A Liquid Desiccant System

for Solar Cooling and

Dehumidification
The growing demand for air conditioning, particularly in hot and humid climates has
caused a significant increase in demand for energy resources. A promising solar technol-
K. Gommed ogy with potential to alleviate the problem is an open absorption system, where humidity
is absorbed directly from the air to be treated by direct contact with the absorbent. The
G. Grossman absorbent is then regenerated, again in direct contact with an external air stream, at
relatively low temperatures of the heat source. The paper describes a study of a liquid
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, desiccant cooling system designed to air-condition a group of offices on the top floor of a
Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, building in the Mediterranean city of Haifa, Israel. The system is capable of using as its
Haifa 32000, Israel source of power low-grade solar heat, of the type obtainable from low-cost flat plate
collectors, and has a potential to provide both cooling and dehumidification in variable
ratios, as required by the load. Several cycle variations have been considered, corre-
sponding to different design options. A parametric study shows that entrance conditions of
the ambient air significantly affect the heat and mass transfer occurring during the de-
humidification process. The temperatures and flow rates of the heating and cooling water
and the flow rates of solution through the dehumidifier and regenerator affect the humidity
of the supply air delivered to the conditioned space, and show an optimum in certain
cases. 关DOI: 10.1115/1.1690284兴

Keywords: Dehumidifier, Evaporator, Regenerator, Absorber, Cooling, Dehumidification,

Air Conditioning

Introduction tion. Kababaev et al. 关8 –10兴 report on the operation of a large

The growing demand for air conditioning, particularly in hot scale air-conditioning system employing LiCl-water, where both
and humid climates such as in Mediterranean countries, has direct regeneration in open collectors and cold storage in the form
caused a significant increase in demand for energy resources. of regenerated solution have been attempted. Noteworthy are also
Electric utilities have their peak loads in hot summer days, and are the liquid desiccant system analyses of Collier 关11兴, Haim et al.
often barely capable of meeting the demand, with brown-out situ- 关12兴, and Gandihdasan and Al-Farayedhi 关13兴.
ations. With suitable technology, solar cooling can help alleviate, This project is concerned with an open absorption solar air
if not eliminate the problem. It is a good application for solar conditioning system based on controlled evaporation and dehu-
energy due to the fact that the greatest demand for air conditioning midification using liquid desiccants. It is designed to air-condition
occurs during times of highest insolation 关1,2兴. a group of offices in a typical building and will serve as a proto-
Conventional closed-cycle absorption chillers require heat type for larger systems, to be constructed at a later stage. The
source temperatures that are significantly higher than the tempera- system is capable of using as its source of power low-grade solar
tures of corresponding heat sinks. Thus, they have to be operated heat, of the type obtainable from low-cost flat plate collectors and
with high-grade heat extracted from natural gas, steam, concen- has the potential to provide both cooling and dehumidification in
trating solar collectors and the like. A promising alternative is the variable ratios, as required by the load.
use of an open absorption system, where humidity is absorbed The objective of this work has been to perform an analysis in
directly from the air to be treated by direct contact with the ab- order to choose the best potential configuration of the solar air
sorbent. The absorbent is then regenerated, again in direct contact
conditioning system. Desiccant systems are quite efficient in deal-
with an external air stream, at relatively low temperatures of the
ing with the latent load, but considerably less so with regard to the
heat source. The entire operation takes place at atmospheric pres-
sure, thus eliminating vacuum vessels and the like. sensible load. A good solution is for the solar-powered desiccant
Earlier work has been conducted on liquid desiccant systems cooling system to deal with the latent heat while an electric-
for cooling and dehumidification, using solar energy for regenera- powered heat pump deals with the remaining sensible heat. Under
tion. In several cases, direct regeneration of the solution in the sun such conditions, the electric heat pump can operate at evaporator
has been considered, using a special type of collector. Wood and temperatures considerably higher than normal 共as it is not required
co-workers at Arizona State University 关3– 6兴 have constructed to cool the air below its dew point in order to dehumidify it兲, and
and tested a full-scale liquid desiccant system, employing aqueous hence with greater efficiency.
LiCl as well as an aqueous mixture of LiCl and CaCl2 as liquid The significance of this work lies in the potential to provide
sorbents. Kessling 关7兴 studied a LiCl-water system operating at a solar-powered cooling, dehumidification and air conditioning for
large concentration difference between the strong and weak des- residential or commercial applications. The required low-grade
iccant, to facilitate cold storage by means of a regenerated solu- heat can be obtained from low-cost flat plate solar collectors,
which do not require sun tracking and in some cases can be in-
Contributed by the Solar Energy Division of THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ME- corporated in the roof structure of the building. The use of hygro-
CHANICAL ENGINEERS for publication in the ASME JOURNAL OF SOLAR ENERGY
ENGINEERING. Manuscript received by the ASME Solar Energy Division May 2003; scopic salts in direct contact with moist air provides an attractive
final revision, December 2003. Associate Editor: M. Krarti. alternative to conventional cooling systems employing ozone-

