High-performance dehumidifier for solar desiccant cooling systems

Conference · Sun May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1983

OSTI ID:6370789

Schlepp, D.

An advanced-design, one-tenth-scale dehumidifier for use in residential solar desiccant-cooling systems has been built and tested. The new dehumidifier was designed using a parallel-passage geometry, where air flows through channels formed by walls coated with fine-ground silica gel desiccant. This concept has a high heat and mass transfer effectiveness and promises to double the coefficient of performance of the desiccant cooling system to 1.1 kW cooling output/kW thermal input. The parallel-passage design was found to have very low pressure drop, typically 20 Pa (.08 in. water) at design conditions. The low fan power required to drive such low pressure drop components indicates that electrical COP's in the range of 8.0 to 8.2 kW cooling output/kW electrical input are possible. Results presented include parametric studies of the effect of conditions such as temperature and humidity and design parameters such as desiccant particle size and channel spacing on dehumidifier performance.

• Research Organization: Solar Energy Research Inst., Golden, CO (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-77CH00178
• OSTI ID: 6370789
• Report Number(s): SERI/TP-252-1979; CONF-830812-29; ON: DE83011964
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140901* -- Solar Thermal Utilization-- Space Heating & Cooling
ADSORBENTS
AIR CONDITIONING
BUILDINGS
COOLING SYSTEMS
DEHUMIDIFIERS
DESICCANTS
DESIGN
ENERGY SYSTEMS
EQUIPMENT
HUMIDITY
OPEN-CYCLE COOLING SYSTEMS
PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS
PARTICLE SIZE
PERFORMANCE TESTING
RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
SILICA GEL
SIZE
SOLAR AIR CONDITIONING
SOLAR COOLING SYSTEMS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
TEMPERATURE EFFECTS
TESTING