Solar Assisted Desiccant Air Conditioning System for Hot and Humid Areas

Abstract

Solar assisted desiccant cooling system is an attractive and cost effective application for air conditioningsystem. To find effect of dehumidification capacity on the performance of cooling system, fourconfigurations of desiccant cooling system have been investigated. These models were simulated for8,760 hr of operation under hot and humid weather in Malaysia. Important parameters ( coefficient ofperformance or COP, room temperature and humidity ratio) were evaluated by detecting the temperatureand humidity ratio of different points of each configuration by TRNSYS simulation. The simulationmodels have been validated by means of by data measurement of a one-stage solar desiccant coolingsystem, which was installed in technology park of UKM in Malaysia. The capacity of cooling load andalso the sensible heat ratio of the zone were 1ton, and 0.25respectively. It was achieved that by increasingthe dehumidification capacity of desiccant cooling system the COP of system will be increased.Therefore, due to high dehumidification capacity, the two-stage ventilation mode with 1.06 of COP wasconsidered as the best model amongst the other configurations. The two-stage ventilation produced supplyair at 17.6 °C and 0.0096 kg/kg to remove the sensible load of the room, whereas the supply airtemperatures of the other configurations were higher. Keywords: dehumidification capacity, desiccant cooling, hot and humid, COP