A Theoretical and Experimental Study for A humidification-Dehumidification (HDD) Solar Desalination Unit
A humidification-dehumidification (HD) solar desalination unit was designed. It seems to be suitable to provide drinking water for population or remote arid areas. Solar water and solar air collectors were designed to provide the hot water and air to the desalination chamber. The desalination chamber was divided into humidifier and dehumidifier towers. The circulation of air in the two towers was maintained by the forced convection. Theoretical and experimental works were done at different environmental conditions. A mathematical model was formulated, in which the thermodynamic relations were used to study the flow, heat and mass transfer inside the humidifier and dehumidifier. Such a technique was performed in order to increase the unit performance. Heat and mass balance was done and a set of governing equations was solved using the finite difference technique. The solar intensity was measured along the working day during the summer and winter months and a comparison between the theoretical and experimental results were performed. The average accumulative productivity of the system in November, December and January was ranged between 2 to 3.5 kg / m day while the average summer productivity was found between 6 to 8 kg/m day in June and 7.26 to 11 22
Performance analysis of a new type desalination unit of heat pump with humidification and dehumidification
Abstract Desalination with humidification and dehumidification process is deemed as an efficient and promising means of utilizing the condenser and evaporator of heat pump to produce freshwater from seawater. This paper presents a new type desalination unit driven by mechanical vapor compression pump which was designed and fabricated by the Institute of Air-Conditioning & Solar Energy of the Northwestern Polytechnical University. The unit utilized the heat from condenser and the cold from evaporator of heat pump adequately, and reclaimed most latent heat. The air, firstly, was humidified in the humidifier with the alveolate structure, and then was cooled in the precondenser and the evaporative condenser to produce freshwater. A mathematical model of the unit is presented, in which the hydrokinetics method was used to study the flow and the heat and mass transfer inside the alveolate humidifier. The effects of some of the operation such as flow rates, temperatures of cooling water and air, and etc., were studied in detail. The comparison between the numerical and experimental results was accepted. The desalination unit that is considered in the study produces freshwater 60 kg/day with the less electric power that is 500W and is proven to be an efficient desalination device to obtain freshwater.
Impacts of climate and land use changes on flood risk management for the Schijn River, Belgium
Abstract Flooding is the most common natural disaster in Europe. Modern flood risk management relies not only infrastructure development but also on governmental and non-governmental actors applying legal, economic and communicative water management instruments. Within the European Union (EU), flood management closely relies on policy set at the EU and national levels. It is now recognized that a sound understanding of climate change is required in addition to current management by taking into account land use change and socio-political context, as climate and land use changes have major impacts on hydrological responses. This paper investigates the hydrological behavior due to urbanization under current and future climate scenarios of high summer and high winter rainfall for 20 sub-catchments of the Schijn River, located in the Flanders region near Antwerp, Belgium. As urbanization increases and existing rainfall-runoff models neglecting the specific behavior of urban runoff, a hydrological model was developed based on a basic reservoir concept and applied to the existing rainfall-runoff model (PDM) flow to examine the specific urban contribution. Results revealed that peak flow for urban runoff and the total peak flow (i.e. rural and urban runoff) were significantly higher (i.e. ranges from 200% to 500%) than the existing rainfall-runoff model (PDM) flows, because of faster and more peaked urban runoff response. The impact of climate change on current and future conditions was also assessed by estimating peak flows with respect to return periods from the flood frequency curve. The predicted peak flow of high summer future climate scenario was significantly higher (i.e. ranges from 200% to 250%) than that of the current climatic condition for this region. Furthermore, hourly peak flow and daily volume ratios of 100-year return period for the highest, lowest and average impervious area were projected for the time horizon of the year 2100. It is concluded that climate change impacts contribute the most in producing peak flow in coming years, while increased urbanization takes the second place for both hourly and daily values. Results on urbanization effect and climate change impact assessment are useful to the water managers for spatial planning, emergency planning and insurance industry.