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U.S. Department of Energy
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Assessment of dehumidifier geometries for desiccant cooling systems

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5791837
Five dehumidifier designs are evaluated in this report - three from existing prototype cooling systems (from AiResearch, IGT, and IIT) and two (from UCLA and SERI) that have not yet been tested in a complete cooling system. The basic principles of heat and mass regenerators and the requirements of the solar cooling application have been combined to generate a list of desirable characteristics for dehumidifiers. The five designs are described and compared quantitatively; compared characteristics are related directly to the list of desirable characteristics. System performance is considered as well as isolated dehumidifier parameters. Preliminary simulations indicate that a system using the SERI dehumidifier design could achieve a design-point COP greater than unity without causing significant increases in parasitic power, system size, or system cost, compared with existing prototypes. Because of the high potential of the wound-ribbon design, it is recommended that a research program be carried out to fully characterize this type of dehumidifier.
Research Organization:
Solar Energy Research Inst., Golden, CO (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-77CH00178
OSTI ID:
5791837
Report Number(s):
SERI/TR-252-1529; ON: DE83011991
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English