IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v12y2019i9p1660-d227557.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Investigation on the Performance of a Compact Three-Fluid Combined Membrane Contactor for Dehumidification in Electric Vehicles

Author

Listed:
  • Ehsan Afrasiabian

    (Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM, Fraunhofer-Platz 1, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany)

  • Oleg Iliev

    (Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM, Fraunhofer-Platz 1, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany)

  • Inga Shklyar

    (Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM, Fraunhofer-Platz 1, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany)

  • Stefano Lazzari

    (Department of Architecture and Design (DAD), University of Genoa, 16123 Genoa, Italy)

  • Federica Boero

    (Tecnologie Innovative per il Controllo e lo Sviluppo Sostenibile—TICASS S.c.r.l., 16121 Genoa, Italy)

Abstract

In this paper, the performance of a compact Three-Fluid Combined Membrane Contactor (3F-CMC) is investigated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), supported and validated with a good agreement by an experimental campaign made on a fully working prototype. This internally-cooled membrane contactor is the core component of a hybrid air conditioning system for electric vehicles (EVs) developed in a successful H2020 project called XERIC. In the adopted numerical approach, the conjugate heat and mass transfer inside the 3F-CMC is described by non-isothermal incompressible flows and vapor transport through a PTFE hydrophobic membrane. The sensitivity of the 3F-CMC performance to air/desiccant flow rates, temperature, humidity, and desiccant concentration is analyzed numerically through the validated CFD codes. According to this study, the moisture removal increases by the inlet humidity ratio, nearly linearly. Under the considered conditions (where the inlet air temperature is 26.2 °C), when the inlet relative humidity (RH) is 75% the moisture removal is about 450% higher than the case RH = 37%, while the absorption effectiveness declines about 45%. Furthermore, this study shows that the amount of absorbed vapor flux rises by increasing the airflow rate; on the other hand, the higher the airflow rate, the lower is the overall absorption efficiency of the 3F-CMC. This investigation gives important suggestions on how to properly operate a 3F-CMC in order to achieve the requested performance, especially in hot and humid climates.

Suggested Citation

  • Ehsan Afrasiabian & Oleg Iliev & Inga Shklyar & Stefano Lazzari & Federica Boero, 2019. "Investigation on the Performance of a Compact Three-Fluid Combined Membrane Contactor for Dehumidification in Electric Vehicles," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-15, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:9:p:1660-:d:227557
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/9/1660/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/9/1660/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Das, Rajat Subhra & Jain, Sanjeev, 2015. "Performance characteristics of cross-flow membrane contactors for liquid desiccant systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 1-11.
    2. Das, Rajat Subhra & Jain, Sanjeev, 2013. "Experimental performance of indirect air–liquid membrane contactors for liquid desiccant cooling systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 319-325.
    3. Gurubalan Annadurai & Shaligram Tiwari & M P Maiya, 2018. "Experimental performance comparison of adiabatic and internally-cooled membrane dehumidifiers," International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies, Oxford University Press, vol. 13(3), pages 240-249.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lin, Jie & Huang, Si-Min & Wang, Ruzhu & Jon Chua, Kian, 2019. "On the in-depth scaling and dimensional analysis of a cross-flow membrane liquid desiccant dehumidifier," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 786-800.
    2. Thu, K. & Mitra, S. & Saha, B.B. & Srinivasa Murthy, S., 2018. "Thermodynamic feasibility evaluation of hybrid dehumidification – mechanical vapour compression systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 31-44.
    3. Cheng, Qing & Zhang, Xiaosong & Jiao, Shun, 2017. "Influence of concentration difference between dilute cells and regenerate cells on the performance of electrodialysis regenerator," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 140(P1), pages 646-655.
    4. Krzysztof Grysa & Artur Maciąg & Artur Ściana, 2022. "Comparison of the Efficiency of Cross-Flow Plate Heat Exchangers Made of Varied Materials," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-17, November.
    5. Gurubalan, A. & Maiya, M.P. & Geoghegan, Patrick J., 2019. "A comprehensive review of liquid desiccant air conditioning system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    6. Wang, Xinli & Cai, Wenjian & Yin, Xiaohong, 2017. "A global optimized operation strategy for energy savings in liquid desiccant air conditioning using self-adaptive differential evolutionary algorithm," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 410-423.
    7. Das, Rajat Subhra & Jain, Sanjeev, 2015. "Performance characteristics of cross-flow membrane contactors for liquid desiccant systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 1-11.
    8. Jiang, Yuliang & Wang, Xinli & Zhao, Hongxia & Wang, Lei & Yin, Xiaohong & Jia, Lei, 2020. "Dynamic modeling and economic model predictive control of a liquid desiccant air conditioning," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    9. Wang, Xinli & Cai, Wenjian & Lu, Jiangang & Sun, Youxian & Zhao, Lei, 2015. "Model-based optimization strategy of chiller driven liquid desiccant dehumidifier with genetic algorithm," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 939-948.
    10. Liang, Cai-Hang & Li, Nan-Feng & Huang, Si-Min, 2020. "Entropy and exergy analysis of an internally-cooled membrane liquid desiccant dehumidifier," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    11. Cheng, Qing & Xu, Wenhao, 2017. "Performance analysis of a novel multi-function liquid desiccant regeneration system for liquid desiccant air-conditioning system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 140(P1), pages 240-252.
    12. Bigham, Sajjad & Yu, Dazhi & Chugh, Devesh & Moghaddam, Saeed, 2014. "Moving beyond the limits of mass transport in liquid absorbent microfilms through the implementation of surface-induced vortices," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 621-630.
    13. Kim, Min-Hwi & Ham, Sang-Woo & Park, Jun-Seok & Jeong, Jae-Weon, 2014. "Impact of integrated hot water cooling and desiccant-assisted evaporative cooling systems on energy savings in a data center," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 384-396.
    14. Ghoreyshi, Ali Asghar & Sadeghifar, Hamidreza & Entezarion, Fereshteh, 2014. "Efficiency assessment of air stripping packed towers for removal of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) from industrial and drinking waters," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 838-843.
    15. Elsarrag, Esam & Igobo, Opubo N. & Alhorr, Yousef & Davies, Philip A., 2016. "Solar pond powered liquid desiccant evaporative cooling," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 124-140.
    16. Antonio Franco & Diego L. Valera & Araceli Peña, 2014. "Energy Efficiency in Greenhouse Evaporative Cooling Techniques: Cooling Boxes versus Cellulose Pads," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-21, March.
    17. Li, Zengwen & Zhao, Hongxia & Han, Jitian & Wang, Xinli & Zhu, Jie, 2020. "Performance optimization of the dehumidifier with parallel-plate membrane modules," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    18. Yang, Zili & Tao, Ruiyang & Ni, Hui & Zhong, Ke & Lian, Zhiwei, 2019. "Performance study of the internally-cooled ultrasonic atomization liquid desiccant dehumidification system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 745-757.
    19. Liu, Xiaoli & Qu, Ming & Liu, Xiaobing & Wang, Lingshi, 2019. "Membrane-based liquid desiccant air dehumidification: A comprehensive review on materials, components, systems and performances," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 444-466.
    20. Luo, Jielin & Yang, Hongxing, 2022. "A state-of-the-art review on the liquid properties regarding energy and environmental performance in liquid desiccant air-conditioning systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 325(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:9:p:1660-:d:227557. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.