Ruzhu Wang, People's Republic of China has been granted the Gustav Lorentzen Medal
Highly efficient heat pump with desiccant coated evaporator and condenser: Principle and application
Ruzhu WANG1, Lingji HUA1, Tianshu GE1, Yaodong TU1, Xiangyu SUN1.
1Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
Nowadays, comfortable and efficient heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in buildings are highly desirable. Traditional vapor-compression devices exhibit a low coefficient of performance (COP) (typically 2.8–3.6) due to the cooling-based dehumidification. Temperature-and humidity-independent control (THIC) systems have been proposed to overcome the challenges; however, their COP is hindered by the sorption heat effect. Here, we report on a solid desiccant heat pump (SDHP) based on desiccant coated evaporators/condensers (DCEs/DCCs). The desiccants adsorb moisture almost isothermally and can be regenerated by the condensation heat. With the optimized refrigerant and desiccant, our proposed DCCs/DCEs feature a weakly-coupled heat and mass transfer. The system exhibits a COP of 6~7, doubling the efficiency of heat pumps currently used in household, which opens a window for the future development of HVAC systems and also a broad range of THIC applications.