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 depleting CFCs. The possibility of using low-grade energy goes a the system make it possible to operate for a total of four hours
long way toward the elimination of pollution and utilizing renew- with no insolation–a typical situation in the summer during the
able and environmentally-safe energy sources. morning hours.

Description of the Liquid Desiccant System

Project Description
The liquid desiccant system is designed to serve as an open-
The system under consideration is designed to air-condition a cycle absorption system that can operate with low-grade solar
group of offices 共total floor area of 35 m2 ) on the top floor of the heat. A detailed description of the desiccant cycle, design consid-
Energy Research Center building at the Technion–Israel Institute erations that led to the various choices and an experimental inves-
of Technology 共Haifa, Israel兲. The city of Haifa is an ideal site to tigation of this system is given elsewhere 关14兴. A schematic de-
test such a system. Located on the Mediterranean coast at 33 scription of the final design version of the system is given in Fig.
degrees north latitude, it has the typical climate of Mediterranean 1. The system consists of six major components: an air dehumidi-
cities. Outside summer conditions 共typical for design兲 are 30°C fier or absorber, a solution regenerator or desorber, two water-to-
and 70% relative humidity. Room design conditions have been solution heat exchangers, a solution-to-solution heat exchanger,
selected at 24°C and 50% relative humidity. A load calculation for and an air-to-air heat exchanger. Arabic numerals indicate work-
the three typically staffed and equipped offices shows about 4.2 ing fluids state points at specific locations. Air flow is represented
kW with a room sensible heat factor 共RSHF兲 of 0.92. At 30 cfm by thick solid lines, solution flow by thin solid lines and water
(51 m3 /hr) of fresh air per occupant 共ASHRAE air quality recom- flow by dashed lines.
mendations兲, the additional fresh air–associated load is about 3.0 The dehumidifier 共absorber兲 consists of a packed tower and
kW, most of which 共2.4 kW兲 is latent. Thus, the total cooling operates in an adiabatic mode. Ambient air at state 14 entering the
capacity required is 7.2 kW, with a grand sensible heat factor bottom of the absorber packed section is brought into contact with
共GSHF兲 of 0.62. The total supply air circulation needed 共based on a concentrated absorbent solution entering the unit at state 11.
12 air changes per hour兲 is 0.4 kg/sec 共720 cfm兲. The desired Water vapor is removed from the air stream by being absorbed
conditions of the supply air are 14.7°C and 86% relative humidity. into the solution stream. The dehumidified warm air leaving the
In considering the liquid desiccant system for performing the absorber at state 15 passes through the blower and leaves the
air conditioning task, two cooling options are available. Under system toward the air-conditioned space for some further treat-
option A, ambient air mixed with return air is dried in the dehu- ment under options A or B 共see the previous section兲 at state 16.
midifier 共absorber兲, to be described in detail in the next section. The blower controls the flow of air, while raising its temperature
Leaving the dehumidifier, the air is cooled first in a heat ex- slightly. Solution is pumped from the absorber pool at the bottom
changer by cooling water or exhaust air, then cooled further in an of the tower into the plate heat exchanger 共state 10兲, where it is
auxiliary chiller 共e.g. electrically-powered vapor compression heat cooled by water from a cooling tower. The solution leaving the
pump兲 and still further in an evaporative cooler before being sup- heat exchanger 共state 11兲 then proceeds to the distributor at the top
plied to the conditioned space. In this option, the desiccant part of of the packing, from where it trickles down in counter-flow to the
the system treats the total supply air 共the return air together with air stream and collects in the pool. A controlled solution stream is
the fresh air兲 and deals with the latent heat together with part of transferred from the absorber pool to the regenerator, as shown
the sensible heat. The auxiliary chiller deals with the remaining 共state 10c兲. The return 共pumped兲 stream from the regenerator 共1c兲
