Investigation on a combined air treatment process for air-conditioning system

Abstract

The present study introduces an air treatment system (ATS) for improving indoor air quality and reducing the energy consumption of air-conditioning system. The ATS has been proposed to combine three sub-systems, namely, (i) energy-efficient oxygen production sub-system, (ii) ozone-based oxidation treatment sub-system, and (iii) air scrubbing sub-system. Experimental setups have been designed and constructed to study the performance of primary equipment in the ATS. The proposed air-purification process is able to reduce the concentration of indoor air pollutants such as volatile organic compound. The experimental results have demonstrated that the proposed ATS enables a lower outdoor air intake rate resulting in a reduced cooling load. Considering the energy consumption of primary equipment of the ATS operating in tropical climates, the total energy consumption can be reduced from 52.18 W/m2 to 41.26W/m2 by regulating the outdoor air intake rate from 10 L/s per person to 4 L/s per person.