Experimental investigation on compressed air drying performance using pressurized liquid desiccant

As a new compressed air-drying method, the compressed air dehumidification using a pressurized liquid desiccant was proposed in our previous study. The pressurized dehumidifier is a complex and core component of the drying system. The mass transfer performance between the compressed air and LiCl aqueous solution is experimentally studied in a counter-flow pressurized dehumidifier filled with structured packing. The humidity ratio of outlet compressed air, vapor removal of processed compressed air, moisture removal rate, and dehumidification efficiency were selected as the performance indices. The results show that the minimum humidity ratio of processed compressed air could reach 0.23 g/kg under 0.71 MPa. Compressed air-drying performance could be remarkably enhanced through increasing the air pressure and liquid desiccant inlet concentration while the influence of liquid desiccant temperature is negative. Furthermore, in order to ensure high compressed air-drying performance, reduce the power consumption of the air compressor and liquid desiccant pump, and the possibility of carryover, the optimum ratio of liquid to compressed air flow rate is recommended to be around 1.5 under pressure around 0.50 MPa. Meanwhile, the energy consumption for per-gram moisture removal of a liquid-desiccant-based compressed air-drying system can reach 1.42 kJ/g lower than cooling dehumidification under 0.3 MPa, which is 16.0% lower than a compressed air-cooling dehumidification system.