Proposed energy-efficient air-conditioning system using liquid desiccant

Energy consumption due to conventional air-conditioning is very high, especially in hot, humid areas. The total air-conditioning cooling load can be divided into sensible and latent parts. Liquid desiccant solutions have the property of holding water vapor, therefore they can be used to overcome the latent part of the air-conditioning cooling load. In this work, an energy-efficient system is proposed to reduce energy consumption in air-conditioning (A/C) systems using CaCl2 solution as a liquid desiccant. The proposed system consists mainly of two packed beds, a heat pump, air washers and a cooling coil. Mathematical modeling of various components and fluid properties of the proposed system was undertaken. A computer program was prepared to study the system performance under different conditions. Over most of the conditions at which the program was tested, the proposed system was found to be more energy-efficient than a conventional A/C system. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd