
Partially concentrated LD was supplied to the trough of LTR, which
was heated with the steam. Ambient air was drawn with a chimney,
without any parasitic power consumption. LD got further regenerated,
rejecting moisture to air. Fully regenerated LD was supplied to
dehumidifier, which dehumidified the ambient air. Condensate from
LTR was found to be free of CaCl2, which was used as desiccant. This
condensate could be used as potable water.
Katejanekarn et al. [81] have experimentally studied the perfor-
mance of a solar regenerated LD ventilation pre-conditioning system in
all year round season containing winter, summer and rain as shown in
Fig. 14. They found the reduction in temperature around 1.2 °C with
total humidity reduction about 11%. Katejanekarn et al. [82] have also
done the simulation for the system shown in Fig. 14. The authors
[81,82] have compared the results of experimentation with simulation,
as shown in Fig. 15, for the daily average relative humidity of the
D.L. Shukla, K.V. Modi
Fig. 9. Comparison of water desorption rate [76].
Fig. 10. Analysis of predicted and experimental effectiveness for different desiccants
and packings: (■) Polypropylene flexi rings-TEG; (•) Plastic pall rings-LiCl; (▲)
Polypropylene Jaeger TriPacks-TEG; (▼) Ceramic Berl Saddles-LiCl [77].
Fig. 11. Forced flow solar collector in test apparatus [78].
delivered air. They found that experimental results were over estima-
tion by 1.0% for RH in compare to simulation results.
The authors [81,82] have also compared their results with Martin
et al. [83] and found good agreement. Further, the moisture removal
rate has been compared with Chung et al. [84] as shown in Fig. 16.
Elsarrag [85] experimented on a system, as shown in Fig. 17,
comprising of corrugated blackened surface for the regeneration of
CaCl2 LD and various factors were examined for the evaporation rate.
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Fig. 12. Solar operated liquid desiccant regeneration in packed bed system [79].
Fig. 13. Two stage liquid desiccant regeneration for drying [80].
Author found that optimum liquid to air flow rate ratio is about
2.54 and increasing the desiccant inlet temperature will improve the
evaporation rate. On the other way, desiccant concentration and inlet
air humidity ratio has inverse proportionality with evaporation rate.
Chen et al. [86] studied a mixed-solvent open-cycle absorption air
conditioning system containing {(40.0 wt%) glycol+salt+water} using
Diethylene Glycol (DEG), TEG, and Tetraethylene Glycol (T4EG) and
MgCl2 as the salt. The study indicates that the density of the above-
D.L. Shukla, K.V. Modi
Fig. 14. Solar regenerated liquid desiccant ventilation pre-conditioning system [81].
Fig. 15. Comparison of relative humidity with other models [81].
Fig. 16. Comparison of moisture removal rate with other models [81].
mentioned absorbents decreased with the temperature increased and
increased with increases in the salt concentration. In the study, the
vapour pressure increased as the temperature increased and decreased
as the salt concentration increased. These findings indicate that their
studied absorbents are a promising alternative to conventionally used
absorbents. One of the advantages of glycol based absorbents is their
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Fig. 17. Schema of a system unit [85].
Fig. 18. Experimented fine reinforced plastic solar still with unit total area [87].
lower regeneration temperature. However, glycol-based absorbents are
corrosive and toxic, which limits their applications. Glycol-based
substances include DEG, TEG, T4EG, PG and Dipropylene Glycol
(DPG).
Mehta et al. [87] compared simulated results with experimental
results of the solar still used as water desalination unit and as LD
regeneration unit separately. An experiment was performed at
Ahmedabad on Fine Reinforced Plastic (FRP) solar still as shown in
Fig. 18. In this work, researchers have used 60% concentrated KCOOH
solution as LD and regenerated it using solar radiation. Also to reduce
side and bottom heat loss, they applied 2″ thermocole insulation to
FRP still.
D.L. Shukla, K.V. Modi Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 78 (2017) 517–529

Fig. 19. Solar radiation, temperature variation and distilled output for solar still (a) simulation and (b) Experimental results [87].

