Experimental parametric study on performance of a membrane heat and moisture exchanger with partially blocked channels at isothermal condition

Abstract

In this work, a membrane heat and moisture exchanger (MHME) with partially blocked channels is fabricated and tested at isothermal condition. There are eight rectangular baffles in each wet side channel with the height of 1.5 mm (75% of channel height). Dew point approach temperature (DPAT) is the main performance evaluation criterion of the MHME. The experimental parametric study of the blocked MHME shows that the performance of the MHME improves with increase of dry side inlet relative humidity (RH) and decrease of operating temperature. At higher RHs of dry side inlet, the MHME performance at different temperatures approaches each other. In different operating conditions, counter flow configuration shows better performance than the parallel flow. When the volumetric flow rates of wet side and dry side inlets are kept constant, increase of operating pressure causes the performance deterioration. When the pressure increases from 1 to 2.5 bar, DPAT in temperature of 30 °C increases by 6.68°, while in temperature of 60 °C increases by only 1.43°. It is also deduced that the water concentration difference between the wet side and dry side is the main driving force of mass transfer. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd