PERFORMANCE OF A FLAT PLATE COLLECTOR-REGENERATOR THAT USES EARTH-TO-AIR HEAT EXCHANGERS FOR REGENERATION OF WATER-LITHIUM CHLORIDE SOLUTION IN A SOLAR COOLING PLANT

Earth-to-air heat exchangers (EAHEs) employ the ground as a cold source to cool the supply air of environments in the summer period. If the outside air can be dehumidified in the EAHEs, we obtain a further benefit when used in a solar cooling plant, in which a flat plate collector operates as a regenerator for the liquid desiccant diluted solution. The diluted solution comes from a conditioner that uses the desiccant solution to dehumidify the external air flow rate requested in the air conditioned environments. By means of a calculation model, implemented in a numerical simulation code that describes the conditioner and collector-regenerator behavior, the improvements in performances obtained by dehumidification of the air flow rate used in the solar regenerator (coupled with the EAHEs) are evaluated. In any case, a further benefit is available to cool the outdoor air in a plate heat exchanger using the cooled air at the outlet of the EAHEs.