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Approximately two billion people worldwide lack access to clean drinking water, negatively impacting national security, hygiene, and agriculture. Atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) is the conversion of ambient humidity into clean water; however, conventional dehumidification is energy-intensive. Improvement in AWH may be achieved with elastocaloric cooling, using temperature-sensitive materials in active thermoregulation. Potential benefits, compared to conventional desiccant wheel designs, include substantial reductions in energy use, size, and complexity. A nickel–titanium (NiTi) elastocaloric water harvester was designed and compared with a desiccant wheel design under controlled conditions of relative humidity, air volume, and power. In a 30 min interval, the NiTi device harvested more water on average at 0.18 ± 0.027 mL/WH, compared to the 0.1567 ± 0.023 mL/WH of the desiccant wheel harvester. Moreover, the NiTi harvester required half the power input and was thermoregulated more efficiently. Future work will focus on mechanical design parameter optimization. Elastocaloric cooling is a promising advancement in dehumidification, making AWH more economical and feasible.

To effectively reduce building energy consumption, a novel full fresh air system with a heat source tower (HST) and a borehole heat exchanger (BHE) was proposed for space cooling and dehumidification in this paper. The cooling system only adopts geothermal energy to produce dry and cold fresh air for space cooling and dehumidification through the BHE and HST, which has the advantage of non-condensate water compared to BHE systems integrated with a fan coil or chilled beam. Based on the established mathematical model of the cooling system, this paper analyzed the system characteristics, feasibility, operation strategy, energy performance, and cost-effectiveness of the proposed model in detail. The results show that the mathematical model has less than 10% error in estimating the system performance compared to the practical HST–BHE experimental set up. Under the specific boundary conditions, the cooling and dehumidification capacity of this system increases with the decrease in the air temperature, air moisture content, and inlet water temperature of the HST. The optimal cooling capacity and the system COP can be achieved when the air–water flow ratio is at 4:3. A case study was conducted in a residential building in Shenyang with an area of about 1800 m2. It was found that this system can fully meet the cooling and dehumidification demand in such a residential building. The operation strategy of the cooling system can be optimized by adjusting the air–water flow ratio from 4:3 to 3:2 during the early cooling season (7 June–1 July) and end cooling season (3 August–1 September). As a result, the average COP of the cooling system during the whole cooling season can be improved from 6.1 to 8.7. Compared with the air source heat pump (ASHP) and the ground source heat pump (GSHP) for space cooling, the proposed cooling system can achieve an energy saving rate of 123% and 26%, respectively. Considering that the BHE of the GSHP can be part of the proposed HST–BHE cooling system, the integration of the HST and GHSP for space cooling (and heating) is strongly recommended in actual applications.

Photovoltaic thermal (PVT) systems are attracting a significant amount of attention in research because they can generate electricity outside of daytime hours, unlike photovoltaic (PV) systems, and can increase efficiency and collect additional energy by reducing the temperature of PVT panels. However, a somewhat lower amount of collected energy is used in the summer than in the winter, and research on this issue is lacking. In this study, first, we experimentally evaluated the performance of PV and PVT systems by season and verified the improvement in the performance of the PVT system. Second, experiments were conducted to verify the enthalpy reduction via mist cooling and dehumidification, and the temperature and humidity control effect via mist cooling and dehumidification was verified. Based on our research findings, we propose a model that can be integrated with indoor ventilation systems to increase the solar energy utilization of PVT systems. Using the PVT system, we improved the panel power generation efficiency by up to 5.89% and generated up to a 38.0% higher collection efficiency than that of the PV system. The air that passed through the PVT system was then subjected to mist cooling and dehumidification to reduce its temperature and increase its humidity, resulting in a 23.2% reduction in enthalpy.

The cable room, located at the base of the ring main unit, is prone to water vapor due to its proximity to damp cable holes and its relatively enclosed structure. This may penetrate internally and ultimately affect operational safety. Therefore, a dehumidifier was introduced to utilize dry air for internal circulation. To enhance the dehumidification in the cable room, the cable room device was designed for experimental research. Meanwhile, computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-electromagnetic (EMAG) coupling simulation is used to calculate the power loss of heat sources and their influence on multiple physical fields in numerical simulations. The feasibility of this study was confirmed by comparing the relative humidity, temperature, and velocity values between the experimental and numerical approaches. Furthermore, the layout of the ventilation pipes was modified to a vertical distribution, with upward supply and downward suction, to improve the airflow. The results indicate that the maximum relative errors in temperature, relative humidity, and velocity are only 3.61%, 7.14%, and 7.14%, respectively, which fall within an acceptable range. On this basis, additional simulation analysis was conducted on the humidity, dew point temperature, and airflow within the cable room, using an optimized model with a more comprehensive internal structure and cables. After implementing an optimized ventilation pipe layout, the relative humidity at the corresponding measuring points can decrease by up to 10.6%. The dew point temperature has decreased by 2.61 °C and the airflow has become more stable.

