title: Development of Membrane-Based Desiccant Fiber for Vacuum Desiccant Cooling.
abstract: A novel hydrophobic membrane-based desiccant fiber (MDF) was developed by loading lithium chloride into hydrophobic hollow fiber membranes. The MDF thus made was then tested for vapor absorption under controlled conditions. Furthermore, an MDF pad, which was made by weaving MDF into a piece of garment, was built into a laboratory vacuum desiccant cooling (VDC) setup, which included the MDF pad as the desiccant layer and a cooling towel saturated with water as the water reservoir, to test the cooling effects at atmospheric pressure and vacuum of 25 in. of Hg. Results indicate that MDF is suitable for applications such as in VDC. Mass and heat transfer of vapor absorption by MDF were also analyzed.
authors.affiliation: University of Ottawa , Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada.
authors.forename: Yifan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: University of Ottawa , Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada.
authors.forename: Dipak
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rana
authors.affiliation: University of Ottawa , Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada.
authors.forename: Christopher Q
authors.initials: CQ
authors.lastname: Lan
authors.affiliation: University of Ottawa , Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada.
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsuura
keywords: heat and mass transfer; hollow fiber membrane; hybrid desiccant; membrane-based desiccant fiber; vacuum desiccant cooling; vapor absorption