Solar-desiccant air-conditioning systems - Solar Energy Sciences and Engineering Applications - page 536

Figure 16.5.11 Schematic of the solar-regenerated open-cycle liquid desiccant air-conditioning system
installed at Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) (Katejanekarn et al., 2009).
16.6 FUTURE AND PERSPECTIVES
Thermally operated desiccant-based air-conditioning technologies are being conceptu-
alized as alternative devices for the control of air temperature and moisture content
in artificially controlled indoor environments. The aim of these technologies is leave
the general environmental conditions unaffected while controlling the indoor envi-
ronment. Within this set-up there is potential for the utilization of clean energies
converted to thermal energy, as well as the use of clean and environmentally friendly
substances.
The technology has potential for industrial, commercial and residential sector
applications so as to provide comfortable artificially controlled indoor environmental
conditions. To achieve this potential the technology must be properly developed and
redesigned for practical application. Several studies have considered how the technol-
ogy may be modified, for example in size reduction, and practically applied. Internal
scrutiny of is important to evaluate the behaviour of the technology. Aside for the
internal study of the system, the external factors affecting the processes, such as ther-
mal energy sources and how it will be properly coupled to the technology to make it
economical and easily maintained, are important when applied in real situations.
The desiccant-based air-conditioning technology operated thermally utilizes the
capability of desiccant material in controlling air moisture content. As the process is
a physical or chemical phenomenon, the uptake of moisture does not require energy
and, thus, the process is a natural one. The material needs a continuous re-sorption of
moisture, either by pressure or temperature variation, to remove the uptake moisture
in the material. The process is already utilized in chemical processes and industrial