Study of a new modified cross-cooled compact solid desiccant dehumidifier

A new modified cross-cooled compact solid desiccant dehumidifier (CCCD) is proposed and its mathematical model describing heat and mass transfer processes between the moist air and the desiccant is presented. The dehumidifier is constructed on the basic structure of plate fin heat exchanger with silica gel elaborately glued on all the metal surfaces of the process-flow channels. The cyclic dynamic performance of the CCCD is simulated by implicit finite difference method and several important variables that strongly influence the performance of the CCCD are identified and analyzed. The simulated dehumidification performance is compared with the experimental results, and showing good agreement within 7% deviation. It is shown that the performance of the CCCD proposed in this paper with cooling effect is much better than that without cooling. It proves that dehumidification by silica gel with cooling can greatly improve its performance.