Theoretical and Experimental Investigation on Dewatering Performance from Aqueous Lithium Bromide Solution Stream confined by Hollow Fiber Membrane

Vapor absorption refrigeration system efficiently could be driven by the low grade renewable heat associated with the exhaust gas from the car engine, and uses the eco-friendly refrigerant, i.e. water. The absorption cycle, however, has not yet obtained much attraction in the automobile application due to its large volume and weight per unit of cooling capacity, which has limited to use. A micro-porous hydrophobic membrane acts as a selective barrier which allows water vapor to pass through but blocks the passage of liquid solution, and therefore as an application of VARs, it is expected that a hydrophobic hollow fiber membrane module is introduced for a generator by extracting the refrigerant vapor from the liquid LiBr solution stream which is mechanically constrained by the hydrophobic layers. In this study a hollow fiber membrane-based generator is introduced, and theoretically and experimentally investigated. The mass transfer performance through membranes is analyzed under various operating conditions.