Abstract:
In the perspective to protect the environment and to reduce building energy consumption,
solar desiccant cooling appears as an alternative to vapour compression systems with high
energy consumption and important environmental impact. The understanding of this
technology has to be refined through experimental study by setting up pilot plants. This study is a practical method to gain experience by analyzing all the processes behind solar cooling
technology.
In this work we have conducted an experimental and numerical investigation of a desiccant
plant powered by solar vacuum tube collectors. Experimental results showed a high potential
COP(th) and the possibility to proceed exclusively by solar energy with a high efficiency of
the solar installation. The developed models of the installation components were implemented
in the oriented object simulation environment TRNSYS and the comparison between the
numerical and the experimental results showed good accuracy. The investigation of solar
energy in the desiccant process showed that vacuum tube collectors have a good solar fraction and an overall efficiency of à 0,5.
