Solid desiccant air conditioning system using desiccant dehumidifiers with cooling technique and thermal recovery unit: Experimental investigation and performance analysis

Abstract

The displayed experimental investigation pursues to design and fabricate high-efficient desiccant air conditioner that achieves the sustainable development by protecting the environment from harmful emissions, achieving thermal comfort conditions, and rationalizing energy consumption. To achieve this, smart innovative desiccant dehumidifiers and energy recovery unit were incorporated with the suggested air conditioner. The smart innovative desiccant dehumidifiers aimed to improve the air dehumidification capacity and avoid the effect of the adsorption heat by using larger cooling rates to cool the process air. To minimize power consumption, regeneration air was pre-heated using an energy recovery unit. The results showed that the ultra-efficient desiccant air conditioner suggested in the present study represents an effective design because it could achieve thermal comfort conditions and rationalize energy consumption. The ultra-efficient desiccant air conditioner could supply the cooling air with average temperature and humidity ratio varying between 11.9 and 14.6 °C and 6.89–8.9 gw/kgda, respectively. Also, the energy analysis presented that the proposed desiccant air conditioner is high-efficient where the average values of thermal coefficient of performance and electrical coefficient of performance reached 3.68 and 3.79, respectively. Moreover, the average saving in thermal energy was varying between 21.9 and 28%.