Fig. 20. Solar radiation, temperature variation and distilled output for solar regenerator (a) Simulation and (b) Experimental results [87].

Fig. 21. (a) Two stage regeneration liquid desiccant dehumidification cycle on p-T-x chart of aqueous potassium formate (b) Scheme of LD_SAC [88].

Form Fig. 19 it can be found that compared to simulation result of actual air velocity as compared to those given in handbook.
4.275 kg of distilled water in the still, only 2.497 kg is obtained in Fig. 20 indicates simulation and experimental results of liquid
experiment. The primary reason behind this deviation is quite law desiccant regeneration at Ahmedabad in the month of March. The

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Fig. 22. Schematic diagram of the solar liquid desiccant regenerated evaporatively cooled greenhouse [89].
Fig. 23. Variation of maximum temperature in greenhouse for different cooling system
along with the ambient air temperature [89].
Fig. 24. Monthly averages of daily maximum temperature, occurring inside the green-
house and the monthly averages of daily solar insolation [89].
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temperature difference between brine solution and glass cover tem-
perature is quite high in comparison of water distillation. This is due to
the suppression of water vapour pressure in the presence of salt, and
consequently lower vaporization of water from solution. Also energy
transfer from solution to glass cover by mode of vaporization is lower
leading to reduced glass cover temperatures. In comparison of simula-
tion result of 0.986 kg water desorption actually 1.224 kg water could
be removed. So, lower air velocity would be helpful in case of LD
regeneration and would lead to reduce water desorption rate in case of
water desalination unit.
Mehta et al. [88] used novel Evacuated Type Collector (ETC) as
regenerator for LD based solar air conditioning system. This non
tracking type ETC can achieve more range of temperature than
conventional solar flat plate collector and liquid can be boiled in it.
Two stage regeneration LD dehumidification cycles on p-T-x chart of
aqueous KCOOH and methodology of this solar air conditioning is
shown in Fig. 21(a) and (b) respectively.
They measured maximum change in concentration 18.5% with exit
concentration of 70.4 wt% of LD in water. Due to absence of sensible
heat loss to air and low preheating, regenerator could deliver high day
thermal COP of 0.82. Due to low pressure drop and flow rate of LD in
collector, parasitic power consumption was less than 40 W, which was
less than 1.5% of regeneration duty. Distilled water output up to
5.14 kg/h and maximum collector efficiency up to 44.7% was obtained
at 117 °C with 719 W/m2 solar insolation.
Recently in 2016, Abu-Hamdeh et al. [89] presented solar LD
regeneration for greenhouse food production in Saudi Arabia. Fig. 22
shows a schematic diagram of whole greenhouse system cooled by solar
assisted LD cooling system.
They measured daily average maximum temperature of greenhouse
and conventional evaporative cooling. Fig. 23 shows the variation of
temperature in greenhouse obtained with the help of LD cooling and
evaporative cooling along with the surrounding temperature. In
experiment, values were reported for clear sky conditions in month
of June for 09:00 A.M. and 04:00 P.M. The figure demonstrates that
desiccant cooled system has better capabilities to reduce temperature
effectively. In addition to monthly averaged solar insolation, maximum
temperatures occurring in the greenhouse were shown in Fig. 24.
Elhelw [90] evaluated performance of solar LD cooling system as
shown in Fig. 25, by varying the ETC area in climate conditions of
Egypt.
He has derived some important results about total area of ETC as
follows. 1) From Fig. 26, one can easily found out that the increasing or
decreasing ETC area will not affect the amount of water absorbed in
conditioner. 2) In case of amount of water desorbed in regenerator,
D.L. Shukla, K.V. Modi
Fig. 25. Outline of solar LD cooling system [90].
Fig. 26. Water absorption rate for various area of ETC [90].
Fig. 27. Water desorption rate for various area of ETC [90].
increasing area will improve desorption rate as shown in Fig. 27.
Although from obtained results, this effect was very less due to
increased CaCl2 density. Also, increasing area will improve COP of
system and COP reaches its maximum value in month of July. For
220 m3 area of ETC, around 30% energy will be saved on annum basis
by solar energy.
Bouzenada et al. [91] experientially compared the LiCl and CaCl2
desiccants and found out their relative merits and demerits. They had
studied effect of the ambient parameters such as air velocity and
humidity on these two LDs. It was found that both desiccants can be
regenerated and reused for many days having concentration gap
between the consecutive regeneration phases of 0.003% and 0.042%
for CaCl2 and LiCl respectively. The comparison between these two LDs
shows that, less costly CaCl2 has better mass transfer potential in the
regeneration process, but it has poor ability of absorption. On the other
end, higher costly LiCl was found the better LD in dehumidification.
3. A concept – hybrid solar system
In last few decades, a Hybrid solar system concept is getting more
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Fig. 28. Hybrid conventional and liquid-desiccant subsystem [93].
popular and popular due to its ability to achieve more required
condition of air rather than LDAC alone. In the hybrid solar system,
either two sources of heat are used for regenerating LD or solar energy
is used for regeneration along with other application (mainly as a
combination of solar powered LD system and conventional VCRS or
absorption refrigeration system) [92].
Sick et al. [93] analyzed the performance of hybrid LD cooling
system comprising of conventional and LDAC equipment as shown in
Fig. 28. They had calculated that if initial costs are not taken into
account, this system has lowest operational cost when operated at solar
mode having regeneration with the help of flat plate collectors.
Ahmad et al. [94] have simulated a hybrid system, as shown in
Fig. 29, comprising of open cycle vapour absorption system and liquid
desiccant system using LiBr as LD for absorption and dehumidification
process. The authors have simulated hybrid system with a partly open
– closed solar regenerator to regenerate weak LD. From the results of
simulation, they found that hybrid model is excellent alternative over a
conventional system.
Audah et al. [95] have simulated the solar powered liquid desiccant
system to meet both fresh water requirement and building cooling in
the climatic condition of Beirut, Lebanon. As shown in Fig. 30, in a
hybrid solar system, parabolic solar concentrator is utilized as a heat
source for the regeneration of CaCl2 LD. They have developed the liquid
desiccant system model to predict the amount of condensate obtained
D.L. Shukla, K.V. Modi Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 78 (2017) 517–529

