Energy and thermal performance of optimised hollow fibre liquid desiccant cooling and dehumidification systems in mediterranean regions: Modelling, validation and case study

Abstract

The heat and mass transfer of liquid desiccant for dehumidification and cooling has been investigated in recent years as a promising energy-efficient technology to improve indoor thermal comfort. Limited studies, however, investigated integration strategies and energy performance of such systems in real buildings with performance correlations in building energy simulation software. This research considers a low-rise Greek apartment building constructed in 1981 as a case study. The optimal system sizing is determined via parametric analysis in the numerical modelling stage as: 1) air mass flow rate of 57 m3/h; 2) solution mass flow of 2.0 l/min; 3) solution inlet temperature of 14 °C; 4) solution concentration of 40%. Besides, the thermal and electrical COP correlations are derived from the inlet air temperature and relative humidity, with maximum value of 0.51 and 7.32 (inlet air temperature: 35 °C and relative humidity: 90%). The results show that by integrating two photovoltaic thermal (PVT) panels and a 300L water-based thermal storage tank into the desiccant cooler, such a hybrid system could achieve maximum COP value of 4.21 in the case study. Besides, the summer supply air thermal unacceptable level is reduced by at least 65% from 2535 h to 884 h.