CFD study on Beds of an Adsorption desalination system in order to improve bed performance

One of the critical elements of an adsorption desalination system is the adsorption bed. The system dynamics of a ۲-bed single-stage silica gel plus water-based adsorption desalination system were analyzed. A great pattern was expanded using energy conservation and mass connected with the kinetics of the adsorption/desorption process. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling was used to simulate the adsorption process for a rectangular finned tube-based adsorption bed featured with silica gel adsorbent substance. The adsorbents in the simulation were considered solid volume with defined porosity based on the Darcy equation. The adsorption and desorption modes of  the adsorption bed was simulated. CFD techniques were then applied to study fin thickness and height. The results showed that decreasing the fin thickness increased the water uptake by up to ۸% and decreasing the fin height from ۳۰mm to ۲۰mm increased the water uptake by up to ۱۷%. CFD technique was also used to investigate the effects of plate type on the adsorption bed performance. The results showed that the copper plate improved the water uptake up to ۹%. The temperature decline of adsorption bed caused by the copper plate was up to ۱۱% more than that of the aluminum plate.

Keywords:

Adsorption bed , CFD , rectangular finned tube , fin thickness , plates type