ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND FEASIBILITY STUDY OF A HYBRID DESICCANT DEHUMIDIFICATION AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM

A hybrid desiccant dehumidification air conditioning system is proposed. The main features of this proposed system include: (1) there are two options of dehumidification, desiccant dehumidification and dehumidification via vapor compression cooling; (2) for the subsystem providing the desiccant dehumidification process, the air regeneration process occurs inside a closed loop, and a CO2 heat pump is utilized inside this loop for air regeneration, which has the potential to significantly reduce energy consumption compared to a traditional regeneration process; (3) based on the distribution of sensible load and latent load, there are six operating modes. For the application of a typical storage tank for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier during its construction, the operating performance of the entire system is simulated and analyzed under two typical operating conditions. Compared to the traditional vapor compression air conditioning system, the hybrid system can save approximately 50% to 90% of the energy consumption.