Performance analysis of a new desiccant pre-treatment electrodialysis regeneration system for liquid desiccant

Liquid desiccant air-conditioning system (LDAS) is a novel air-conditioner with good energy saving potential. As a renewable energy, solar thermal energy (TH) can be used to regenerate desiccant for LDAS. One problem of the solar regeneration system is that solar energy will depend on weather conditions, which means that the solar regeneration system cannot meet the dehumidification requirements all the time. In this paper, a new desiccant pre-treatment electrodialysis (ED) regeneration system is proposed in order to improve the reliability and the performance of solar desiccant regeneration system for LDAS. The new system makes comprehensively use of solar energy and can work reliably under the variable conditions. Moreover, the new system can be used in the deep dehumidification field, which is required in industrial air-conditioning. Analysis of the new system, the solar TH regeneration system and the PV-ED regeneration system is made and the results reveal that the new system will be more energy efficient than others under the ideal operational condition. Among all factors, the most influential one is the concentration of desiccant at the entrance of concentrate cells in the ED regenerator, and the new system should be running under the ideal operational condition as possible.