Multi absorber stand alone liquid desiccant air-conditioning systems for higher performance

Achieving comfortable environment with the use of renewable energy or waste heat without creating the hazardous effects over the earth atmosphere are major challenges in the field of air-conditioning. Liquid desiccant technology is a promising option. For the past few decades research is going on worldwide to commercialize such systems. Hybrid liquid desiccant systems (combination of vapor compression (V-C) and liquid desiccant system) have got more attention probably due to higher COPs and lower regeneration temperature for such systems. In the present communication the steady-state performance of stand alone liquid desiccant systems has been simulated and analyzed. Failing film designs of absorber and regenerator have been selected for the study due to their lower pressure drops. The simulation of these components has been carried out by solving the basic mass and energy balance equations. These are nonlinear coupled first order differential equations, which have been solved by using fourth order finite difference Runge-Kutta method. The overall system has been simulated using Warner's technique. Two new stand alone liquid desiccant cycles utilizing the potential of desiccant fully through multiple absorbers have been proposed. The proposed new cycles improve the COP of stand alone systems significantly. A parametric study has also been carried out on these liquid desiccant cycles to identify the key design parameters affecting the performance of the system. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.