Numerical Investigation of Simultaneous Heat and Mass Transfer in a Bubble Column Liquid Desiccant Dehumidifier

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a major consumer of air conditioners with a share reaches up to 60 % in the Middle East. In many areas of the Kingdom especially coastal ones such as Eastern and Western Provinces, the moisture content holding in the air is a major problem in many residential and industrial applications. Air dehumidification process in a bubble column dehumidifier using liquid desiccant seems to be an appropriate device for meeting the dehumidification needs. In the traditional dehumidification process, such as in the vapour compression refrigeration systems, it is an energy-consuming process since the humid atmospheric air will be cooled until its undesirable moisture is condensed out, often to very low temperature and hence, energy consumption is appreciable due to excess cooling. Liquid desiccant based dehumidification process will reduce energy consumption because the dehumidification process can be carried out independently in a dehumidifier. There are many types of liquid desiccant dehumidifiers such as finned tube surface, spray tower, packed tower, etc., and all these types are well investigated by many researchers but no one has studied the performance of the bubble column as a liquid desiccant-based air dehumidifier. A mathematical model will be formulated and solved numerically using Engineering Equation Solver (EES). This model will be optimized with ultimate objectives of reducing the energy consumption, increase the environment protection and improve the performance with less operating and initial cost.