Development of solid desiccant dehumidification using electro-osmosis regeneration method for HVAC application

In this paper a novel method of electro-osmosis (EO) based regeneration for solid desiccant is reported, and the potential of the method for application in HVAC particularly for dehumidification process in air conditioning system is discussed. The results of the measurement of water removal rate inside solid desiccant array show that the mass flow rate of EO driven mass flow is achievable at 0.953 g m2 s−1 with 20 V DC voltage on the installed electrodes. By comparing the theoretical and experimental results, the current limitations of theory and experimental apparatus were explored. The experimental results show that the energy consumption in EO integrated air conditioning system is averagely 23.3% lower than the conventional air conditioning system in respect of the different configurations in air handling process. In the case study, among the three potential locations for EO device, the position in Point C is the best choice with an ideal COP of 12.

► Synthetic Zeolite powder as desiccant in electro-osmotic dehumidification.
► Low threshold of DC power supply achieved to regenerate the desiccant.
► 0.953 g m2 s−1 flow rate achieved with 20 V DC voltage on the installed.
► A total of 23.3% lower than conventional air conditioning system with COP = 12 was calculated.