An experimental investigation on solar powered solid desiccant air conditioning (SPSDAC) based on regenerative evaporative cooling system with PCM unit

ABSTRACT

A solar powered solid desiccant air conditioning (SPSDAC) with PCM unit was explored for cooling purposes for the duration of sunlight and sunset hours. Two unique modes of the indirect evaporative cooler (IEC) was adopted during the operation of the SPSDAC. During mode-1, the water circulated through the copper coil and annular space of the hollow circular pipe was vacant. Whereas in mode-2, the water circulates through copper coil and annular space. It was concluded that COP of the system is more than the exergy efficiency and exergy efficiency varied from 1.83% to 1.99%. The desiccant wheel thermal effectiveness (28.81% and 46.06%) is lower than the indirect and direct evaporative cooler effectiveness. The setup under mode-2 is advantageous as compared to mode-1. The pay back time of the setup is 23.2 months. The mean overall thermal storage capacity of the system in mode-1 is 1796.1 W whereas in mode-2 is 1817.7 W.

KEYWORDS:

• Solar air heater
• evacuated tube
• PCM
• desiccant wheel
• direct evaporative cooler
• indirect evaporative cooler

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.