Fig. 29. Hybrid vapour-absorption and liquid-desiccant cycle [94].

Fig. 30. Schema of solar powered hybrid system with supply of fresh water [95].

from the humid air leaving the regenerator. They have optimized the
problem for the case study to produce 15 l fresh potable water and
meet the cooling load for 80 m2 area at minimum energy cost.
The authors have plotted the variation of collected water for the 9 h
of operation versus the liquid desiccant to air flow ration and obtain the
best operating ratio as shown in Fig. 31. The Fig. 32 shows the various
life cycle cost (LCC) of the regeneration temperature for different heat
sink temperatures. It is clear from the figure that as heat sink
temperature reduces optimum regeneration temperature increases.
They concluded that to meet the case study requirements, the lower
sink temperature of 17–18 °C will be more economically feasible.
Mohan et al. [96] have designed a Liquid Desiccant Vapour
Compression (LDVC) hybrid system consist of a 0.8 TR vapour
compression air conditioning system and LiBr liquid desiccant loop
as shown in Fig. 33. They have carried out an experiment on the hybrid
system in balanced ambient room type calorimeter. This kind of work
was also found in other research papers [97–100]. In the study, liquid
desiccant was regenerated with the use of waste heat. The authors have
investigated the effect of varying room air temperature and specific
humidity on performance of hybrid system. The main attention of the
system is that very low LD to air flow ratio (~0.01) is used in whole
experiment. The authors have concluded that dehumidification of
process air and regeneration of liquid desiccant reduces as room
temperature increases and increases with increase in room specific
humidity.
Park et al. [101] have designed multiple effect diffusion (MED)

