An experimental study of a solar-regenerated liquid desiccant ventilation pre-conditioning system

A solar-regenerated liquid desiccant ventilation pre-conditioning system has been installed and experiments were carried out for a period of nine months covering rainy, cold, and hot seasons in a hot and humid climate (Thailand). A heat exchanger was used to cool the dehumidified air instead of typical evaporative cooling to maintain the dryness of the air. The use of solar energy at the regeneration process and cooling water from a cooling tower makes the system more passive. The evaporation rate at the regeneration process was always greater than the moisture removal rate at the dehumidification process indicating that the concentration of the desiccant in the system would not decrease and so the performance would not drop during continuous operation. The system could reduce the temperature of the delivered air by about 1.2 °C while the humidity ratio was reduced by 0.0042 kgw/kgda equivalent to 11.1% relative humidity reduction. The experimental results were also compared with models in literature.