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。     

液体除湿系统的研究发展

液体除湿空调不仅可以对热负荷和湿负荷独立处理,而且不断循环的盐溶液还可以对空气起到很好的杀菌效果,这可以提高人们生活和工作的空气品质,避免由传统空调引起的温室效应。但是在溶液除湿和再生的过程中溶液表面的水蒸气压力与空气的水蒸气压力差不断减小,阻碍了除湿过程和再生过程的进行,所以为了得到更高的效率,需要探索新型的液体除湿装置。液体除湿系统主要由除湿器、再生器、循环溶液组成,其中再生器的性能直接影响到整个液体除湿系统的性能。简要介绍了传统液体除湿系统的再生器、除湿器、除湿溶液及新型液体除湿系统再生器的发展。     

液体除湿空调系统的数学模型与性能分析

建立了一种液体除湿空调系统，核心部件为液体吸收式除湿器，蒸发冷却器是重要组成部分，两者的主体均采用蜂窝结构。给出了统一的数学模型，对除湿器和冷却器内复杂的传热传质过程进行描述。数值模拟结果与实验数据基本一致。运用上述模型编制程序，对系统性能进行预测，表明液体除湿空调系统方案可行。     

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。     

带冷却液体除湿系统性能分析的简化方法

采用无量纲蒸汽压差值比和温度差值比对液体除湿系统进行研究,对带冷却液体除湿系统的简化模型进行了计算,并与一组实验数据做了对比,取得了较为满意的效果。分析结果表明用此方法来计算除湿器中除湿量是可行的,且简便易行。该文同时研究了溶液流量、溶液入口温度、浓度等因素对带冷却液体除湿器性能的影响。     

液体除湿特性的实验研究

从保护环境、节约能源出发,对太阳能液体除湿空调系统的优点进行了讨论,建立了液体除湿实验台,提出一种新的氯化钙和氯化锌组成的混合工质（摩尔比为1：1）作为除湿系统的除湿剂、并对影响液体除湿特性的各因素分析,最后指出液体除湿空调系统是一种很有潜力的空调方式。     

蓄能型液体除湿蒸发冷却系统中除湿性能的实验研究

提出了一种新型空调系统——液体除湿冷却空调系统的设计方案并搭建一功率为3kW的实验台，考虑到除湿过程和再生过程是该系统性能优良的决定性环节，设计加工了水冷型波纹板降膜式结构的除湿器和以丝网填料作为内部填料的再生器。在此实验装置上对系统的除湿过程以及其蓄能能力特性进行了实验研究，得出影响该系统除湿能力、蓄能能力等方面的主要因素，为系统的优化设计和运行提供依据。     

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。     

含液体除湿技术的分布式能源系统

本文介绍了液体除湿原理,对液体除湿技术在分布式能源系统中的应用进行了重点论述.华南地区春夏季相对湿度常常超过80%,分布式能源系统靠近用户需求侧面,在分布式能源系统中用液体除湿技术回收低品位余热会有明显优势.     

Study of an aqueous lithium chloride desiccant system: air dehumidification and desiccant regeneration

Desiccant systems have been proposed as energy saving alternatives to vapor compression air conditioning for handling the latent load. Use of liquid desiccants offers several design and performance advantages over solid desiccants, especially when solar energy is used for regeneration. For liquid–gas contact, packed towers with low pressure drop provide good heat and mass transfer characteristics for compact designs. This paper presents the results from a study of the performance of a packed tower absorber and regenerator for an aqueous lithium chloride desiccant dehumidification system. The rates of dehumidification and regeneration, as well as the effectiveness of the dehumidification and regeneration processes were assessed under the effects of variables such as air and desiccant flow rates, air temperature and humidity, and desiccant temperature and concentration. A variation of the Öberg and Goswami mathematical model was used to predict the experimental findings giving satisfactory results.     

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.     