part of the sensible load. In option B, the fresh 共make-up兲 air, goes directly into the pool.
accounting for most of the latent load, is treated separately by the As evident, the regenerator 共desorber兲 device is very similar to
desiccant system while an auxiliary heat pump deals with the the dehumidifier, and so are the flow system and associated com-
sensible load of the rest of the air. Under this option, the fresh air ponents. The solution is heated in the liquid-to-liquid heat ex-
is dried in the dehumidifier, then cooled by heat exchange with the changer by solar-heated water 共states 3-4兲. Ambient air at state 5
exhaust air in an air-to air heat exchanger, and supplied to the is pre-heated in the air-to-air heat exchanger by recovering heat
conditioned space. Calculations show that option A has a thermo- from the exhaust air leaving the desorber 共state 8兲. After pre-
dynamic advantage only when exercising the option of employing heating, the air stream 共state 6兲 enters the desorber where it serves
an auxiliary chiller with an evaporator temperature considerably to re-concentrate the solution 共state 2兲. The exhaust air leaves the
higher than normal 共not requiring to cool the air below its dew desorber 共state 7兲, passing through the blower, then pre-heats the
point for dehumidification and hence operating at a higher effi- entering air stream and is rejected to the environment. The
ciency兲. Otherwise, option B is preferable, providing a simpler solution-to-solution heat exchanger facilitates pre-heating of the
way for controlling the complete system and for incorporating the weak solution leaving the dehumidifier 共states 10c to 10h兲 and
auxiliary heat pump. Option B also requires considerably less recovers heat from the hot strong solution leaving the regenerator
pumping and fan power in the desiccant system than option A. In 共states 1h to 1c兲.
the final system design, Option B of handling only the fresh air The above brief description of the system already reveals a
part by the desiccant system was chosen. number of advantages of this system over conventional absorption
The desiccant solution is regenerated by solar heat, supplied by heat pump cycles: 共1兲 The number of main components is reduced
flat-plate solar collectors of conventional design, of the type by one by transferring condensation of the refrigerant from a con-
widely employed in Israel for domestic water heating, but with denser to the environment. 共2兲 Capital-intensive pressure-sealed
better than average quality to enable higher efficiency at high units are avoided as the whole system operates at atmospheric
temperatures. Solar-heated water serves as the heat carrier. The pressure. 共3兲 The amount of refrigerant 共water兲 evaporated in the
option of heating the regenerated solution directly, by exposing it regenerator is independent of an evaporator, providing greater
to the sun and to ambient air simultaneously, had been explored flexibility. 共4兲 Efficient utilization of very low heat source tem-
but found to be somewhat problematic. The advantages of the peratures is possible.
current option are simpler construction technology, simpler stor- In the overall setup, the liquid desiccant system is connected in
age capability, dirt control and simpler ability for using an air-to- a flow arrangement allowing storage of concentrated solution and
air heat exchanger for heat recovery. With the total latent heat load a capability to work in three different modes. The first is a manual
of 2.75 kW, the solar energy demand was calculated to be 4.77 mode used for testing individual components of the system. The
kW. Assuming ten hours of continuous operation daily, and taking other two modes are automatic, as may be selected by the user.
a small safety factor, the solar collector area was selected at One automatic mode is for full operation of the system 共FOP兲 and
20 m2 . Solution storage in the amount of 120 liters of LiCl solu- the second is for regeneration only 共REG兲. In the automatic FOP
tion at 43% concentration and a 1000 liter hot water tank added to mode, all system components operate, including the solution stor-

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 Fig. 1 Schematic description of the open-cycle desiccant system