The water sorption and desorption properties of solid adsorbent materials are crucial in rotary dehumidification systems. Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) and hydrogels are mostly at the laboratory stage due to factors like the synthesis process and yield. In this study, we utilized an eco-friendly and large-scale synthesis method to prepare polyacrylamide (PAM) hydrogels (yielding approximately 500 mL from a single polymerization). Subsequently, PAM was then coated onto glass fiber paper (GFP), which serves as a commonly employed substrate in desiccant wheels. By incorporating the hygroscopic salt LiCl and optimizing the content of each component, the water sorption performance of the composite was notably improved. The water sorption and desorption performances, as well as cycling stability, were evaluated and compared with composites containing aluminum fumarate, LiCl, and GFP (AlFum-LiCl&GFP). The results revealed that PAM-LiCl&GFP outperformed AlFum-LiCl&GFP in terms of sorption capacity throughout various relative humidity (RH) levels. It achieved a water uptake of 1.06 g·g−1 at 25 °C and 30% RH, corresponding to a water sorption rate coefficient K of 15.32 × 10−4 s−1. Furthermore, the lower desorption temperature (60 °C) resulting in a desorption ratio of 82.6%, along with the excellent cycling stability and effective performance as a desiccant wheel module, provide evidence for the potential application of PAM-LiCl&GFP in desiccant wheels.

Residential and commercial buildings are responsible for over 30% of global final energy consumption and accounts for ~40% of annual direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions. Energy efficient and sustainable technologies are necessary to not only lower the energy footprint but also lower the environmental burden. Many proven and emerging technologies are being pursued to meet the ever-increasing energy demand. Catalytic science has a significant new role to play in helping address sustainable energy challenges, particularly in buildings, compared to transportation and industrial sectors. Thermally driven heat pumps, dehumidification, cogeneration, thermal energy storage, carbon capture and utilization, emissions suppression, waste-to-energy conversion, and corrosion prevention technologies can tap into the advantages of catalytic science in realizing the full potential of such approaches, quickly, efficiently, and reliably. Catalysts can help increase energy conversion efficiency in building related technologies but must utilize low cost, easily available and easy-to-manufacture materials for large scale deployment. This entry presents a comprehensive overview of the impact of each building technology area on energy demand and environmental burden, state-of-the-art of catalytic solutions, research, and development opportunities for catalysis in building technologies, while identifying requirements, opportunities, and challenges.

The different adsorption applications require the development of sorbents with predetermined properties. One of the ways for fine tuning the adsorption properties of the material is using a binary salt system as an active sorbing component. The aim of this work is to conduct a precision investigation of thermodynamic data on the sorption equilibrium of composite sorbents “(CaCl2 + CaBr2) confined to the silica gel pores” with water vapour. The isotherms and isosteres (at an uptake of N = 1.5 and 3.6 mole/mole) of water sorption on the composites were measured. It was shown that at a fixed temperature, the composites based on solid solutions of CaCl2 in CaBr2 form complexes with water at a pressure that is dependent on the CaCl2/CaBr2 molar ratio. The isosteric enthalpy and entropy of water sorption (ΔH = −48 ± 3 kJ/mol ΔS = −108 ± 2 J/(mol·K)) at N = 3.6 mole/mole were midway between the same parameters for composites on the base of the pure salts CaCl2 and CaBr2. The novelty of this work is in the design of sorbents optimized for air conditioning in hot climates and air drying cycles. It was shown that the use of the binary CaCl2 + CaBr2 system confined to the silica pores can be an effective tool for designing innovative materials with predetermined properties.

