Performance assessment of a solar-powered adsorption air conditioning system

Rotary desiccant air conditioning is a thermally driven and CFCs free technology which mainly uses low grade heat sources, such as solar energy and waste heat. The dehumidifier is the critical component of the desiccant air conditioning system and its performance affects in a decisive manner the effectiveness, size and manufacture cost of the whole system. This paper presents an adequate simulation tool to predict the behaviour of packed bed dehumidifier of rotary wheel type under appropriate working conditions to a solar assisted configuration. The analysis is carried out through a one-dimensional gas-side resistance model of heat and mass transfer processes on air-solid desiccant interface and provides a large number of numerical results that can be used for design and operational optimization of the desiccant wheel.