Experimental Evaluation of a Falling Film Liquid Desiccant Cooling System with Solar Assistance

The need to maintain human thermal comfort and the current air-conditioning systems’ high-power consumption has led researchers to search for an alternate dehumidification solution. The liquid desiccant dehumidification system has emerged as one of the promising alternatives as a long-term renewable and power-efficient technology because of its effective humidity-controlling capacity. The dehumidifier and regenerator are the primary components of the liquid desiccant cooling system. In the current study, the experimental analysis is performed on solar-assisted falling film liquid desiccant cooling system using CaCl2 solution as a liquid desiccant. The regenerator of the current study is using hot water from the marquise-shaped flat-plate collector to regenerate the diluted solution. The performance parameters for the current system are dehumidification rate and cooling capacity, and performance is evaluated by altering the solution volume flow rate and solution concentration. According to experimental results, the dehumidification rate and cooling capacity are shown to rise with increasing solution volume flow rate and solution concentration, and the maximum dehumidification rate and cooling capacity are achieved at 12.5 LPM solution volume flow rate and 37% solution concentration.