Bubble columns for condensation at high concentrations of noncondensable gas: Heat-transfer model and experiments
Author(s)
Narayan, G. Prakash; Sharqawy, Mostafa H.; Lam, Steven; Das, Sarit K.; Lienhard, John H.
DownloadAICHE_cited_once.pdf (2.418Mb)
OPEN_ACCESS_POLICY
Open Access Policy
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Terms of use
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Carrier gas based thermodynamic cycles are common in water desalination applications. These cycles often require condensation of water vapor out of the carrier gas stream. As the carrier gas is most likely a noncondensable gas present in very high concentrations (60–95%), a large additional resistance to heat transfer is present. It is proposed to reduce the aforementioned thermal resistance by condensing the vapor–gas mixture in a column of cold liquid rather than on a cold surface using a bubble column heat exchanger. A theoretical predictive model for estimating the heat-transfer rates and new experimental data to validate this model are described. The model is purely physics based without the need for any adjustable parameters, and it is shown to predict heat rates within 0 to −20% of the experimental values. The experiments demonstrate that heat-transfer rates in the proposed device are up to an order magnitude higher than those achieved in existing state-of-the-art dehumidifiers.
Date issued
2013-02Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical EngineeringJournal
AIChE Journal
Publisher
Wiley Blackwell
Citation
Narayan, G. Prakash, Mostafa H. Sharqawy, Steven Lam, Sarit K. Das, and John H. Lienhard. “Bubble Columns for Condensation at High Concentrations of Noncondensable Gas: Heat-Transfer Model and Experiments.” AIChE Journal 59, no. 5 (May 2013): 1780–1790.
Version: Author's final manuscript
ISSN
00011541
1547-5905