Desiccant-based air dehumidifier and cooling system

Abstract

Air conditioning system plays a vital role in providing convenient environment for human. Many studies conducted on the efficiencies of the air conditioners operating under vapor compression cycle (VCC), however, only few recent studies conducted to analyse the indoor humidity efficiencies. In this research, silica gel, zeolite, and molecular sieve as solid desiccants were experimented to observe their adsorption ability to identify the suitable desiccant material for dehumidification for air conditioner. It was noted that silica gel adsorbs 48% of water during the experiment making it to be the best adsorbent. The highest water adsorption capability by silica gel motivated this research to conduct numerical method to analyse its performance in the desiccant wheel system. The density, thermal conductivity, and specific heat capacity of silica gel used at the desiccant channel region on the geometry. The numerical results showed that the suitable regeneration temperature to reactivate silica gel is 35 °C with thermal effectiveness of 0.375. Silica gel has dehumidification efficiency of 85% and moisture removal capacity of 2.571×10−4 g/s. This system can be a potential trademark for HVAC industries to innovate pollutant-free systems because SDCS does not release any harmful coolants such as chlorofluorocarbon and hydrochlorofluorocarbon to environment.