An experimental study of a cross-flow type plate heat exchanger for dehumidification/cooling

The thermal and dehumidification behaviour of a standard cross-flow type plate heat exchanger, intended for use as a dehumidifier/cooler, has been investigated both experimentally and numerically. Three sets of experiments have been carried out where air is blown into the primary and secondary sides of the exchanger, while water and liquid desiccant were being sprayed in a counter flow arrangement. The first set represents the indirect evaporative cooling of the primary stream by the secondary air stream. The second set is with liquid desiccant only and no indirect evaporative cooling. In the third set of experiments the primary air stream is indirectly evaporatively cooled by the secondary air stream and dehumidified by the liquid desiccant sprayed into the primary side of the exchanger. The above experiments indicate that the heat exchanger performs well when used with liquid desiccant. Furthermore, for an exchanger angle of 45°, there is an optimum value of air mass flow rate at which the effectiveness and dehumidification efficiency of the plate heat exchanger are maxima. To investigate the effect of the ambient air conditions on the PHE performance, further experiments were carried out using a heater element and a humidifier. The results show that under laboratory conditions the exchanger effectiveness and dehumidification efficiency increase with increasing primary air inlet temperature and humidity ratio. The experimental results were used to validate a computer model developed for the cross-flow type plate heat exchanger/dehumidifier. Comparison indicates that the numerical results are in good agreement with the experiments.     

Development of a novel two-stage liquid desiccant dehumidification system assisted by CaCl2 solution using exergy analysis method

Air conditioning system based on liquid desiccant has been recognized as an efficient independent air humidity control HVAC system. To improve thermal coefficient of performance, a novel two-stage liquid desiccant dehumidification system assisted by calcium chloride (CaCl₂) solution is developed through exergy analysis based on the second thermodynamic law. Compared with the basic liquid desiccant dehumidification system, the proposed system is improved by two ways, i.e. increasing the concentration variance and the pre-dehumidification of CaCl₂. The exergy loss in the desiccant–desiccant heat recovery process can be significantly reduced by increasing desiccant concentration variance between strong desiccant solution after regeneration and weak desiccant solution after dehumidification. Meanwhile, the pre-dehumidification of CaCl₂ solution can reduce the irreversibility in the regeneration/dehumidification process. Compared to the basic system, the thermal coefficient performance and exergy efficiency of the proposed system are increased from 0.24 to 0.73 and from 6.8% to 23.0%, respectively, under the given conditions. Useful energy storage capacity of CaCl₂ solution and LiCl solution at concentration of 40% reach 237.8 and 395.1 MJ/m³, respectively. The effects of desiccant regeneration temperature, air mass flux, desiccant mass flux, etc., on the performance of the proposed system are also analyzed.     

A simplified model for air dehumidification with liquid desiccant

This paper describes a relatively simple model for the preliminary design of an air dehumidification process occurring in a packed bed using liquid desiccant through dimensionless vapor pressure and temperature difference ratios. An expression is derived using the aforementioned ratios to predict the water condensation rate from the air to the desiccant solution in terms of known operating parameters. The model predictions were compared against a reliable set of experimental data available in the literature, with very good agreement. The effects of the cooling water inlet temperature and the desiccant-to-water heat exchanger effectiveness on the performance of the dehumidifier are also studied and the results are presented in this paper.     

An analytical solution for air dehumidification by liquid desiccant in a packed column

This paper presents a new analytical solution of heat and mass transfer processes in a packed bed liquid desiccant dehumidifier based on the equilibrium humidity on the interface is assumed to be constant. In order to maintain the partial pressure difference on the interface, a high liquid desiccant flow rate is often applied in the practical absorber. Therefore, for a narrow range of operating conditions for practical dehumidification process, we can assume that the equilibrium humidity ratio on the interface is constant. The assumption of constant humidity ratio is applied in this paper for derivation of the analytical solution. The model and the analytical solution predictions were compared against a reliable set of experimental data available in the literature, with very good agreement. According to the Lewis definition in this present study, the Lewis number obtains 0.9. The effects of variables such as air and liquid desiccant flow rate, air temperature and humidity, desiccant temperature and concentration have been investigated on the condensation rate. The results present that design variables such as desiccant concentration, desiccant temperature, air flow rate, and air humidity ratio have the greatest impact on the performance of the dehumidifier. The liquid flow rate and the air temperature have not a significant effect. Furthermore, the effects of air and liquid desiccant flow rate have been reported on the humidity effectiveness of the column.     