age circuit, if required. In this case, the absorber solution pump storage–and the ability to employ low-cost flat plate collectors
may supply the dehumidifier with solution from both the absorber could make this system cost-competitive with other solar air con-
pool and from the solution storage tank, in parallel. Thus, dehu- ditioning systems.
midification can continue independent of regeneration. If the solar
collectors cannot supply water at sufficiently high temperature, or
if the concentration of the solution in the storage tank and/or the
regenerator pool rises above a set limit, the regeneration side of
the system will shut down for a certain time. In the REG mode, Parametric Study
only the regenerator 共desorber兲 side of the system operates. The The lack of reliable data on heat and mass transfer coefficients
system shuts down automatically when the concentration of the in the absorption and desorption processes has been a serious
solution in the storage tank reaches a certain high value or when impediment in earlier simulation studies to obtaining a good pre-
the temperature of the hot water drops below a certain limit. At diction of the system’s performance. Particularly critical are the
the end of days of high insolation, when a large amount of solar performances of the dehumidifier 共absorber兲 and regenerator 共de-
heat has been collected, the user can set the system to operate in sorber兲, forming the two key components of the liquid desiccant
the automatic REG mode before leaving the site. system. Such data has now been obtained through the experimen-
Practical aspects pertaining to the design, construction and op- tal work described by Gommed, Grossman and Ziegler, 关14兴. This
eration have been discussed in the paper by Gommed, Grossman makes it possible to conduct an extensive parametric study of the
and Ziegler 关14兴, which describes an experimental investigation of overall system behavior.
the liquid desiccant system. One concern in this type of open- The computer code ABSIM 关15,16兴, developed specifically for
cycle system is the prevention of solution carryover. Our experi- simulation of absorption systems in flexible and modular form,
ments have shown that the LiCl solution should not be sprayed, was employed in this study. The modular structure of ABSIM
but rather dripped over the packing, with the drops large enough makes it possible to simulate a variety of absorption systems in
not to be carried away by the air stream. In addition, mist elimi- varying cycle configurations and with different working fluids.
nators were incorporated in each of the packed towers, above the The code is based on unit subroutines containing the governing
solution distributors, as shown in Fig. 1. These two measures were equations for the system’s components. The components are
found to eliminate carryover almost completely. It should be noted linked together by a main program, which calls the unit subrou-
that LiCl, while somewhat corrosive, is not a toxic material, and tines according to the user’s specifications to form the complete
does not pose any health hazards; in fact, it possesses bacterio- cycle. When all the equations for the entire cycle have been es-
static qualities. Anther issue is the cost of such a system; while tablished, a mathematical solver routine is employed to solve
still in the proof-of-concept stage, it is already clear that the ulti- them simultaneously. Property subroutines contained in a separate
mate cost will be dominated by the solar part–collector and database serve to provide thermodynamic properties of the differ-

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 Table 1 System parameters for reference case

Room air conditions:

Temperature, TR 24°C
Humidity ratio, ␻ R 9.5 g/kg
Ambient air conditions:
Temperature, To 30°C
Humidity ratio, ␻ o 19.0 g/kg
Heating water temperature, THW 65°C
Heating water flow rate, FHW 0.25 kg/sec
Cooling water temperature, TCW 29.5°C
Cooling water flow rate, FCW 0.25 kg/sec
Air flow rate through desorber, FDA 0.16 kg/sec
Air flow rate through absorber, FAA 0.16 kg/sec
Desorber solution pump flow rate, FDS 0.5 kg/sec
Absorber solution pump flow rate, FAS 0.5 kg/sec
Heat transfer coefficients:
desorber heat exchanger, UADS 1.3 kW/°C
absorber heat exchanger, UAAS 1.3 kW/°C
solution-solution heat exchanger, UADAS 1.3 kW/°C
desorber air-to-air heat exchanger, UADA 0.5 kW/°C
absorber air-to-air heat exchanger, UAAA 0.5 kW/°C
Mass transfer coefficients:
desorber solution-interface, KADS 0.36 kg/sec
desorber air-interface, KADA 1.00 kg/sec
absorber solution-interface, KAAS 0.36 kg/sec
absorber air-interface, KAAA 1.00 kg/sec

