太阳能液体除湿空调系统研究现状

本文论述了近年来国内外对太阳能液体除湿系统的研究状况。从太阳能液体除湿空调系统的实验研究，除湿／再生塔的传热传质模型的研究、液体除湿剂的研究等三个方面进行了阐述。     

太阳能液体除湿空调的研究进展

介绍了太阳能液体除湿空调系统的发展历吏，对这类装置的运行原理及所采用的工质作了综述，并根据再生器的不同，将系统划分为两类。指出由于其具有环保节能的诸多优点，必将拥有广阔的发展前景。     

太阳能液体除湿空调系统中除湿器型式的选择

太阳能液体除湿空调系统是一种利用太阳能等低温热源的节能空调系统。除湿器直接影响太阳能液体除湿空调系统的性能。本文从焓湿图、蓄能、MR的选取和除湿效果等几个方面对目前被广泛应用的两种典型的除湿器进行了比较分析。     

液体除湿系统的实验研究

介绍了液体除湿实验系统,采用氯化钙溶液作除湿剂,除湿设备为装有不锈钢波纹孔板规整填料的填料塔。实验研究了除湿剂的流量,浓度等参数对空气出口湿度的影响。     

太阳能液体除湿空调系统模型的建立与分析

对太阳能液体除湿空调系统进行了热力学分析，得到系统各主要部件的传热传质模型，并编制了计算机模拟程序，对影响系统性能的各参数进行了分析，探讨了该系统在高温高湿地区及大通风量下与压缩式空调系统相比的优势。     

三种太阳能液体除湿空调系统除湿器的比较

太阳能液体除湿空调的除温器是系统的重要组成部分。文章通过对三种典型结构的除湿器的传热传质性能、被处理空气与除湿溶液的质量流量比率（MR）和蓄能能力（SC）等方面的比较，得出绝热型除湿器具有比表面积大，被处理的空气流量大等优点，但加湿器内沿程压降较大；水冷型除湿器蓄能能力强，但结构复杂；而交叉流型板式除湿器由于能充分利用回风，是一种可供选择的节能型除湿器。     

液体除湿空调实验台的性能分析及实验研究

针对上海气候环境条件设计制造了利用80℃以下低品位热源驱动的全新风送风LiCl液体除湿空调实验台,用于为100m2空调区域提供19℃以下的送风,独立承担室内热湿负荷.分析测试了系统送风温度的影响因素,表明再生热源温度是主要影响因素.该系统结构适合采用除湿再生同时运行模式,该模式下系统运行性能为:夏季工况新风制冷量为35～49kW,热力COP为0.72～0.98;秋季工况为17～29kW,热力COP为0.30～0.51.最后验证了除湿再生独立运行模式的可行性与实际效果:新风制冷量45kW,热力COP为1.1,为今后实验台的改进指明了方向.     

太阳能除湿空调系统

除湿型空调系统作为一种运行模式全新的概念型空调系统,与蒸汽压缩式空调系统和吸收式空调系统相比,人们了解还较少。除湿型空调系统按照工作介质划分,可分为固体除湿和液体除湿系统;按照制冷循环方式划分,可分为开式系统和闭式系统;按照结构划分,可分为简单系统和复合系统。     

太阳能液体除湿空调系统再生和蓄能特性的研究

太阳能液体除湿空调系统中,能量在液体除湿剂中以化学能的形式存在,蓄能潜力大,再生温度低,可以利用太阳能或其它低位余热和废热。着重分析了液体除湿空调系统中溶液的再生原理和再生过程的传热传质特性,对再生过程进行了实验研究,获得了再生过程对流传质和对流换热的实验准则方程,讨论了各主要因素对再生量的影响。对再生器的蓄能特性进行了分析,讨论了太阳能液体除湿空调系统蓄能工况的运行方式。     

Experimental investigation of a liquid desiccant system for solar cooling and dehumidification

Growing demand for air conditioning in recent years has caused a significant increase in demand for primary energy resources. Solar-powered cooling is one of the environmentally-friendly techniques which may help alleviate the problem. A promising solar cooling method is through the use of a liquid desiccant system, where humidity is absorbed directly from the process air by direct contact with the desiccant. The desiccant is then regenerated, again in direct contact with an external air stream, by solar heat at relatively low temperatures. The liquid desiccant system has many potential advantages over other solar air conditioning systems and can provide a promising alternative to absorption or to solid desiccant systems.Earlier work by the authors included theoretical simulations and preliminary experiments on the key components of the liquid desiccant system. The objective of the present study has been to construct a prototype system based on the knowledge gained, to monitor its performance, identify problems and carry out preliminary design optimization. A 16 kWt system was installed at the Energy Engineering Center at the Technion, in the Mediterranean city of Haifa. The system comprises a dehumidifier and a regenerator with their associated components operating together to dehumidify the fresh (ambient) air supply to a group of offices on the top floor of the building. LiCl-water is employed as the working fluid. The system is coupled to a solar collector field and employs two methods of storage – hot water and desiccant solution in the regenerated state. The performance of the system was monitored for five summer months under varying operating conditions. The paper describes the operation of the experimental system and presents the measured data and the calculated performance parameters.     

