The treatment of humidity on HVAC systems is crucial when a satisfactory indoor air quality needs to
be reached. Traditional HVAC systems meet the latent cooling load by reducing the air temperature
until its dew point, heating subsequently the air in order to reach the supply temperature for user
comfort, with the energy waste this entails. On the other hand desiccant wheels requires normally an
excessive post-cooling because of employed regeneration temperatures of around 70-80 ºC.
In this paper the design and simulation models and testing results at laboratory scale of a hybrid liquid
desiccant system (HLDS), developed in the frame of the EU project nanoCOOl, are presented. The
HLDS is especially suited for applications with a low SHR (Sensible Heat ratio) and high ventilation
requirements in tropical or subtropical climates.
The aim of the project is to validate the developed technology for a good indoor environment quality,
achieving the required ventilation needs, a good occupant comfort by the treatment of temperature and
humidity to reach comfort conditions, avoiding the generation of moulds and microbial growth due to
the antimicrobial properties of the LiCl.
Detailed models of the HLDS components have been implemented in Engineering Equation Solver
(EES) [1], and the whole model of the prototype has been developed, as well. The key parameters for
the simulated HLDS, H&MTC (Heat&Mass transfer coefficients) have been experimentally obtained,
testing the proof of concept absorber /regenerator in a test bench specially developed at laboratory
scale[2]. The obtained values are in agreement with the correlations proposed by Bykov [3] (HTC)
and Queiroz [4] (MTC).The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh
Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 under grant agreement n° 314701 (Nanocool project)
