EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL-STUDY OF A HUMIDIFICATION-DEHUMIDIFICATION DESALTING SYSTEM

A pilot humidification-dehumidification desalting (HDD) system has bee n built in Kuwait University. Solar heated saline water is used to hum idify air in a direct contact heat exchanger (humidifying column), whe re air is forced upward while the hot saline water is falling downward in the humidifier. The heated and humidified air is passed to a dehum idifying column through cross connected ducts between the two columns. The water condensed from the air represents the desalted water. A the oretical design procedure for a moderate capacity humidification dehum idification system is presented. The experimental results obtained fro m the designed and built pilot HDD system are used to check the design data. Good agreement between the experimental and theoretical results was shown.