A review on recent advances in humidification-dehumidification (HDH) desalination systems integrated with refrigeration, power and desalination technologies

Highlights: • State of the art studies on HDH desalination cycles were reported. • Different HDH-based refrigeration, power and multi-generation cycles were reviewed. • Integration of reported HDH cycles with various desalination methods were examined. • A detailed comparison was drawn in terms of performance criteria of these systems. -- Abstract: Water and energy supply are two of the key issues human beings must address to attain sustainable development. Humidification-dehumidification technology has been proven to be a cost-effective approach to fulfill the freshwater demand. Particular attention has been given to coupling the humidification-dehumidification cycles with refrigeration, power and other desalination technologies with the aim of enhancing the performance of the combined cycle as well as increasing the amount of produced freshwater, cooling effect, power, etc. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art investigations in terms of humidification-dehumidification technologies and their integration with the aforementioned cycles. In other words, an attempt has been made to categorize and discuss the various combined cycles based on humidification-dehumidification technology. A detailed comparison has been drawn regarding the performance criteria of the coupled cycles in terms of freshwater production, gained output ratio, and cost per liter. This comprehensive review lays the groundwork for future research concentrating on humidification-dehumidification based energy cycles.