Desiccant-Based Air Handling Unit Alternatively Equipped with Three Hygroscopic Materials and Driven by Solar Energy

Piero Bareschino, Francesco Pepe, Carlo Roselli, Maurizio Sasso and Francesco Tariello
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Piero Bareschino: Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi del Sannio, Piazza Roma 21, 82100 Benevento, Italy
Francesco Pepe: Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi del Sannio, Piazza Roma 21, 82100 Benevento, Italy
Carlo Roselli: Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi del Sannio, Piazza Roma 21, 82100 Benevento, Italy
Maurizio Sasso: Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi del Sannio, Piazza Roma 21, 82100 Benevento, Italy
Francesco Tariello: Dipartimento di Medicina e Scienze della Salute “Vincenzo Tiberio”, Università degli Studi del Molise, 86100 Campobasso, Italy

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-20

Abstract: The energy demand for the air-conditioning of buildings has shown a very significant growth trend in the last two decades. In this paper three alternative hygroscopic materials for desiccant wheels are compared considering the operation of the air handling unit they are installed in. The analyses are performed by means of the TRNSYS 17 ® software, simulating the plant with the desiccant wheel made of: silica-gel, i.e., the filling actually used in the experimental plant desiccant wheel of the University of Sannio Laboratory; MIL101@GO-6 (MILGO), a composite material, consisting of graphite oxide dispersed in a MIL101 metal organic framework structure; Campanian Ignimbrite, a naturally occurring tuff, rich in phillipsite and chabazite zeolites, widespread in the Campania region, in Southern Italy. The air-conditioning system analyzed serves a university classroom located in Benevento, and it is activated by the thermal energy of a solar field for which three surfaces are considered: about 20, 27 and 34 m 2 . The results demonstrate that a primary energy saving of about 20%, 29%, 15% can be reached with silica-gel, MILGO and zeolite-rich tuff desiccant wheel based air handling units, respectively.

Keywords: desiccant wheel; solar heating and cooling; hygroscopic materials; dynamic simulations; energy and environmental analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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