Comparison of performance of desiccant air handling unit with solar thermal system under various control methods

Abstract

In hot and humid summer as in Japan, dehumidification is important process for air conditioning. Desiccant air handling unit is one of the major system for dehumidification in which absorbent or sorbent absorbs moisture in the air and hot heat source is required in order to regenerate them. In order to use solar thermal energy efficiently, flexible control, which controls the distribution of the dehumidification at pre-cooling coil and dehumidification wheel, is proposed and analysed its performance through simulation. Simulation results show that supply absolute humidity fulfils the set point even when solar thermal energy is not supplied to regenerating coil under flexible control. On the other hand, system with conventional fixed control can not fulfil the set absolute humidity when solar thermal energy is not supplied. The unprocessed latent heat load is around 49kW, which results in higher relative humidity around 56.5%. Solar thermal energy supplied to regenerating coil under flexible control is larger than fixed control.