Experimental Analysis on Solid Desiccant Used in An Air Conditioning

¹ Mechanical Engineering Department, Petra Christian University, Jl. Siwalankerto No.121–131 Surabaya 60236, Indonesia
² CNRS International NTU Thales Research Alliance (CINTRA), Research Techno Plaza, 50 Nanyang Drive, Border X Block 637553, Singapore

^* Corresponding author: ekadewi@petra.ac.id

Abstract

Garden by The Bay in Singapore is the world’s largest coolest conservatories. Although it is located in tropics and uses so many glasses, its electricity consumption is as much as a commercial building. The key to this low consumption is in air cooling technology. Air used for cooling the conservatories is dehumidified first using liquid desiccants before cooled. The same technology was implemented to a single-split air conditioner (AC) that works on a vapor-compression refrigeration cycle. The experiments were conducted in a room with opened and closed door. Instead of using a liquid desiccant, the experiment used a solid desiccant, i.e., silica gel which thickness was 6 mm and 8 mm with density equals to 1.27 gr cm–3. From the experiment, it is found that: (i) the thicker the silica gel, the higher outlet air temperature from silica gel, (ii) less condensate will be produced when the silica gel used is thicker, (iii) silica gel is suitable for reducing humidity of outdoor/fresh air, and (iv) the electricity consumption saving for inserting 8 mm silica gel is only 4 % when the door is closed and 31 % when the door is opened.