Performance of an adiabatic cross-flow liquid-desiccant absorber inside a refrigerated warehouse

Liquid-desiccant systems have been extensively studied as a way of reducing the latent load on air conditioning systems. Most of the studies have targeted the removal of moisture from air at ambient conditions. The literature about the use of liquid desiccants in low temperature applications is scarce. In this study, a small-scale liquid-desiccant absorber is installed inside a commercial refrigerated warehouse. Its performance under realistic operating conditions inside a pre-cooling room is analyzed. The results show that the dew point temperature of the air downstream of the absorber is comparable to the evaporator surface temperature suggesting the potential to delay the formation of ice on the cooling coil. An internal heat exchanger is used to lower the temperature of the inlet liquid-desiccant flow to the absorber and the regeneration process is performed using only ambient air. The analysis of the reduction in water and energy consumption for a scaled-up system is also performed.