Energy performance of solar assisted desiccant enhanced evaporative cooling air conditioning system

Abstract

The desiccant enhanced evaporative cooling system is proposed as a promising energy-saving air-conditioning (A/C) scheme. It consists of hybrid liquid desiccant dehumidifier and indirect evaporative cooler. The hot and humid air is firstly dehumidified by liquid desiccant dehumidifier (LDD) and then sensibly cooled by regenerative indirect evaporative cooler (RIEC). The LDD-RIEC system operates without electricity-intensive compressor but with low-power-consumption solution pumps and water pumps. The heat captured by the solar collector is used for regenerating the desiccant solution. The solar collector model, LDD model and RIEC model were established separately to facilitate the hybrid system simulation in a closed-loop. The influence of solar collector area is analyzed. The energy saving potential of the proposed system is quantitatively evaluated with respect to the mechanical vapor compressor refrigeration (MVCR) system. The results show that both the moisture remove rate and cooling capacity improves with the increase of solar collector area. The LDD-RIEC A/C system saves 47% energy consumption compared with MVCR system in Hong Kong summer days.