Performance of bubble column humidification-dehumidification (HDH) desalination system

Bubble column humidification and dehumidification (HDH) system is considered one of the promising and new techniques for enhancing the performance of the HDH desalination systems. In this paper, we experimentally examine the performance of a bubble column water and air heated HDH systems. The effect of water column height in the humidifier, water temperature, and air temperature and flow rate on gain output ratio (GOR), production and effectiveness are investigated and discussed. Results show that the system can produce 0.6 L/h freshwater and GOR can reach 0.95. At low temperatures, increasing airflow rate leads to an increase in the production at a high rate than the rate of increase in heat input. Therefore, GOR slightly increases at a higher airflow rate. Furthermore, GOR increases with increasing water temperature in the dehumidifier because the decrease in input energy needed to cool water in the dehumidifier has more impact than the decrease in the production.