The Performance of Various Types of Regenerators for Liquid Desiccants

A solar-assisted cooling system is very attractive because the available solar energy and the required cooling load are generally in phase. Of all the solar-assisted cooling methods developed to date, the absorption cooling system and the desiccant dehumidification/evaporative cooling system are considered most suitable for solar or other low-grade thermal energy applications. An efficient liquid desiccant cooling/dehumidification system has been proposed and analyzed by the authors. This system promises low operating parasitic power requirements, and it accepts thermal energy at a temperature as low as 60/sup 0/C, which can be efficiently obtained in a flat-plate solar collector. A schematic diagram of this system is shown. Briefly, this system operates by bringing outside air plus recycled air in contact with a liquid desiccant solution (triethylene glycol, in this case) in the absorber unit. A portion of the dried air is then cycled through the evaporator in contact with the falling water film, thus cooling the water. Cooled water from the evaporator is recycled to cool the absorber unit and hold down the desiccant temperature, and and thereby produce cool and dry air.