An improved indirect evaporative cooler experimental investigation

Abstract

Air conditioning has enhanced the work efficiency and improved life style by maintaining comfortable environment. The growing demand of air conditioning has negative impact on energy and environment. In 2015, air conditioning consumed 6% of total global electricity produced and it is expected to increase to 20% by 2050. The leveling-off conventional chiller’s efficiency at 0.85 ± 0.03 kW/Rton due to pairing of dehumidification and cooling processes in one machine is not only the major reason of high energy consumption but also the key limitation in efficiency improvement. The de-coupling of dehumidification and cooling processes can be one of the solution to achieve the quantum jump in the performance, 0.6 ± 0.03 kW/Rton, by improving individual processes. We proposed an improved indirect evaporative cooler system for sensible cooling that can be combined with dehumidification processes to achieve sustainable cooling goals. The experimentation on 800 mm long and 280 mm wide generic cell showed that it can produce temperature differential up to 10 °C with small area of heat transfer. It was showed that the proposed vertical heat exchanger configuration with multi point injection of working air is the best configuration of the indirect evaporative cooler, achieving coefficient of performance level of 78 for cooling alone. We expect that overall coefficient of performance level of 7–8 is achievable by incorporating efficient dehumidification processes. We also presented detailed design parameters that can be used as a reference for commercial system design.