Experimental assessment of a small scale hybrid liquid desiccant dehumidification incorporated vapor compression refrigeration system: An energy saving approach

摘要

This work investigates a small-scale hybrid experimental setup developed combining the two technologies of liquid desiccant dehumidification and vapour compression refrigeration. A hybrid system of 5 kW capacity is designed and developed for energy saving analysis. The experiments are designed with central-composite design scheme using three variables namely air mass flow rate, desiccant inlet temperature, and desiccant inlet concentration. Three responses namely specific humidity change in the dehumidifier, dehumidifier heat load and hybrid system performance coefficient are considered for the investigation. The regression correlations for all three responses are developed and presented. Further, the performance comparison of the hybrid system with the standalone vapour compression refrigeration unit is also carried out. The comparative results reveal that the maximum improvement of 27.54% is observed in the coefficient of performance at which 54.93% of the total latent heat load is being covered by the dehumidifier. Finally, the energy saving analysis reveals that the hybrid system is having payback duration of 4 years compared to the standalone vapour compression refrigeration system of same cooling capacity.