Artificial neural network analysis of liquid desiccant dehumidification system

The dehumidification process involves simultaneous heat and mass transfer and reliable transfer coefficients are required in order to analyze the system. This has been proved to be difficult and many assumptions are made to simplify the analysis. The present research proposes the use of ANN based model in order to simulate the relationship between inlet and outlet parameters of the dehumidifier. For the analysis, randomly packed dehumidifier with lithium chloride as the liquid desiccant is chosen. A multilayer ANN is used to investigate the performance of dehumidifier. For training ANN models, data is obtained from analytical equations. Eight parameters are used as inputs to the ANN, namely: air and desiccant flow rates, air and desiccant inlet temperatures, air inlet humidity, desiccant inlet concentration, dimensionless temperature ratio, and inlet temperature of the cooling water. The outputs of the ANN are the water condensation rate and the outlet desiccant concentration as well as its temperature. ANN predictions for these parameters are validated well with experimental values available in the literature with R² value in the range of 0.9251-0.9660. This study shows that liquid desiccant dehumidification system can be alternatively modeled using ANN with a reasonable degree of accuracy.     

Control performance of a dedicated outdoor air system adopting liquid desiccant dehumidification

Liquid desiccant is energy efficient for dehumidification in air-conditioning systems. In this study, a novel dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS) adopting lithium chloride solution as liquid desiccant is proposed to process supply air. The DOAS mainly consists of a membrane-based total heat exchanger, a liquid dehumidifier, a regenerator and a dry cooling coil. It can realize independent temperature and humidity controls for supply air. Control strategies for the supply air dehumidification and cooling process as well as the desiccant solution regeneration process in the DOAS are developed and verified. The control performances of the proposed dedicated outdoor air system are investigated at different operation conditions by simulation tests. The results show that the DOAS is more suitable for hot and humid climates. The effects of the total heat exchanger on the performance of the DOAS are also evaluated. It can improve the system energy performance by 19.9–34.8%.     

Augmentation of the performance of solar regenerator of open absorption cooling system

In open cycle liquid desiccant air conditioning, the solar collector regenerator is one of the effective ways of regenerating liquid solution. In this work, the regeneration of liquid solution using cross flow of air stream with flowing film of desiccant on the surface of a solar collector/regenerator has been investigated. To evaluate the effect of cross flow of air stream on the performance of the unit, two identical units are constructed and tested in the same conditions of operation. One of the two units was augmented with air blower. The absorber plate is a black cloth layer. The forced air stream, which flows across the absorber removes the moisture from the liquid solution. The regeneration in the other collector/regenerator unit is free. The results show enhancement of regeneration efficiency for the forced cross flow compared with the free regeneration. The effect of concentration and flow rate on the performance is discussed. Two relations for regeneration efficiency as a function of concentration for the two units are introduced.     

Performance of a solar liquid desiccant air conditioner – An experimental and theoretical approach

In this paper the results of testing a solar liquid desiccant air conditioner (LDAC) in the tropical climate of Queensland, Australia have been presented. The system uses polymer plate heat exchanger (PPHE) for dehumidification/indirect evaporative cooling, and a cooling pad as the direct evaporative cooler for the dry air leaving the PPHE. Lithium chloride, which is an effective desiccant in air dehumidification, was used in the experiments and a scavenger air regenerator concentrates the dilute solution from the dehumidifier using hot water from flat plate solar collectors. The data obtained from performance monitoring of the solar LDAC operating on a commercial site in Brisbane was compared with a previously developed model for the PPHE. The comparison reveals that good agreement exists between the experiments and model predictions. The inaccuracies are well within the measuring errors of the temperature, humidity and the air and solution flow rates. The above tests further indicate a satisfactory performance of the unit by independently controlling the air temperature and humidity inside the conditioned space.

In order to prevent carryover of the solution particles into the environment, eliminators are used at outlet of the absorber unit and the regenerator. An alternative method in preventing the carryover is the use of indirect cooling, in which the supply air does not contact the solution. The method can be used to produce potable water from the atmospheric air in remote areas.

The liquid desiccant system can be used in the HVAC industry, either as a packaged roof-top air conditioner, or as an air handler unit for commercial applications. The system could also be used for space heating in winter due to the property of desiccants to provide heat when wetted.     

