Comparative analysis of water heated and air heated humidificationdehumidification desalination systems utilizing maisotsenko cycle as the humidifier

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Spring 4-5-2026

Abstract

This study presents a numerical comparative energetic investigation of water-heated and air-heated humidification– dehumidification desalination systems employing the Maisotsenko cycle as the humidifier. Freshwater scarcity and the growing demand for decentralized desalination technologies highlight the importance of systems capable of utilizing low-grade thermal energy. A numerical model is developed to evaluate system performance in terms of freshwater productivity, recovery ratio, and gained-output ratio over a wide range of operating conditions. Two parametric investigations are conducted: the first examines the effect of ambient air temperature at constant relative humidity, while the second evaluates the influence of ambient relative humidity at the optimal ambient temperature. In both cases, the inlet temperature of the heated fluid and the mass flow ratio are varied. The novelty of this work lies in the systematic comparative analysis of water-heated and air-heated configurations employing a Maisotsenko-cycle humidifier under identical system configurations and climatic conditions. Results show that both systems perform best in hot climates with high relative humidity. The water-heated configuration achieves higher freshwater productivity and recovery ratio, reaching 9.19 kg/h and 5.29%, respectively, at 35 ◦C ambient temperature, 80% relative humidity, 80 ◦C inlet saltwater temperature, and mass flow ratio of 2. The air-heated configuration exhibits superior energy utilization, achieving a maximum gained-output ratio of 3.20 at an ambient temperature of 35 ◦C, relative humidity of 80%, 45 ◦C inlet air temperature and mass flow ratio of 1, while the water-heated system demonstrates greater operational stability under varying climatic conditions.

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