Thermodynamic analysis of liquid desiccants

Liquid desiccants are widely used in many solar applications. In order to analyze the performance of the system using desiccant technology, the thermophysical properties of desiccants are essential. In particular, the Vapor pressure of the liquid desiccant is one of the important properties in air dehumidification. In this paper, an attempt is made to predict this property based on a classical thermodynamics approach and it is found that the predicted values for lithium chloride agree very well with the experimental results. The desired sorption properties can also be obtained by mixing the desiccants, which is another method of developing a new cost-effective liquid desiccant. In this paper, simple mixing rules are used to predict the vapor pressure, density, and viscosity of the desiccant mixture, namely calcium chloride and lithium chloride. It is found that the interaction parameter need not be included in calculating the density and vapor pressure of the above mixture but must be included in predicting the viscosity. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.