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4 Chemical Dehumidifying Process

The document discusses chemical dehumidifying and dehumidification processes. It describes how air is dehumidified by passing it over chemicals that absorb moisture, raising the air temperature. The drier and warmer air then needs to be cooled before use. Chemical desiccants like silica gel are used to absorb moisture from process air and must be periodically regenerated using hot, dry air. Typical setups include a desiccant wheel that rotates between air streams and a post-cooling coil to cool the treated air.

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Nicolai Celo
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225 views2 pages

4 Chemical Dehumidifying Process

The document discusses chemical dehumidifying and dehumidification processes. It describes how air is dehumidified by passing it over chemicals that absorb moisture, raising the air temperature. The drier and warmer air then needs to be cooled before use. Chemical desiccants like silica gel are used to absorb moisture from process air and must be periodically regenerated using hot, dry air. Typical setups include a desiccant wheel that rotates between air streams and a post-cooling coil to cool the treated air.

Uploaded by

Nicolai Celo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chemical Dehumidifying (Heating and Dehumidifying Process)

Air can be dehumidified by passing it over chemicals that have an affinity for moisture. Usually in so doing
the moisture is condensed and gives up its latent heat, raising the dry bulb temperature of the air. The air
leaves drier and warmer. The wet bulb temperature may increase or decrease. Units employing such chemical
are used in some comfort air conditioning installations but mainly for industrial air conditioning. Since the air
leaving-air temperature is usually higher than wanted, it is necessary to add a sensible cooling process to get
the desired final air condition.

Basic Concepts of Chemical Dehumidification

The moisture contained in humid air partially condenses in the chemical desiccant: it is adsorbed because of
the vapour partial pressure difference between process air and desiccant surface. So the process air temperature
increases because of the conversion in sensible heat of both condensation heat and heat due to the adsorption
chemical process. Therefore, process air specific humidity decreases while temperature increases (Fig. 34).
For this reason, before supplying to the space, process air must be cooled (Fig. 34b) by means of one or more of
the following components: direct expansion or chilled liquid cooling coil.

Figure. 34: Air dehumidification by (a) cooling coil and (b) chemical dehumidification

Chemical desiccant – typically chemical compounds such


as synthetic polymers, silica gel, titanium silicates, natural
or synthetic zeolites, activated alumina, – must be
periodically regenerated using thermal energy. In Fig. 35 a
typical desiccant wheel is shown. The device rotates slowly
(6-30 r.p.h.) between process and reactivation air streams:
moisture is removed from process air stream by means of the
desiccant material; after a partial rotation, the sector of
saturated wheel is regenerated by hot and dry air (reactivation
air stream) to be utilized again.
Figure. 35: Typical desiccant wheel.
Figure 36 Typical desiccant setup with return air from the building treated by the Post-Cooling coil. This setup is
typical of small commercial buildings, schools, and residential buildings.

Figure 37 Adsorption Dehumidification Process

Heating and Dehumidifying Process Sample Problem

1.) Air at 24oC dry bulb and 15oC wet bulb temperatures enters a dehumidifier and leaves at 41oC dry bulb and
19oC wet bulb temperatures. How much moisture has been removed per kilogram of dry air?

Solution:

From the pschrometric chart: at td1 = 24oC and tw1 = 15oC, W1 = 0.0070 kg/kg d.a.
At td2 = 41oC and tw2 = 19oC, W2 = 0.0048 kg/kg.d.a.

Moisture removed = W1 – W2 = 0.0070 – 0.0048 = 0.0023 kg/kg.d.a.

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