Numerical Simulation of Atmospheric Water Harvesting Using an Innovative Adsorption-Based Device

Document Type : Full Length Research Article

Authors

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Water scarcity in arid areas is one of the serious problems of the world today. The inefficiency of traditional water production methods such as refrigeration cycles and the lack of access to water wells in these areas have urged researchers to study methods of harvesting water from air humidity using moisture sorbents. This study aims to numerically simulate the process of water harvesting inside the sorbent bed of an innovative adsorption-based atmospheric water harvesting system using silica gel sorbent in an arid area. The proposed design is an active system consisting of two sorbent beds composed of sinusoidal channels, in which the adsorption/desorption processes are quasi-continuously performed. The governing equations on the system performance are derived and solved using the finite difference method. The proposed design can perform 12 cycles of distilled water production in 12 hours daily, yielding a water production of 0.166 mL/kJ and 31670 mL per unit area of the inlet cross-section of the sorbent bed. The average rate of distilled water production by this design is 19440 mL/h, which is about 30% higher than the production rate of a mono-cycle active system and 20% higher than an active system with one sorbent bed.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer Research
Volume 12, Issue 2 - Serial Number 24
In Progress
November 2025
Pages 377-391

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History

  • Receive Date: 10 December 2024
  • Revise Date: 09 February 2025
  • Accept Date: 02 March 2025

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