Dynamic simulation and parametric analysis of solar assisted desiccant cooling system with three configuration schemes

Abstract Evaporative cooling of the dehumidified air in a desiccant cooling system with the aid of solar energy is an attractive energy saving option to cool the process air for air conditioning purposes. This paper is concerned with the dynamic simulation and performance analysis of three configuration schemes of a solar-based ventilation mode desiccant cooling system energized by a photovoltaic-thermal (PV/T) solar collector for the weather conditions of Lahore (31.52°N, 74.36°E). In configuration-1 (C-1), the auxiliary heater is installed in the air conditioning loop to heat the return air up to the desired regeneration temperature. In configuration-2 (C-2), the auxiliary heater is installed in the solar heating loop to raise the temperature of the liquid water to a certain elevated temperature. The configuration-3 (C-3) is similar to C-2 except there are no evaporative coolers and all the cooling is achieved via conventional vapor compression chiller. The primary energy savings, solar fraction, and the thermal efficiency of the solar collector are the energetic performance parameters which are used to compare the performance of three configuration schemes and to analyze the influence of various parameters such as regeneration temperature, solar collector size and tilt, flow rates, and storage volume. The simulation results demonstrated that the C-1 scheme performs best in terms of solar fraction and primary energy savings while C-3 schematic resulted in the least values of primary energy savings.