Performance analysis of liquid desiccant based air-conditioning system under variable fresh air ratios

Xiaofeng Niu, Fu Xiao, Gaoming Ge

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

58 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In conventional air-conditioning system, fresh air volume is always restricted to save energy, which sacrifices indoor air quality (IAQ) to some extent. However, removing the latent load of air by liquid desiccant rather than by cooling is an alternative way of reducing energy consumption. Therefore, IAQ can be improved by increasing the volume of fresh air introduced into an air-conditioning system. In this paper, a liquid desiccant based air-conditioning system is studied, with the system performance under various fresh air ratios analyzed using simulation tests. In addition, the proposed system and a conventional system are compared. In the proposed system, with the increase in fresh air ratio, the heating load for solution regeneration rises, the dehumidification efficiency increases and the regeneration efficiency drops. The coefficient of performance (COP) of the liquid desiccant based system decreases sharply when the fresh air ratio exceeds 60%. The results also show that the proposed system can save power notably. The maximum power saving ratio is 58.9% when the fresh air ratio is 20%; however, the ratio drops when the fresh air ratio increases. These findings will be beneficial in the selection of fresh air ventilation strategies for liquid desiccant based air-conditioning systems.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2457-2464
Number of pages8
JournalEnergy and Buildings
Volume42
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2010

Keywords

  • Air-conditioning
  • Fresh air ventilation
  • Liquid desiccant
  • Performance analysis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Civil and Structural Engineering
  • Building and Construction
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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