Study of solar regenerated membrane desiccant system to control humidity and decrease energy consumption in office spaces

This paper investigates the feasibility of using a solar regenerated liquid desiccant membrane system to remove humidity from an office space. While conventional vapor compression cycles dehumidify the air before supplying it to the indoor space, through using sub cool–reheat process, the proposed cycle absorbs the humidity directly from indoor space through the dehumidifier. The dehumidifier consists of a set of permeable vertical tubes placed in the indoor space with liquid desiccant flowing through them. Solar energy is used as the source of thermal energy required for the regeneration of the desiccant and sea water is used as heat sink to provide the cooling needs of the liquid desiccant.