Humidity
Control
Department Editor: Kate Torzewski
APPLICATIONS
Dehumidification by cooling or dessication
has a variety of applications, including:
Preventing moisture regain. Nearly all
materials have some affinity for moisture
based on surface characteristics and
the amount of surface exposed to humid
air. Moisture regain occurs when moist
particles stick together.
Preventing condensation. Air holds water
vapor in proportion to its temperature. Cold
surfaces of pipes, vessels, valves and heat
exchangers condense moisture unless the
air around them is dried to a dewpoint
below the temperature of the cold surface.
Preventing corrosion. The exposure of metal
surfaces to atmospheric corrosion can be
reduced by surrounding the surfaces with
dry air. Dehumidifiers also keep humidity
low in process control rooms, preventing
the corrosion of electrical contacts and
sensitive electrical components.
Drying heat-sensitive products. Typically,
drying time is reduced by heating a prod-
uct. If the product is susceptible to damage
by heat, drying time can be reduced by
using dehumidified air, which reduces the
vapor pressure of air above the wet surface.
COOLING
A common method for dehumidification is
the use of air conditioning. Figure 1 shows
a typical vapor-compression cooling-based
dehumidification process. Air to be dried
passes through a cooling coil, which lowers
the temperature of the airstream below its
dewpoint. As the air cools, it loses its capac-
ity to hold water vapor. The water condenses
on the cooling coil surface, and falls to the
drain pan as liquid. The air is then drier in
absolute terms, but it also has a relative hu-
midity close to 100%. If low relative humidity
is needed in addition to a lower absolute
amount of moisture, the air can be heated
after it leaves the cooling coil.
For industrial purposes, cooling-based
dehumidification units are optimized for re-
moving moisture rather than removing heat.
These units provide deep cooling of small
amounts of air rather than slight cooling
of large amounts of air, condensing more
moisture. Standard refrigeration equipment
can produce dewpoints of +40°F (4°C) on a
reliable basis.
DESSICATION
In a desiccant system, the process airstream
passes through a desiccant medium. The
desiccant adsorbs moisture directly from
the airstream. Desiccant dehumidifiers can
produce dewpoints below 0°F (–18°C)
Compressor
Condenser
Receiver
Fan Cooling
coil
Heater
Condensate pan
100%
Specific humidity, grains/lb
relative humidity
75%
50%
Enter 40
Leave 25%
10 20 30 50 60 70
Air temperature, oF
FIGURE 1.

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— a fivefold reduction in the air moisture
beyond what can be achieved with a stan-
dard-grade air conditioning system.
This equipment uses differences in vapor
pressure to remove moisture from air by
chemical attraction. The surface of dry
desiccant has a very low vapor pressure,
compared with the much higher vapor pres-
sure of humid air.
Water vapor moves out of the humid air
onto the desiccant surface to eliminate the
vapor pressure difference, as shown in
Figure 2. Eventually, the desiccant surface
collects enough water vapor to equal the
vapor pressure of the humid air. Then the
desiccant must be dried (reactivated) by ap-
plying heat before it is recycled to remove
more moisture from the air stream.
COOLING VS. DESSICATION
In most chemical process applications, both
technologies work best together. Cooling-
based dehumidification handles the mois-
ture load occurring at high dewpoints, and
desiccant-based dehumidification removes
the moisture load at low dewpoints. The op-
timal mix of the two technologies depends
on the characteristics of the application.
Factors to consider include the following:
Dewpoint control level. When the required
moisture-control level is relatively high
(above a 50°F dewpoint), cooling-based
dehumidification is economical in terms of
Heater
Desiccant
wheel
Process air Dry air
Drive motor
160 160
100%
Specific humidity, grains/lb
relative humidity
120 120
75%
80
50% 80
Enter
25% 40
Leave
10 10
80 10 20 30 50 60 70 80
Air temperature, oF
FIGURE 2.

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both operating cost and initial equipment
cost. Below 50°F, precautions need to be
taken to avoid freezing the condensed
water on the cooling coil. Consequently,
desiccants are more economical than cool-
ing-based systems at lower dewpoints.
Relative humidity sensitivity. When a pro-
cess needs a low moisture level in absolute
terms, but can tolerate a high relative
humidity, cooling-based dehumidification
without desiccants is cost effective. By con-
trast, in processes that demand a low rela-
tive humidity in addition to a low dewpoint,
desiccant systems are used for humidity
control, with supplementary cooling systems
to keep temperature within acceptable lim-
its. When a product is sensitive to relative
humidity but not to temperature, a desiccant
dehumidifier is used without a cooling unit
to maintain a constant relative humidity.
Temperature tolerance. If the application
can tolerate a wide temperature range,
then dehumidification alone may suffice. In
most cases, both temperature and moisture
must be maintained within set limits, so both
cooling and desiccant equipment are used
in a combination to maintain control.
References
1.Harriman, L., Don’t Sweat It, Dehumidify,
Chem. Eng., August 1997, pp. 80–87.
2.Soleyn, K., Humidity Control: Preventing
Moisture Contamination, Chem. Eng., October
2003, pp. 50–51.