ent working fluids. The property subroutine for LiCl-water, the

particular working fluid employed in this study, contains correla-
tions derived from the work of Uemura 关17兴. Fig. 2 Humidity ratio of supply air as function of inlet condi-
The computer simulation yields the temperature and humidity tions of ambient air to dehumidifier
of the air at the system outlets as well as heat duties of the various
system components as functions of the specified conditions at in-
lets and other operating conditions. The behavior is quite complex Figure 4 describes the humidity ratio 共water content兲 of the
and depends on many input parameters. In conducting the simu- supply air to the conditioned space as a function of the conditions
lation, a design 共reference兲 case has been selected, and the values of the heating and cooling water supplied to the two water/
of the relevant parameters were varied around it. The values of the solution heat exchangers 共state points 3 and 12, respectively, in
various parameters influencing the problem for the reference case Fig. 1兲. Four curves are shown representing the heating water and
are listed in Table 1. cooling water temperature and flow rate. It is evident that the
When conducting the following parametric study, only one pa- higher the heating water temperature and the lower the cooling
rameter from those listed in Table 1 was varied at a time, while all water temperature-the better the dehumidification. A cooling water
others remained fixed at their design value. The reference condi- temperature of 29.5°C, selected for the reference condition, is a
tion is indicated on each curve by a dot. high-probability upper limit for the weather conditions of Haifa.
Figure 2 describes the humidity ratio 共water content兲 of the During many summer days, lower cooling water temperatures can
supply air to the conditioned space, which has been dehumidified be produced by the cooling tower and therefore better perfor-
by the desiccant system 共state 16 in Fig. 1兲, as a function of the mance. The humidity ratio tends toward a constant value as the
inlet conditions of the ambient air supplied to the dehumidifier heating and cooling water flow rates increase. This is again due to
共state 14 in Fig. 1兲. Three curves are shown representing the tem- the limited heat transfer capacity in the solution/water heat ex-
perature, humidity ratio and flow rate of the ambient air. As ex- changers, resulting in diminishing driving force at the high water
pected, the absorption rate 共dehumidification performance of the
desiccant system兲 increases as each of these quantities decreases.
The slope of the flow rate curve tends to become flat at the higher
air flow rates. A similar behavior is exhibited by the regenerator
heat duty as a function of the flow rate of ambient air being
dehumidified 共not shown here兲. This behavior is due to the limited
heat and mass transfer capacity 共area and coefficient兲, causing the
driving force to diminish at the high flow rates. A heat duty of
6.13 kW is found to be required for regeneration at the reference
condition, where the flow rate of ambient air supplied is 0.16
kg/sec. Figure 2 further indicates that the water content and flow
rate of the ambient air supplied to the absorber have a more sig-
nificant effect on the system performance than the temperature.
Figure 3 describes the effect of the temperature of the hot water
produced by the solar collectors on the strong solution concentra-
tion reached at the regenerator outlet. Clearly, the higher the heat-
ing temperature-the higher the solution concentration. At a hot
water temperature of 70°C the solution concentration is about
43%, which is the preferred working concentration. It is high
enough to produce a good degree of dehumidification in the ab-
sorber, while staying safely away from the crystallization limit of Fig. 3 Effect of heating water temperature on strong solution
the solution. concentration at regenerator outlet

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 Fig. 6 Humidity ratio of supply air as a function of solution
flow rate in the dehumidifier and split ratio in the regenerator

considerations explain the existence of a maximum in the solution

Fig. 4 Humidity ratio of supply air as a function of heating and concentration at the desorber outlet: The reduction of the concen-
cooling water conditions tration from the maximum value at high solution flow rates is due
to increased circulation losses. At low flow rates, a low equilib-
rium temperature of the solution during adiabatic regeneration
flow rates. Keeping pumping power in mind, it is preferable to leads to low solution concentrations. The regenerator heat duty
select the heating and cooling water flow rates in the range be- curve shows a rapid increase in slope at low flow rates due to
tween 0.2 to 0.4 kg/sec 共0.25 kg/sec for the reference condition兲. intensive dehumidification in the absorber. Beyond a solution flow
Figure 5 describes the effect of desiccant solution flow rate in rate of 0.4 kg/sec, the desorber heat duty increases more gradually
the regenerator on several performance parameters. Three curves due to increasing circulation losses.
are shown representing the solution concentration at the desorber Figure 6 describes the humidity ratio of the supply air to the
outlet, the supply air humidity ratio and the desorber heat duty. conditioned space as a function of two parameters: The split ratio
Here an optimum humidity ratio is reached when the solution flow in the desorber and the solution flow rate in the absorber. At the
rate is in the range between 0.4 to 0.6 kg/sec 共0.5 kg/sec is the desorber outlet the solution is split into two streams, as shown in
reference condition兲. The explanation for this is as follows: When Fig. 1. The main stream 共state point 1兲 flows to the desorber inlet
the solution flow rate in the regenerator is low, the flow rate of at the top, passing through the hot water heat exchanger. The
strong solution reaching the absorber is low too. Then, the result- second, smaller stream 共state point 1h兲 flows to the absorber, pass-
ing low solution concentration in the absorber causes a reduction ing through the solution-to-solution heat exchanger. The Split ra-
in absorber performance, and leads to higher water content in the tio is defined as the flow rate of the main stream to the total
supply air. Increasing solution flow rate in the regenerator, on the desorber flow rate.
other hand, increases the system circulation losses due to the Figure 6 shows a seemingly unexpected behavior of increasing
transfer of solution from the hot desorber to the cold absorber water content in the supply air with increasing desiccant solution
through a non-ideal solution-to-solution heat exchanger. The same flow rate in the absorber. A high solution flow rate has the advan-

