Solar pond powered liquid desiccant evaporative cooling

Esam Elsarrag*, Opubo N. Igobo, Yousef Alhorr, Philip A. Davies

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Liquid desiccant cooling systems (LDCS) are energy efficient means of providing cooling, especially when powered by low-grade thermal sources. In this paper, the underlying principles of operation of desiccant cooling systems are examined, and the main components (dehumidifier, evaporative cooler and regenerator) of the LDCS are reviewed. The evaporative cooler can take the form of direct, indirect or semi-indirect. Relative to the direct type, the indirect type is generally less effective. Nonetheless, a certain variant of the indirect type - namely dew-point evaporative cooler - is found to be the most effective amongst all. The dehumidifier and the regenerator can be of the same type of equipment: packed tower and falling film are popular choices, especially when fitted with an internal heat exchanger. The energy requirement of the regenerator can be supplied from solar thermal collectors, of which a solar pond is an interesting option especially when a large scale or storage capability is desired.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)124-140
Number of pages17
JournalRenewable and sustainable energy reviews
Volume58
Early online date12 Jan 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2016

Keywords

  • dehumidifier
  • evaporative cooling
  • liquid desiccant
  • regenerator
  • solar pond

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