doi: 10.3850/978-981-08-7614-2_IMPRES082

ABSTRACT

The demand for better amenities such as an air conditioning system that can control not only the temperature but also the humidity has been increasing following an improvement in residential airtightness. To cater to these demands, a prototype of an energy-saving and low-impact for the human body desiccant air-conditioning unit that can be used all-day and all-year round has been manufactured and evaluated. This unit uses hot water exhausted from a domestic gas cogeneration system or a gas boiler system as a heat source. The greatest feature of this unit is that it can air-cool rooms using just hot water (temperature: 60-80°C) heated by using gas as the heat source. Besides air-cooling, it can perform humidification and ventilation. In order to realize this system, it is necessary to use a hygroscopic material that possesses a high hygroscopicity and can dehumidify at low temperatures as the desiccant. A hygroscopic material based on a nanocontrolled sodium polyacrylate (PAS) series of spongy polymer instead of the conventional desiccants such as silica gel or zeolite has been developed and used.

Keywords: Desiccant material, Cogeneration system, Utilization of waste heat.

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