Experimental investigation of an electrodialysis regenerator for liquid desiccant

Liquid desiccant air-conditioning system (LDAS) is a novel air-conditioner with good energy saving potential. Electrodialysis (ED) regeneration is a novel regeneration method for LDAS, which has a higher performance than the conventional thermal regeneration method. In this paper, an experimental setup was developed to study the performance of ED regenerator for liquid desiccant. Based on experimental results, the current utilization of ED regenerator and the mass transfer rate of desiccant solution on unit area of anion-exchange membrane were experimentally obtained. The effects of different flow rates of regenerated and diluted desiccant solution on the current utilization and the mass transfer rate on unit area of anion-exchange membrane are studied. The results show that the largest mass concentration difference between regenerated desiccant solution at the entrance and the exit of the ED regenerator is 0.011%, and the largest mass concentration difference between regenerated desiccant solution at start and end of the experiment is 0.03%. Meanwhile, the largest current utilization of the experimental system of ED regenerator is 55%. Moreover, the current utilization and the mass flow rate of regenerated desiccant solution will increase with the flow rate of desiccant solution. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.