Fig. 5 Effect of desiccant solution flow rate in the regenerator on supply air
humidity, solution concentration at regenerator outlet and regenerator heat
duty

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 trate and store regenerated solution for operation at times of no
sun. Results of measurements while operating in this mode, con-
ducted during a five-months monitoring period over the summer
of 2003, will be reported in a later paper 关18兴.

Conclusion
Several cycle configurations of the desiccant cooling system
have been considered. Option B was found to be the most suitable
for the current application, as it utilizes best the strong points of
the desiccant system. Under this option, the solar powered desic-
cant system deals with the latent heat load, due mainly to the fresh
air, while an auxiliary electric-powered heat pump deals with the
remaining sensible load.
A parametric study was conducted to investigate the effect of
the various design parameters on performance. It was shown that
entrance conditions of the ambient air 共humidity and flow rate兲
significantly affect the heat and mass transfer occurring during the
Fig. 7 Coefficient of performance „COP… as a function of heat- dehumidification process. The effect of the ambient air tempera-
ing water temperature for three different cooling water tem- ture is rather low. The temperatures and flow rates of the heating
peratures „refÄ29.5°C, per Table 1… and cooling water and the flow rates of solution through the de-
humidifier and regenerator affect the humidity of the supply air
delivered to the conditioned space, and show an optimum in cer-
tain cases.
tage of reduced sensitivity to the temperature increase due to the The computer simulation supported by experiments has af-
heat of absorption released during the dehumidification process, firmed the system’s capability to produce a high degree of dehu-
together with good wetting of the transfer surfaces. However, low- midification. The system designed and simulated for the current
ering the temperature of this solution stream in the heat exchanger application contains a margin for future applicability to other sys-
by the cooling water becomes increasingly difficult with increas- tem loads or configurations.
ing solution flow rate. A higher solution temperature at the ab-
sorber inlet leads to higher equilibrium water content of the sup-
ply air. Acknowledgment
Lowering the split ratio increases the amount of strong solution The support provided for this work under EU contract NNE5-
transferred from the desorber to absorber. On one hand this leads 1999-00531 共ASODECO兲 is gratefully acknowledged.
to increased solution concentration in the absorber and hence to
improved dehumidification. On the other hand, increasing solution
flow rate between desorber and absorber increases the associated References
circulation losses. These two mechanisms working against each 关1兴 Grossman, G., and Johannsen, A., 1981, ‘‘Solar Cooling and Air Condition-
other are responsible for the behavior shown in Fig. 6. Increased ing,’’ Prog. Energy Combust. Sci., 7, pp. 185–228.
关2兴 Grossman, G., 2002, ‘‘Solar-powered Systems for Cooling, Dehumidification
dehumidification together with increased circulation losses related and Air-conditioning,’’ Sol. Energy, 72, pp. 53– 62.
to a higher split ratio, both lead to an increased desorber heat duty. 关3兴 Ameel, T. A., Gee, K. G., and Wood, B. D., 1995, ‘‘Performance Predictions of
Figure 7 describes the system’s coefficient of performance Alternative, Low Cost Absorbents for Open-Cycle Absorption Solar Cooling,’’
共COP兲 as a function of the heating water temperature for three Sol. Energy, 54, pp. 65–73.
关4兴 Nelson, D. J., and Wood, B. D., 1989, ‘‘Combined Heat and Mass Transfer
different cooling water temperatures. The COP is defined here as Natural Convection Between Vertical Parallel Plates,’’ Int. J. Heat Mass Trans-
the ratio of the useful dehumidification energy to the heat spent in fer, 32, pp. 1779–1787.
the desorber. The useful dehumidification energy is the product of 关5兴 Nelson, D. J., and Wood, B. D., 1989, ‘‘Fully Developed Combined Heat and
