Abstract
The energy demand for the air-conditioning of buildings has shown a very significant growth trend in the last two decades. In this paper three alternative hygroscopic materials for desiccant wheels are compared considering the operation of the air handling unit they are installed in. The analyses are performed by means of the TRNSYS 17® software, simulating the plant with the desiccant wheel made of: silica-gel, i.e., the filling actually used in the experimental plant desiccant wheel of the University of Sannio Laboratory; MIL101@GO-6 (MILGO), a composite material, consisting of graphite oxide dispersed in a MIL101 metal organic framework structure; Campanian Ignimbrite, a naturally occurring tuff, rich in phillipsite and chabazite zeolites, widespread in the Campania region, in Southern Italy. The air-conditioning system analyzed serves a university classroom located in Benevento, and it is activated by the thermal energy of a solar field for which three surfaces are considered: about 20, 27 and 34 m2. The results demonstrate that a primary energy saving of about 20%, 29%, 15% can be reached with silica-gel, MILGO and zeolite-rich tuff desiccant wheel based air handling units, respectively.
Highlights
Air-conditioning in the tertiary sector is largely based on all-air or mixed air–water systems.In these plants most of the required energy is due to the removal of moisture from the air especially in hot and humid regions
In the following subsections the results of the energy and environmental analyses will be shown grouping figures related to the same index, one subfigure for each hygroscopic material considered
(the analyses haveand been carried out considering angles ranging will contain data for different tilt angles, solar field collecting surfaces
Summary
Air-conditioning in the tertiary sector is largely based on all-air or mixed air–water systems. In these plants most of the required energy is due to the removal of moisture from the air especially in hot and humid regions. Air-Conditioning) systems are a solution to satisfy the temperature and humidity levels required in buildings via decoupling latent and sensible loads, and significantly reducing the electric energy consumption. These systems operate with thermally-driven cycles that require thermal energy to regenerate the hygroscopic material. The best solution is often represented by the Energies 2019, 12, 1543; doi:10.3390/en12081543 www.mdpi.com/journal/energies
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