The waste-heat of vapor-absorption refrigeration (VAR) cycles could efficiently power humidification-dehumidification (HDH) desalination systems for freshwater production. The integrated systems reported in the literature relied on water-heated HDH cycles, in which the waste-heat of VAR systems heats the HDH saline water before entering the humidifier. This paper assesses the coupling of an air-heated HDH system with a double-effect (DE) VAR system by circulating the HDH air to cool the absorber and condenser of the DE-VAR system and concurrently driving the HDH system. In addition to less corrosive issues compared to water-heated HDH systems, the proposed air-heated HDH based system can produce higher freshwater and achieve better performance. Under the investigated conditions, the proposed system produces water amounts of about 2100.0 L/h and a cooling effect of 104.0 tons of refrigeration, with a gained output ratio (GOR) of 4.7, coefficient of performance (COP) of 1.2, energy utilization factor (EUF) of 5.9, water cost of 2.5 $/m³, and cooling effect cost of 0.0037 $/kWh. In addition, the suggested integrated system outperforms the standalone air-heated HDH system in terms of water production, GOR, EUF, and water cost reduction by a factor of 2.3, 2.4, 3.0, and 2.4 times, respectively. Compared to a standalone DE-VAR system, the integrated system shows less cooling capacity by about 10.0% but with a significant reduction in the cooling cost by 3.8 times and improved EUF by 4.2 times. Additionally, the present system shows excellent economic feasibility under different salinities.

蒸汽吸收式制冷 (VAR) 循环的废热可以有效地为淡水生产的加湿-除湿 (HDH) 脱盐系统提供动力。文献中报道的集成系统依赖于水加热的 HDH 循环，其中 VAR 系统的废热在进入加湿器之前加热 HDH 盐水。本文通过循环 HDH 空气来冷却 DE-VAR 系统的吸收器和冷凝器并同时驱动 HDH 系统来评估空气加热 HDH 系统与双效 (DE) VAR 系统的耦合。与水加热 HDH 系统相比，除了较少的腐蚀性问题外，提议的基于空气加热的 HDH 系统可以产生更高的淡水并实现更好的性能。在调查的条件下，提议的系统产生的水量约为 2100。³、冷却效果成本为0.0037美元/千瓦时。此外，建议的集成系统在产水量、GOR、EUF 和水成本降低方面分别优于独立的空气加热 HDH 系统 2.3、2.4、3.0 和 2.4 倍。与独立的 DE-VAR 系统相比，集成系统的冷却能力降低了约 10.0%，但冷却成本显着降低了 3.8 倍，EUF 提高了 4.2 倍。此外，本系统在不同盐度下显示出极好的经济可行性。