Performance of an Absorber With Hydrophobic Membrane Contactor at Aqueous Solution-Water Vapor Interface

In this study, a detailed modeling of the heat and mass transfer processes inside a plate-and-frame absorber with hydrophobic microporous membrane contactor at aqueous solution-water vapor interface as a part of a chiller model is developed. The absorber is a component of a 5 kW cooling capacity single effect lithium bromide-water absorption chiller with a hot water thermally driven generator, a water-cooled absorber, and a condenser. The model is used to investigate the performance of the absorber in case the chiller operates at different values of the inlet driving hot water and cooling water (coolant) temperatures. The results clearly indicate that for the same cooling capacity of the chiller and compared with the performance at the design point value, increasing the inlet driving hot water temperature results in an increase in the required absorber size and consequently a decrease in the absorber performance, while decreasing the cooling water (coolant) inlet temperature leads to slight decreases in the required absorber size and consequently an increase in the absorber performance. The effect is prominent and can be used to decrease the absorber size for chillers work in places where the option of lower inlet coolant temperature is available with normal driving hot water temperature.