Abstract
An air solar-driven open sorption system for comfort cooling is investigated experimentally in an indoor test facility. The main components of the system are a solar dehumidifier and a cold storage with desiccant. One operation cycle is 36 h. On the first day of the operation cycle, the solar dehumidifier is charged. At night the cold storage is charged and on day two, the cold storage is discharged. A material investigation is undertaken to find the most suitable desiccant for both components, including samples of different silica gels and zeolites. The scope of this work is to determine the usability and the performance of the system. The usability of the system is addressed by an investigation of the climatic conditions of fourteen different locations. It is shown that a small porous silica gel is the best desiccant for both the solar dehumidifier and cold storage, that the system can work well in eight of the investigated climates, and that the system can supply cool, dry air for comfort cooling of buildings.
Highlights
Introduction and backgroundThe energy demand for cooling/air-conditioning is increasing continuously (Kalkan et al, 2012)
It is shown that a small porous silica gel is the best desiccant for both the solar dehumidifier and cold storage, that the system can work well in eight of the investigated climates, and that the system can supply cool, dry air for comfort cooling of buildings
An air solar-driven open-loop sorption system for air comfort cooling in buildings is tested in an indoor laboratory test facility
Summary
The energy demand for cooling/air-conditioning is increasing continuously (Kalkan et al, 2012). The components of the system comprise of: buffer storage to store heat for extended hours of use, heat distribution system for supply to sorption chiller, thermally driven cooling machine to produce chilled water, cooling tower (dry or wet type) to reject heat to the ambient, air conditioning system for cold distribution, auxiliary (backup) heating system (electric, gas or oil boiler) for periods with scarce or no radiation, pumps to regulate the flow rate and controllers for automatic operation of the system (Ghafoor and Munir, 2015). There are disadvan tages: The release of adsorption heat during the dehumidification pro cess leads to a temperature increase in the sorption material, which significantly decreases the sorbents ability to adsorb moisture This leads to decreased COP due to the alternating operation conditions between humidifying and dehumidifying the desiccant rotor (Bongs et al, 2014), which prohibit the system from continuously supplying cooled and dehumidified air to the building. The results clearly show that the desiccant layer in the solar dehumidifier starts adsorbing moisture at the end of the day, well before sunset
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