Utilisation of ultra-low grade waste heat from vc (vapour compression) cycle for LDAC application

• Main Author: Muhammad Fazil Kamis
• Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Alternative, renewable energy sources
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/60930
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The report describes the comparison of the conventional air conditioning system against that of liquid desiccant air conditioning (LDAC) system. For the past recent years, LDAC has been the main focus of most research efforts due to its advantages in utilising low grade waste heat as its main driving energy. A comparison between the various types and forms of liquid desiccants was mode to determine the most suitable and efficient desiccant for the dehumidification process. Lithium chloride, although corrosive, is the most common desiccant solution used in LDAC. The implementation of plastic plate heat exchanger aids to overcome the main disadvantage of LiCl. Following which, the values obtained for the heat transfer coefficient of the plastic plate heat exchanger will be used in the simulation program “TRNSYS”. This project is based mainly on a simulation which integrates a liquid desiccant dehumidifying system with an existing vapour compression system in the context of Singapore's climate. The simulation software named “TRNSYS” is then used to simulate the model setup in this project and determine the optimal value for the operating parameters. The obtained results are based on several assumptions and references made on the power ratings of the component used throughout the simulation. The results for the hybrid system proves to be energy efficient as the amount of energy saved from the cooling coil load is 44.2% and 25.6% is saved from the VCS as compared to the conventional system.