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D.L. Shukla, K.V. Modi
Fig. 31. Collected water in (ml) vs. LD to air flow [95].
Fig. 32. LCC vs. regeneration temperature [95].
Fig. 33. Block diagram of hybrid solar system [96].
hybrid solar still system with sea water feeding. They have carried out
experimentation on the hybrid solar still with hybrid heat source: solar
energy and waste heat of exhaust gas from engine of the electric
generator. The experiment was performed with three operational
parameters: 1) amount of heat supplied to still, 2) seawater flow rate
and 3) seawater level in basin. Schematic diagram of hybrid solar still
composed of simple solar still and MED as shown in Fig. 34(a). MED
section comprising of wicks, stainless steel plates, distributor system,
pockets. The wicks were attached on the rear surface of vertical plates.
Saline water in contact with wick of first plate was evaporated using
solar radiation and latent heat of condensed water. The evaporated
vapour diffuses towards the second plate and gets condensed on the
front facing of second plate. The latent heat of vaporization on second
plate evaporates saline water from wick of second plate. So this
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 78 (2017) 517–529
continues evaporation, diffusion and condensation were repeated
which improves the productivity still.
They have measured distilled water amount for three different
parameters: heat input, sea water flow rate and water level in basin.
Variation of water yield with heat input at different positions of still is
shown in Fig. 34(b) keeping other parameters constant. They found
from the results productivity increases with increase in heat input.
4. Conclusions and future scope
In the present paper, authors have attempted to include a detailed
literature survey on regeneration of LD with the help of solar energy.
Authors have also discussed the concept of various hybrid solar
systems developed by the various researchers for the regeneration of
LD. Different systems that are operating with the help of different
sorbent-sorbet are discussed. The summery of the present paper can be
outlined as below:
• Although initial total investments are higher in the solar system, but
it can give shorter payback period for most of the systems.
• Also, solar operated LDAC are considered to be the emerging
technology for providing cooling in most of the areas rather than
using conventional VCRS or VARS systems.
• LDs superiority over solid desiccants can be highlighted as low
regeneration temperature ranging below 80 °C, easy operation, low
crystallization point, less power requirement, less viscosity, contin-
uous dehumidification and regeneration process with long time use
etc.
• Although having advantageous properties over solid ones, depen-
dence on ambient conditions, storage, mostly intermittent source of
regeneration, carryover problem and corrosion of different parts of
the systems could not be neglected.
• In terms of energy and economic savings, LDAC has energy
consumption less than 30–50% than that in conventional VCRS,
with higher rate on investment. Even more energy can be saved with
the concept of hybrid solar system for the regeneration of LD in
compare to conventional systems for the LD regeneration.
• Solar powered LDAC can be used with various conjunctions of low
or high grade sources like externally heaters, waste heat of various
engines, from flue gases etc. for achieving required condition of air
in enclosed space as well as to improve efficiency.
• Hybrid solar systems are manifesting themselves as they used
indirect evaporative cooling rather than direct evaporative cooling.
Indirect cooling which provide only required sensible cooling to air
without addition of extra moisture is extracting great extraction
along with separate handling of sensible and latent load in hybrid
systems.
Despite of having so many merits, a large scale implementation of
solar regenerated LDAC in actual conditions are required. Also, many
authors have used various solar systems, but expansion of other
systems like concentrating solar collectors, heliostats etc should be
incorporated. Up till now, single LD is regenerated with the help of
conventional solar system and factors affecting the performance were
studied by various researchers but the combination of various LDs can
be introduced in the conventional solar system to study its performance
and to deepen this valuable concept. Also, actual analytical and
experimental investigations must be done despite of large simulations
to figure out the exact heat and mass transfer occurring within the
system. Furthermore, with the concept of hybrid solar system, the
many problems like building cooling, potable water etc. can be over-
come at much more lower cost than the conventional system for cooling
and potable water.
D.L. Shukla, K.V. Modi
Fig. 34. (a) Schematic diagram of hybrid solar still [101]. (b) Variation of water yield for different heat input [101].
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