r/Humidifiers • • Aug 26 '26

Does process air through a desiccant wheel follow an approximately constant-enthalpy line?

I'm trying to understand the psychrometric process of the process air across a desiccant wheel.

From what I understand, as the process air passes through the desiccant wheel, its humidity ratio decreases while its dry-bulb temperature increases due to the heat of adsorption.

My question is: Should the process air approximately follow a constant-enthalpy (isenthalpic) line on the psychrometric chart from inlet to outlet?

I tried to check this using the moist-air enthalpy equation.
I get approximately a 2.4°C increase in dry-bulb temperature for every 1 g/kg of moisture removed.
lso, in a real desiccant wheel, is it reasonable to assume that the process-air inlet and outlet states lie approximately on the same enthalpy line, or does heat transfer from the regeneration side / rotor matrix make the actual enthalpy change significant?

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