Liquid desiccant evaporative cooling air-conditioning system (LDECS)

which combines both advantages of liquid desiccant and evaporative cooling technology

is a very promising alternative to the non-vapor-compression air-conditioning system.In this paper

a LDECS driven by low-grade heat is proposed

which consists of a liquid desiccant system with self-cycles that handles the total latent load and a regenerative evaporative cooler that removes the sensible heat.Mathematical models of the major components of the system are established to investigate the effects of four key parameters

namely

regenerator inlet solution temperature Ts

reg

in

solution-to-solution heat exchanger effectiveness εSSHX

ambient air temperature and relative humidity on steady-state thermal performance of the LDECS used as a dedicated outdoor air system.The results show that the supply air of 17.9℃ and 9.2 g·kg-1 with the thermal coefficient of performance TCOP of 0.56 can be achieved under the typical summer condition of Nanjing. The Ts

reg

in of about 70℃ can achieve a high TCOP with the qualified supply air condition. The impacts of εSSHX on TCOP and the capacities of solution heater and cooler are more significant when the value of self-cycle ratio is smaller.Besides

the proposed LDECS is suitable for the application in hot-humid zone.