Dehumidification cooling equipment

In Conservation DistList Instance: 14:59 Friday, May 4, 2001
I wrote:

>Has anyone on the Distlist had experience with using DryKor
>dehumidification/cooling units within museums, libraries, or
>archives?  The DryKor <URL:http://www.drykor.com/> units employ
>liquid desiccant (concentrated lithium chloride solution)
>technology, and claim to offer increased efficiency in comparison to
>other dehumidification systems.

Following several off-list responses to my inquiry about liquid
desiccant dehumidification systems, I did a quick search and came up
with the following information:

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has recently published a
report
(<URL:http://www.nrel.gov/desiccantcool/article.html#advanced>) on
the feasibility of liquid desiccant systems, which notes that
carryover of the potentially corrosive desiccant is a problem that
must be addressed within these systems.

A document prepared by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory
(<URL:http://www.ornl.gov/etd/assess.htm>) outlining assessments of
damage to concrete and re-bar within structures employing lithium
chloride desiccant systems indicates the potential for corrosion
within structures where these systems are employed.

I also found the following references to corrosion within liquid
desiccant systems, within promotional literature for solid desiccant
wheels, which may need to be taken with a grain of, err, salt, so to
speak:

    <URL:http://www.muntersmcs.com/dh/htm/glass.htm>
    <URL:http://www.dst-sg.com/sscr%20rotor%20technology.htm>

Will Jeffers
Collections Care Specialist
Department of Scientific Research
Museum of Fine Arts
465 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
USA
617-369-3466
Fax: 617-369-3702


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 14:61
                  Distributed: Thursday, May 10, 2001
                       Message Id: cdl-14-61-003
                                  ***