Performance analysis of a novel liquid desiccant-vapor compression hybrid air-conditioning system

LDCH (Liquid desiccant-vapor compression hybrid) air-conditioning systems are popular for reducing energy consumption. This work tests a conventional LDCH air-conditioning experimental setup and establishes the corresponding mathematical model to analyze the effect of the concentrated solution branch in the SSHE (solution solution heat exchanger) on the cooling capacity of the evaporator; the results show that the percentage of cooling capacity loss of the evaporator exceeds 10% with the small concentration difference of 1.5% in the conventional LDCH air-conditioning system. Afterwards, a new LDCH air-conditioning system is proposed by adopting an auxiliary regenerator to cut down the cooling capacity loss of the evaporator, and the analysis results show that there is a big temperature drop of the concentrated solution branch after being pretreated by the auxiliary regenerator; under the condition of concentration difference of 2.65%, the inlet temperature of concentrated solution branch from the regeneration side in the SSHE can decrease over 6 degrees C; and the extra heat load entering the dehumidification side from the regeneration side obviously decreases. Consequently, the evaporator only needs to spend 1.5% of its cooling capacity on the compensation for the extra heat load. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.