Experimental investigation on the thermal conductivity of Triethylene Glycol-Water-CuO nanofluids as a desiccant for dehydration process

Abstract

Liquid desiccants such as glycols are used in dehydration process, among which Triethylene Glycol (TEG) is considered as a common choice. The addition of nanoparticles to TEG as the base fluid is one of the prevalent method to improve thermal properties of TEG. In this study, an experimental investigation was performed on thermal conductivity of TEG-based nanofluids with 20 and 40 nm diameter copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles analyzed at different conditions. Thermal conductivity was measured using a Decagon thermal analyzer (KD₂ Pro Model) in the 20 ^°C-60 ^°C temperature range, and also 0.1- 0.9 wt.% range. The experimental results showed that thermal conductivity of the nanofluid enhances with temperature increasing. In addition, thermal conductivity of nanofluids increased with nanoparticle concentration in both cases of 20 and 40 nm nanoparticles. The highest enhancement was also ~ 13.5%, for the nanofluid with 20 nm nanoparticles at 60 ^°C and a 0.9 wt.% concentration.