Comparison of the Performance of Multi Absorber Stand Alone Liquid Desiccant Air Conditioning Systems in Summer and Monsoon Conditions

ABSTRACT

Air conditioning industry continues to be one of the largest consumers of energy. Global energy crisis and environmental concerns (ozone layer depletion & global warming) have drawn the attention of HVAC community towards renewable energy/waste heat based air conditioning systems. Absorption cooling and desiccant cooling (liquid/solid) are the two promising technologies that furnish capability of utilizing the heat directly for air conditioning applications. The heat source could be solar energy, natural gas, biomass or any type of waste process heat. Liquid desiccant based air conditioning systems exhibit enhanced prospects of utilizing renewable energy/waste heat available at low temperatures. Very limited information is available on stand alone liquid desiccant systems in open literature. More research efforts are needed on these systems so that their full potential could be exploited for air conditioning applications.

In this communication the performance of stand alone liquid desiccant air conditioning systems has been analyzed using multiple absorbers for full utilization of the dehumidifying potential of liquid desiccant. The proposed concept improves the performance significantly. Simulation model has been developed to predict the performance of desiccant system for various design parameters i.e. mass flow rate of liquid desiccant and air, temperature of cooling water inside the absorber and heating oil temperature inside the regenerator.

Comparative assessment of the performance of the proposed system with the traditional stand alone system, in summer as well as monsoon conditions, has been carried out.

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