Desiccant-Humidifier Cycle Refrigeration

Basics

• A type of Refrigeration Cycle that uses a combination of evaporative cooling (endothermic cool end), and dehumidification via dessicant(s) (exothermic hot end) to pump heat
• Can be used for Solar Air Conditioning
• Is also advantagous in it's design, and material simplicity

Plotting

• Should the columns be randomly packed, packed, spray, or some hybrid
• Little info on water evaporation (That User:Eric has found so far )
• A Whitepaper on CO2 Scrubber Tower Design (this was for co2 scrubbing via amonia absorbtion but compared the Spray Towers and Packed Columns)

Process

Evaporative Cooling Collumn

• Room Temperature air is pushed in to a counter flow water sprayer collumn with mesh/bioballs
• The water evaporates and cools the air (at the cost of increased humidity)
• It is then sent to the Dessication Collumn

Dessication Collumn

• This works in a similar manner as the Evaporative Column, but it has the opposite goal, Dessication of the Air Stream
• It does this via a dessicant, most likely a Liquid Dessicant, due to ease of operation
• Produces Fully Dry Air, and Saturated Dessicant via Liquid Dessicant
• Make an identical unit to the Evaporative Cooling Collumn, and replace the water with ?percent concentrated calcium chloride solution
• Air sent to Humidity Control Collumn (Optional), Liquid Dessicant sent to Regenerator

Humidity Control Collumn

• This takes the Fully Dry Air, and brings the humidity up to comfortable levels
• It can use OTS humidifiers, or be a smaller version of the Evaporative Cooling Collumn
• This stage is OPTIONAL

Dessicant Regeneration Module

• This is a module where the Saturated Liquid Dessicant is Heated to Concentrate it and thus regenenerate it.
• Passive solar is promising, but any heat source will do
• Also heat exchangers that utilize waste heat from the process for regeneration may improve efficiency further

Open Source Designs

• A design by the youtube channel "Tech Ingredients"

OSE Design

• Open Source Dessicant-Humidifier Cycle Based Liquid Chiller (Used with a Hydronic Cooling system, or just a spray tower for the air?)

Internal Links

• Liquid Dessicants

External Links

• The Wikipedia Page on Solar open-loop air conditioning using desiccants
• A video on a design by the youtube channel "Tech Ingredients"