Abstract
This article presents numerical investigations of the solar-assisted hybrid desiccant evaporative cooling system integrated with standard air collectors for applications under the hot and humid climatic conditions of Kuwait city. The objective is to introduce the energy-efficient and carbon-free solar-assisted hybrid desiccant evaporative cooling system to alleviate the principal problems of electricity consumption and carbon emissions resulting from the use of the conventional vapor-compression cooling systems. In the normal building, during cooling load operation, the solar-assisted hybrid desiccant evaporative cooling system can cope with the cooling load particularly sensible by evaporative cooling and latent through desiccant dehumidification. The outcomes of this work indicate that solar-assisted hybrid desiccant evaporative cooling device integrated with air collectors is capable of providing average coefficient of performance of 0.85 and has the potential to provide cooling with energy saving when compared with conventional vapor-compression refrigeration systems. It was concluded that under the intense outdoor environmental conditions (ambient air at greater than 45°C and 60% relative humidity), the delivered supply air from the evaporative cooling was nearly at 27°C and 65% relative humidity. To solve this problem, the system was assisted with conventional cooling coil (evaporator of heat pump) to supply air at comfortable conditions in the conditioned space.
Highlights
Desiccant evaporative cooling systems generally are based on heat-driven open cycles and include aggregate of adsorptive dehumidification and evaporative cooling
The hourly variation in total air heating rate supplied by solar air collectors and auxiliary electric heater for the regeneration of the desiccant wheel is illustrated in Figure 13 which varies in the range of 0.8– 7 kW depending upon the ambient conditions
The following results are concluded from the current numerical study performed on the solar-assisted desiccant cooling system: 1. The pre-cooling is essential to reduce the enthalpy before it passes through the dehumidifier, which saves energy, enhance cooling capacity and coefficient of performance (COP) of the present proposed cooling system
Summary
Desiccant evaporative cooling systems generally are based on heat-driven open cycles and include aggregate of adsorptive dehumidification and evaporative cooling. Among different applications, can be used for regeneration and is high quality for use in direct evaporative cooler (DEC) systems mainly fulfilling the cooling demand throughout the mid-afternoon when electricity consumption is at its top while the electric-driven conventional electric-powered chillers are used. For this scenario, the incorporation of solar thermal energy could be inspirational meeting the cooling demand which parallels the provision of solar radiation. Evaporative cooling is mainly used in the hot and dry climate while desiccant dehumidification is a necessity for the outdoor fresh air and indoor latent cooling load. A detailed literature review in this area was surveyed and is presented here
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