Membrane Dehumidification and Cooling

Dr. Vivekh Prabakaran currently works as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS). He completed his undergraduate coursework from BITS Pilani, India (2015) and worked as a research assistant at the Heat Transfer Laboratory of the Indian Institute of Science. Being the recipient of the prestigious President's Graduate Fellowship, he received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from NUS in 2020 under Prof. Kian Jon Chua's supervision. During his doctoral training, he synthesized next-generation advanced desiccant materials and conducted key fundamental experimental and theoretical investigations on heat and mass transport. His Ph.D. findings have been published in over 7 peer-reviewed international journals, and he has co-authored a monograph on advances in desiccant dehumidification. Vivekh's specific research focus areas include dehumidification, cooling, heat pumping, desalination, solar energy, multi-criteria decision analysis, and advanced materials for energy research. Dr. Chua Kian Jon is currently an Associate Professor with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore. He has been conducting research on air-conditioning, dehumidification, and heat pump systems since 1997. He has conducted both modelling and experimental works for specific building HVAC applications. These include dehumidification/dehydration, cooling, heat pumping, compact heat exchangers and refined temperature/humidity control. He is highly skilled in designing; fabricating; commissioning and testing many experimental test-rigs for heating, cooling, and humidity control for both small- and large-scale applications. He has more than 200 international peer-reviewed journal publications, 6 book chapters and one monograph on advances in air conditioning. His works have garnered more than 10,000 citations. Further, he owns more than 10 patents related to several innovative cooling and dehumidification systems. He is the Principal Investigator of several multi-million competitive research grants.

1. Introduction
2. Fundamental transport mechanisms and thermodynamic modelling
3. Hygroscopic materials and characterization techniques
4. Experimental and Theoretical performance evaluation of different membrane configurations
5. Scaling, heat transfer, and thermodynamic analysis of membrane dehumidifiers
6. Hybrid membrane-based air-conditioners