Desiccant Enhanced Evaporative Air Conditioning: Parametric Analysis and Design; Preprint

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaper

Abstract

This paper presents a parametric analysis using a numerical model of a new concept in desiccant and evaporative air conditioning. The concept consists of two stages: a liquid desiccant dehumidifier and a dew-point evaporative cooler. Each stage consists of stacked air channel pairs separated by a plastic sheet. In the first stage, a liquid desiccant film removes moisture from the process(supply-side) air through a membrane. An evaporatively-cooled exhaust airstream on the other side of the plastic sheet cools the desiccant. The second-stage indirect evaporative cooler sensibly cools the dried process air. We analyze the tradeoff between device size and energy efficiency. This tradeoff depends strongly on process air channel thicknesses, the ratio of first-stage to second-stagearea, and the second-stage exhaust air flow rate. A sensitivity analysis reiterates the importance of the process air boundary layers and suggests a need for increasing airside heat and mass transfer enhancements.
Original languageAmerican English
Number of pages10
StatePublished - 2012
EventSecond International Conference on Building Energy and Environment (COBEE2012) - Boulder, Colorado
Duration: 1 Aug 20124 Aug 2012

Conference

ConferenceSecond International Conference on Building Energy and Environment (COBEE2012)
CityBoulder, Colorado
Period1/08/124/08/12

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/CP-5500-54087

Keywords

  • dew-point indirect evaporative cooler
  • liquid desiccants
  • membrane
  • modeling

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