An experimental study of a solar-regenerated liquid desiccant ventilation pre-conditioning system

A solar-regenerated liquid desiccant ventilation pre-conditioning system has been installed and experiments were carried out for a period of nine months covering rainy, cold, and hot seasons in a hot and humid climate (Thailand). A heat exchanger was used to cool the dehumidified air instead of typical evaporative cooling to maintain the dryness of the air. The use of solar energy at the regeneration process and cooling water from a cooling tower makes the system more passive. The evaporation rate at the regeneration process was always greater than the moisture removal rate at the dehumidification process indicating that the concentration of the desiccant in the system would not decrease and so the performance would not drop during continuous operation. The system could reduce the temperature of the delivered air by about 1.2 °C while the humidity ratio was reduced by 0.0042 kg_w/kg_da equivalent to 11.1% relative humidity reduction. The experimental results were also compared with models in literature.     

Desorption characteristics of desiccant bed for solar dehumidification/humidification air conditioning systems

Theoretical and experimental investigation on the desorption characteristics of a packed porous bed is presented in this study. The granules of burned clay are applied as a desiccant carrier. Calcium chloride is used as the working desiccant. The theoretical model defines the transient gradient of air stream parameters (humidity and temperature) as well as desiccant concentration in the bed. In the experimental study, transient concentration gradient in the bed is evaluated by weight method. The bed is divided into seven separate layers. Air stream at low temperature and nearly constant inlet parameters are used for desorption purposes. Concentration gradient in the bed is found highly dependent on the mass transfer rate. For the specified operating conditions and stated assumptions, experimental measurements shows acceptable agreement with the analytical solution.     

Energy and economic performance analysis of an open cycle solar desiccant dehumidification air-conditioning system for application in Hong Kong

In this article, a transient simulation model and the EnergyPlus were used to study the energy performance and economical feasibility for integrating a solar liquid desiccant dehumidification system with a conventional vapor compression air-conditioning system for the weather condition of Hong Kong. The vapor compression system capacity in the solar assisted air-conditioning system can be reduced to 19 kW from original 28 kW of a conventional air-conditioning system as a case study due to the solar desiccant cooling. The economical performance of the solar desiccant dehumidification system is compared with that of the conventional air-conditioning system. The results show that the energy saving potentials due to incorporation of the solar desiccant dehumidification system in a traditional air-conditioning system is significant for the hot wet weather in Hong Kong due to higher COP resulted from higher supply chilled water temperature from chiller plants. The annual operation energy savings for the hybrid system is 6760 kWh and the payback period of the hybrid system is around 7 years. The study shows that the solar assisted air-conditioning is a viable technology for utilizations in subtropical areas.     

Theoretical and experimental investigation on the application of solar water heater coupled with air humidifier for regeneration of liquid desiccant

Theoretical and experimental investigation on the application of flat plate solar water heater coupled with air humidifier for regeneration of liquid desiccant has been presented in this work. The heated water from the storage tank of the solar heating system is circulated in a finned tube air heater. Hot air from the air heater is blown through a packing of a honeycomb type for the purpose of regeneration of calcium chloride (CaCl₂) solution. An experimental system has been designed and installed for this purpose. The system comprises a solar water heater with a storage tank connected to an air/water heat exchanger. Hot air from the heat exchanger is blown to the air humidifier, which functions in this study as a regenerator. Calcium chloride solution is applied as the working desiccant in this study. Solution concentration is determined at the end of regeneration process and the mass of evaporated water is evaluated. It is observed that the heating temperature varies, at day time, in a range of about 5 °C. This limited variation in hot water temperature demonstrates the importance of the storage tank to attain a nearly steady state operation of the system. Experimental results show that solution with 30% concentration can be regenerated up to 50% using solar energy. In the theoretical part of this study, a multiple-layer artificial neural network (ANN) model has been applied to study the performance of a solar liquid-desiccant dehumidification/regeneration system when calcium chloride solution is applied as the working desiccant. The experimental results of the present study are used to construct and test the ANN model. Then the model has been utilized to describe and analyze the effect of the inlet conditions of air on the regeneration process. Good agreement between the outputs from the ANN model and the corresponding results from the experimental data has been found. The proposed model can work well as a predictive tool to complement the experiments.     

Performance characterisation of liquid desiccant columns for a hybrid air-conditioner

Use of liquid desiccant-vapor compression hybrid system is encouraged for low humidity applications. The liquid desiccant is primarily used to further dehumidify the supply air. In the present study, by using psychrometric equations and liquid desiccant property data, heat and mass transfer analysis for the dehumidifier and regenerator columns in counter flow configuration has been carried out. The simulation of the columns corresponds to low solution to air (S/A) flow ratio where precooled air gets dehumidified in the absorber while preheated air is used for regeneration of the solution. A detailed study of the performance characteristics for the absorber and regenerator columns confirms the requirement of the desiccant loop for additional dehumidification of the conditioned air. This need develops the main motive towards the concept of hybrid air conditioning.