Experimental investigation of a heating with tandem desalination system based on humidification-dehumidification process

A multi-stage heat with tandem desalination system based on humidification and dehumidification (HDH) process was investigated steady state experimentally in this paper. The sketch and principle of an three-stage solar HDH desalination process is given out. The warm water is sprayer upon the porous ball humidifiers, which is simple and effective for enhancing the evaporation process. The spraying water temperature, the feed water flow rate and the air flow rate influencing on the desalination performance were measured. The experimental results indicate that the yield of the system increases with the increasing of the feed water flow rate and spraying temperature under experimental requirements. When the feed water flow rate is 2 t/h and the heating temperature of 90℃, the maximum yield can reach 182.47 kg/h. The maximum gain output ratio (GOR) of the system at the heating temperature of 85℃ can reach to about 2.65. The yield per unit volume is calculated as 22 kg/m³h. The maximum GOR of the heat with one-stage can reach to about 2.27. The research proves that the multi-stage heat with tandem HDD has much room to be improved.