A RADIANT AIR-CONDITIONING SYSTEM USING SOLAR-DRIVEN LIQUID DESICCANT EVAPORATIVE WATER COOLER

Every air-conditioning system needs some fresh air to provide adequate ventilation air required to remove moisture, gases like ammonia and hydrogen sulphide, disease organisms, and heat from occupied spaces. However, natural ventilation is difficult to control because urban areas outside air is often polluted and cannot be supplied to inner spaces before being filtered. Besides the high electrical demand of refrigerant compression units used by most air-conditioning systems, and fans used to transport the cool air through the thermal distribution system draw a significant amount of electrical energy in comparison with electrical energy used by the building thermal conditioning systems. Part of this electricity heats the cooled air; thereby add to the internal thermal cooling peak load. In addition, refrigerant compression has both direct and indirect negative effects on the environment on both local and global scales. In seeking for innovative air-conditioning systems that maintain and improve indoor air quality under potentially more demanding performance criteria without increasing environmental impact, this paper presents radiant air-conditioning system which uses a solar-driven liquid desiccant evaporative cooler. The paper describes the proposed solar-driven liquid desiccant evaporative cooling system and the method used for investigating its performance in providing cold water for a radiant air-conditioning system in Khartoum (Central Sudan). The results of the investigation show that the system can operate in humid as well as dry climates and that employing such a system reduces air-conditioning peak electrical demands as compared to vapour compression systems.