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%.     

Use of desiccant dehumidification to improve energy utilization in air-conditioning systems in Beirut

Humidity and indoor moist surrounding affect air cleanliness and protects harmful microorganisms when relative humidity is above 70%. In humid climates, the humidity issues are a major contributor to energy inefficiency in HVAC devices. The use of liquid desiccant dehumidification systems of supply air is a viable alternative to reduce the latent heat load on the HVAC system and improve efficiency. Thermal energy, at a temperature as low as 40–50°C, required for the operation of a liquid desiccant hybrid air conditioner can be efficiently obtained using a flat-plate solar collector. In this work a model of a solar-operated liquid desiccant system (using calcium Chloride) for air dehumidification is developed. The system utilizes packed beds of counter flow between an air stream and a solution of liquid desiccant for air dehumidification and solution regeneration. The desiccant system model is integrated with a solar heat source for performance evaluation at a wide range of recorded ambient conditions for Beirut city. Standard mass and energy balances are performed on the various components of the system and a computer simulation program is developed for the integrated system analysis. The desiccant system of the current study replaces a 3 TR (10.56 kW) vapour compression unit for a typical house as low latent load application, and is part of a hybrid desiccant–vapour compression system for a high latent load application, namely a small restaurant with an estimated cooling load of 11.39 TR (40 kW), including reheat. The relevant parameters of the desiccant system are optimized at peak load, and it is found out that there is an important energy saving if the ratio of the air flow rate in the regenerator to that in the dehumidifier is about 0.3 to 0.4. The COP of the desiccant unit is 0.41 for the house, and 0.45 for the restaurant. The size of the vapor compression unit of the restaurant is reduced to 8 TR when supplemented by a desiccant system. The performance is studied of the desiccant system integrated with a solar collector system and an auxiliary natural gas heater to heat the regenerator. The transient simulation of the solar desiccant system is performed for the entire cooling season. The solar fraction for the house is equal to 0.25, 0.47, and 0.68 for a collector area of 28.72, 57.44, and 86.16 m², respectively. The solar fraction for the restaurant is 0.19, 0.38, and 0.54, for the same collector areas. The life cycle savings for the house run solely on desiccant system were positive only if natural gas is available at a cheap price. For the restaurant, the economic benefit of the desiccant system is positive, because the need for reheat in the vapor compression system is eliminated. For a gas price of 0.5638 $/kg, the payback period for the restaurant turned out to be immediate if the energy is supplied solely by natural gas, and 11 years if an 86.16 m² solar collector is implemented to reduce the fuel consumption. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dehumidification and humidification process of desiccant solution by air injection

Liquid desiccant dehumidification was proved to be an effective method to extract the moisture from air with a relatively less energy. An experimental study was carried out to evaluate the liquid desiccant system performance during dehumidification and humidification processes using an injected air through the liquid desiccant solution (calcium chloride). A different air mass flow rates though the desiccant solution was considered during the experimental work. The desiccant system was studied at different operating conditions like different temperatures, different humidity ratios and different solution levels. The effectiveness for both the dehumidification and humidification processes was calculated through this work. It was found that, the system effectiveness reached to 0.87 in the dehumidification and about 0.92 in the humidification process. Also; the experimental results showed a mass transfer coefficient of 28 kg s⁻¹ m² mm Hg at an air mass flow rate of 0.022 kg s⁻¹ in the dehumidification process. The cooling effect factor was also studied and analyzed during that work.