Dynamic performance characterization of bound, porous silica gel desiccant

Technical Report · Mon Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1979

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5446979· OSTI ID:5446979

Onischak, M.; Gidaspow, D.; Perkari, S.; Sasaki, T.

Drying of air with silica gel is a well established procedure. However, for the specific use of silica gel in a novel desiccant air conditioning system, which continually cools the silica gel and utilizes solar energy for silica gel regeneration, conventional packed bed devices are not suitable. For this system to operate effectively the silica gel must not rise in its temperature or its capacity will be greatly diminished. Dynamic dehumidificatuion performance was investigted for a silica gel desiccant fabricated in bound, porous paper-like sheets. Sheets of various thickness (0.7 to 3 mm) were fabricated and tested under several dynamic flow conditions in a flat rectangular channel apparatus. During each experiment conditions of inlet moisture, air flowrate, and sheet temperature were maintained constant. Comparisons were also made with conventional silica gel pellets and with other forms of bound silica gel. The sheets show superior utilization of silica gel in short times (30 minutes or less). Tests were also made to examine the sheet structure in order to explore the effect of temperature on the porous structure, and to obtain pore size distributions.

• Research Organization: Illinois Inst. of Tech., Chicago (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5446979
• Report Number(s): DOE/CS/31589-2; DES-79-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140901* -- Solar Thermal Utilization-- Space Heating & Cooling
ADSORBENTS
AIR CONDITIONERS
AIR CONDITIONING
APPLIANCES
DATA
DATA FORMS
DEHUMIDIFICATION
DESICCANTS
ELECTRIC APPLIANCES
EQUIPMENT
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FABRICATION
FLOW RATE
GRAPHS
INFORMATION
MOISTURE
NUMERICAL DATA
PERFORMANCE
PERFORMANCE TESTING
SHEETS
SILICA GEL
SOLAR AIR CONDITIONERS
SOLAR AIR CONDITIONING
SOLAR COOLING SYSTEMS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
TESTING