Thermodynamic Analysis of a Hybrid System Coupled Cooling, Heating and Liquid Dehumidification Powered by Geothermal Energy

Abstract

The utilization of geothermal energy is favorable for the improvement of energy efficiency. A hybrid system consisting of a seasonal heating and cooling cycle, an absorption refrigeration cycle and a liquid dehumidification cycle is proposed to meet dehumidification, space cooling and space heating demands. Geothermal energy is utilized effectively in a cascade approach. Six performance indicators, including humidity efficiency, enthalpy efficiency, moisture removal rate, coefficient of performance, cooling capacity, and heating capacity, are developed to analyze the proposed system. The effect of key design parameters in terms of desiccant concentration, air humidity, air temperature, refrigeration temperature and segment temperature on the performance indicators are investigated. The simulation results indicated that the increase of the desiccant concentration makes the enthalpy efficiency, the coefficient of performance, the moisture removal rate and the cooling capacity increase and makes the humidity efficiency decrease. With the increase of air humidity, the humidity efficiency and moisture removal rate for the segment temperatures from 100 to 130 °C are approximately invariant. The decreasing rates of the humidity efficiency and the moisture removal rate with the segment temperature of 140 °C increases respectively. Six indicators, except the cooling capacity and heating capacity, decrease with an increase of air temperature. The heating capacity decreases by 49.88% with the reinjection temperature increasing from 70 to 80 °C. This work proposed a potential system to utilize geothermal for the dehumidification, space cooling and space heating effectively.

Keywords

• geothermal energy
• absorption refrigeration cycle
• liquid dehumidification cycle
• seasonal heating and cooling cycle
• enthalpy efficiency