Membrane heat exchanger in HVAC energy recovery systems, systems energy analysis

The thermal performance of an enthalpy/membrane heat exchanger is experimentally investigated. The heat exchanger utilizes a 60gsm Kraft paper as the heat and moisture transfer surface for HVAC energy recovery. The heat exchanger sensible, latent and total effectiveness have been determined through temperature and moisture content measurements. The annual energy consumption of an air conditioner coupled with an enthalpy/membrane heat exchanger is also studied and compared with a conventional air conditioning cycle using in-house modified HPRate software. The heat exchanger effectiveness are used as thermal performance indicators and incorporated in the modified software. Energy analysis showed that an air conditioning system coupled with a membrane heat exchanger consumes less energy than a conventional air conditioning system in hot and humid climates where the latent load is high. It has been shown that in humid climate a saving of up to 8% in annual energy consumption can be achieved when membrane heat exchanger is used instead of a conventional HVAC system.

[1]  Li-Zhi Zhang.  Heat and mass transfer in plate-fin enthalpy exchangers with different plate and fin materials , 2009 .

[2]  Younggy Shin,et al.  Experimental study of sensible heat recovery of heat pump during heating and ventilation , 2005 .

[3]  Bin Wang,et al.  Efficiency of energy recovery ventilator with various weathers and its energy saving performance in a residential apartment , 2010 .

[4]  Heshmat A. Aglan,et al.  Effect of mechanically induced ventilation on the indoor air quality of building envelopes , 2010 .

[5]  Cai-Hang Liang,et al.  Heat and moisture transfer in application scale parallel-plates enthalpy exchangers with novel membrane materials , 2008 .

[6]  Li-Zhi Zhang,et al.  Simultaneous heat and moisture transfer through a composite supported liquid membrane , 2008 .

[7]  Cai-Hang Liang,et al.  Independent air dehumidification with membrane-based total heat recovery: Modeling and experimental validation , 2010 .

[8]  J. Niu,et al.  Membrane-based Enthalpy Exchanger: material considerations and clarification of moisture resistance , 2001 .

[9]  Li-Zhi Zhang,et al.  Convective mass transport in cross-corrugated membrane exchangers , 2005 .

[10]  Risto Kosonen,et al.  The effect of perceived indoor air quality on productivity loss , 2004 .

[11]  Dongsheng Zhu,et al.  Thermodynamic modeling of a novel air dehumidification system , 2005, Energy and Buildings.

[12]  Philomena M. Bluyssen,et al.  Towards an integrative approach of improving indoor air quality , 2009 .

[13]  Li-Zhi Zhang,et al.  Energy performance of independent air dehumidification systems with energy recovery measures , 2005, Energy.

[14]  Jianlei Niu,et al.  Energy requirements for conditioning fresh air and the long-term savings with a membrane-based energy recovery ventilator in Hong Kong , 2001 .

[15]  Ruzhu Wang,et al.  Performance of energy recovery ventilator with various weathers and temperature set-points , 2007 .

[16]  Shahram Delfani,et al.  Experimental investigation of dehumidification process in cooling coil by utilizing air-to-air heat exchanger in humid climate of Iran , 2010 .