the change in humidity ratio of the process air, times the mass Mass Transfer Natural Convection Between Parallel Plates with Asymmetric
Boundary,’’ Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, 32, pp. 1789–1792.
flow rate of the process air, times the latent heat of evaporation of 关6兴 Nelson, D. J., and Wood, B. D., 1989, ‘‘Evaporation Rate Model for a Natural
the water. It was mentioned already in connection with Fig. 3 that Convection Glazed Collector/Regenerator,’’ ASME J. Sol. Energy Eng., 112,
an operating temperature of 70°C yields regenerated solution at pp. 51–57.
43%, which gives it good hygroscopic behavior while staying 关7兴 Kessling, W., 1997, ‘‘Luftentfeuchtung und Energiespeicherung mit Salzlösun-
gen in offenen Systemen,’’ Fortschritt-Bericht 509, VDI Verlag, Düsseldorf,
safely away from crystallization. Figure 7 indicates that for steady Germany.
state operation at higher temperatures the COP decreases; this is 关8兴 Kakabaev, A., Khandurdyev, A., Klyshchaeva, O., and Kurbanov, N., 1976, ‘‘A
due to increased desorber heat duty, resulting from increased cir- Large Scale Solar Air-Conditioning Pilot Plant and its Test Results,’’ Int.
culation losses 共associated with the imperfect heat transfer be- Chem. Eng., 16, pp. 60– 64.
关9兴 Kakabaev, A., Klyshchaeva, O., Khandurdyev, A., and Kurbanov, N., 1977,
tween the weak and strong solution streams兲 and mixing losses ‘‘Experience in Operation a Solar Absorption Cooling Plant with Open Solu-
共associated with the increased solution concentration兲. On the tion Regenerator,’’ Geliotekhika, 13, pp. 73–76.
other hand, at very low heating temperatures, close to that of the 关10兴 Kakabaev, A., Kurbanov, N., Klyshchaeva, O., and Redzhepov, G., 1981,
heat sink, the system continues to operate and the COP is high, ‘‘Storage of Cold in an Open-cycle Solar Absorption Cooling System,’’ Ge-
liotekhika, 17, pp. 64 – 66.
approaching unity. However, under such conditions the dehumidi- 关11兴 Collier, R. K., 1979, ‘‘The Analysis and Simulation of an Open Cycle Absorp-
fication process is very weak and the change in humidity ratio of tion Refrigeration System,’’ Sol. Energy, 23, pp. 357–366.
the process air is extremely low. These simulation results are ob- 关12兴 Haim, I., Grossman, G., and Shavit, A., 1992, ‘‘Simulation and Analysis of
tained assuming steady state operation; in practice, one can oper- Open Cycle Absorption Systems for Solar Cooling,’’ Sol. Energy, 49, pp. 515–
534.
ate for short periods of time in batch mode, without reaching 关13兴 Gandihdasan, P., and Al-Farayedhi, A., 1995, ‘‘Thermal Performance Analysis
steady state, or in regeneration mode 共where the regenerator op- of a Partly Closed-Open Solar Regenerator,’’ ASME J. Sol. Energy Eng., 117,
erates alone, without circulation to the absorber兲. Under these pp. 151–153.
conditions, the circulation and mixing losses can be reduced and a 关14兴 Gommed, K., Grossman, G., and Ziegler, F., 2002, ‘‘Experimental Investiga-
tion of a LiCl-Water Open Absorption System for Cooling and Dehumidifica-
high overall COP around 0.8 can be achieved with high regenera- tion,’’ Proceedings, the 7th International Sorption Heat Pump Conference,
tion temperatures, when available. In fact, the regeneration mode Shanghai, China, September 24 –27, pp. 391–396. Also ASME Journal of
is preferred and often used at times of high insolation, to concen- Solar Energy Engineering, May 2004 共In Press兲.

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 关15兴 Grossman, G., and Wilk, M., 1994, ‘‘Advanced Modular Simulation of Ab- chine,’’ Technology Reports of the Kansai University, Osaka, Japan, 9, pp.
sorption Systems,’’ Int. J. Refrig., 17, pp. 231–244. 71– 88.
关16兴 Grossman, G., and Zaltash, A., 2001, ‘‘ABSIM—Modular Simulation of Ad- 关18兴 Gommed, K., and Grossman, G., 2004, ‘‘Experimental Study of a Liquid Des-
vanced Absorption Systems,’’ Int. J. Refrig., 24, pp. 531–543. iccant System for Solar Cooling and Dehumidification,’’ Presented at EuroSun
关17兴 Uemura, T., 1967, ‘‘Studies on the LiCl-Water Absorption Refrigeration Ma- 2004, Freiburg, Germany, June 22–25.

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