Theoretical analysis of heat and mass transfer processes in an evaporative cooling system with zeolite desiccant powered by solar energy

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Concerns about energy sources depletion and environmental pollution issues have been raised and is a top priority of the global community. Refrigeration machines have been received the major of attention because of their energy consumption and pollution. Different from traditional cooling strategies, desiccant cooling technology (DCT) has been emergent as a promising alternative giving the fact that the economic-ecological air conditioning system is not restricted to hot and dry climates only. In the current experimental study, an advancement solar assisted desiccant cooling system (SADCS) is presented. The advantage is to use only a fraction of the energy of typical compressor-based cooling systems. The advancements have taken place into the dehumidification, evaporator, and regeneration sections. The role of appropriate choosing of the desiccant material type on the adsorption process has been presented, and a Faujasite (FAU) 13X zeolite is utilized in the dehumidification stage. A novel monolayer coating method has conducted. The new coating method has insured no external water vapor condensation ruins the desiccant material during relative humidity working range (20-97) %. Moreover, the new coating method allows to increase the performance of the adsorption and desorption processes, respectively. By giving the coming air stream the ability to pass through and surround the zeolite beads, accessibility to adsorb and desorb water vapor molecules is easier as more rooms are available. That clearly has been stated as 6450 g of zeolite holds 684 g of water in full saturation status within 37 minutes and regenerates by less than 120 [degree]C air temperature within 66 minutes. In the evaporative cooling section, an effective small compact evaporative cooler (CEC) system dealing only with product flow is introduced. The new CEC is utilized direct and indirect evaporation of water mechanisms combined in cross channels to cool air. Dropping air temperature by (5-7) [degree]C has recorded without desiccant stage. Supplying the required regeneration energy from a green energy source was essential in this study. For this purpose, an innovative flat plate double-mesh air solar collector has designed and carried out. In the new collector, a double copper mesh frames were fixing within a double Plexiglas covers flat plate collector. Experimental results show a good consistent with the mathematical model. With an average 0.71 solar fraction and 80 [degree]C exit air temperature, the collector presents 0.73 as thermal efficiency. As the improvements of the desiccant air-conditioning system turns out globally recognized by the progress in different research outcomes, designs, setting up and evaluation methods, it is expected that the system will be one of the most important alternative systems for the maintenance of human's environment comfort and air quality when considering the reduced dependence on conventional energy usage. Present work and results provide a reference data sets related to real adsorption dehumidification process and show that the advancement SADCS has a great potential in the future of the evaporative cooler systems.