Experimental research on heat and mass transfer characteristics of membrane energy accumulator used in solar refrigeration

Abstract An experimental platform was set up to test the heat and mass transfer performance inside the membrane energy accumulator (MEA). Hollow fiber MEAs (HFMEAs) and flat MEAs (FMEAs) were designed and tested. Compared with HFMEAs, FMEAs have higher mass transfer efficiency. The average mass transfer speed of the water vapor increased by 108.34 % when the evaporation temperature increased from 4.5°C to 12.3°C for HFMEA. When the evaporation temperature increased from 7.88°C to 19.51°C, the change in mass fraction of lithium bromide (LiBr) in FMEA increased by 62.36 %. Compared with a 60 % solution, the average mass transfer rate of water vapor molecules in a 70 % LiBr solution increased by 49.83 % for FMEA. In addition, the water vapor absorbed by the 70 % LiBr solution in 30 min increased by 18.63 % compared to that of the 60 % solution for FMEA. The effect of the initial solution temperature on the mass transfer rate is closely related to the mass fraction of LiBr. Both the mass transfer rate and crystallization melting process of the LiBr solution will accelerate by increasing the initial mass fraction and evaporation temperature.