Abstract

This paper presents the adsorption and regeneration behavior of silica gel powder. For this, an experimental set-up has been purposed. The experimental set-up consists of silica gel coated heat exchanger, evacuated tube solar water heater and cooling tower. The evacuated tube solar water heater is used to generate hot water by using solar energy. This hot water is used to regenerate silica gel. The cooling tower is used to generate cooling water. This cooling water is used during adsorption process. Experimental results demonstrated that silica gel has a good adsorption capacity under northern Indian climatic condition and it can be easily regenerated by the help of solar energy. The adsorption capacity of the silica gel is significantly enhanced by using circulating water.

Keywords

Evacuated tube solar water heater, Silica gel coated heat exchanger, Cooling tower, Solar energy, Aluminium tubes, Dehumidification process, Thermosyphon phenomenon, Adsorption process, Water temperature, Air temperature, Relative humidity, Solar intensity, Air flow rate, SCHE, Regeneration process