Experimental Investigation on Dehumidification Performance of Square Channel Rotary Solid Desiccant Dehumidifier Assisted with PCM Integrated Parabolic Trough Solar Collector

This research study aims to remove the moisture from air and investigate dehumidification performance of square channel rotary solid desiccant wheel. The regeneration of desiccants wheel is effectively served by using PCM integrated parabolic trough solar collector. The PCM serve the purpose of storing the heat and utilised during non-availability of solar energy thus increase the operational hours of combined system. The experiments were performed by using composite desiccants of different composition like, pure silica gel (SG), SG -5A Molecular sieve (90-10) %, SG-LiCl (90-10) % and SG-LiCl-5A Molecular sieve (80-10-10) % by mass with sector angle of 270o and 90o for process and regeneration purpose. Different process and regeneration mass flow rate of air in the range of 50 to 100 kg/hrs with desiccant wheel speed 10,20 & 30 rph are considered to optimised the dehumidification performance. The results obtained are discussed in this research article also the solar collector performance analysed by integrating Paraffin wax as PCM for increased operational hours characteristics.