In the current context of joint efforts towards the decarbonisation of buildings, integrating occupants’ comfort and health with latest technological advancements for energy efficiency is at the center of the latest development of research, policies and professional practice. Radiant systems are encountering great success since the low-thickness systems can also be used in renovation projects for both heating and cooling, while guaranteeing optimal comfort. However, dehumidification is often required for optimal radiant cooling operation with no condensation risks, and the great potential of mechanical ventilation systems to optimally address the needs for dehumidification, air renewal, health and energy efficiency appears to be far from its full exploitation in the post-COVID-19 era. The present paper aims at providing a quantification of the energy and financial impacts of the implementation of a controlled mechanical ventilation system (CMV) coupled to a radiant system in a typical residential case study building in Italy. The results show that the sole CMV may decrease primary energy demand and energy costs by more than 30% and contribute to an increase in the smart readiness of the building by 8%, but further incentive policies must be developed to cover the still high investment and maintenance cost.

Indoor comfort has become a major factor with advancements in science and technology. This also leads to an increase in greenhouse gases as well as energy consumption. Desiccant-coated heat exchangers are one of the common solutions to these risks and to lower energy usage. In the present work, the capability of a solid composite desiccant blend prepared from coconut shell-based activated carbon and bio char was studied. Aluminum plates have been coated with the prepared solid desiccants. Desiccant-coated heat exchangers were cooled by the cerium oxide nanofluid passing through the pipes connected along the length of the heat exchanger. Air was blown through the plates where dehumidification occurs due to the vapor pressure difference between the air and the desiccant-coated plate. The experiments were conducted by varying the air velocity, water flow rate, and nanoparticle concentration. The nanoparticle volume fraction varied from 0.05% to 0.3%. Different performance parameters such as the moisture removal rate, dehumidification efficiency, cooling capacity, and coefficient of performance (COP) were calculated. Results showed that the performance parameters were enhanced with an increase in the water flow rate as well as the air flow rate. Furthermore, it was seen that with the addition and increase in nanoparticle concentration, the moisture removal rate and dehumidification efficiency were enhanced. In comparison to no addition of nanoparticles, a 0.3% addition of nanoparticles demonstrated a maximum increase in MRR of 53% and dehumidification efficiency of 57%. A maximum reduction of 6.1% in the dehumidification area was achieved by using 0.3% nanoparticles with water. It is recommended to use nanofluids for dehumidification using solid desiccants, which can enhance the performance without having negative influence on the environment.

Graphene oxide (GO) has attracted attention as an excellent membrane material for water treatment and desalination owing to its high mechanical strength, hydrophilicity, and permeability. In this study, composite membranes were prepared by coating GO on various polymeric porous substrates (polyethersulfone, cellulose ester, and polytetrafluoroethylene) using suction filtration and casting methods. The composite membranes were used for dehumidification, that is, water vapor separation in the gas phase. GO layers were successfully prepared via filtration rather than casting, irrespective of the type of polymeric substrate used. The dehumidification composite membranes with a GO layer thickness of less than 100 nm showed a water permeance greater than 1.0 × 10−6 mol/(m2 s Pa) and a H2O/N2 separation factor higher than 104 at 25 °C and 90–100% humidity. The GO composite membranes were fabricated in a reproducible manner and showed stable performance as a function of time. Furthermore, the membranes maintained high permeance and selectivity at 80°C, indicating that it is useful as a water vapor separation membrane.

In this study, a lumped parameter model, developed and extensively validated by the authors, is used to simulate the impact of three different dehumidification technologies (mechanical refrigeration dehumidifier, liquid desiccant dehumidifier, and a heat recovery ventilation unit), at a commercial greenhouse growing potted roses in southwestern Ontario, Canada. Typical meteorological year (TMY) data from nearby Vineland, Ontario was used to provide the external weather data used in the model. Each greenhouse bay containing a dehumidification unit was simulated for spring, fall, and winter conditions. The potential reductions in energy use (kWh), greenhouse gas emissions (kg CO2e), and operating cost were estimated for each test case. The potential energy savings from switching from high-pressure sodium (HPS) to light-emitting diode (LED) lights were also examined. The simulation results showed that switching to LED lamps could reduce the electrical energy usage by up to 60% but would increase the space heating requirements. The expected energy-savings from using dehumidification equipment and switching from HPS to LED lighting in Canadian greenhouses is underrepresented in the literature. With the industry growing in the region, this study provides insight into the expected impact that these systems will have on the energy use in commercial greenhouses.

In this paper, the use of Metal-Organic Framework (MOF) materials as an option for the energy efficiency enhancement of HVAC systems is investigated. In particular, the possibility of using MOFs as dehumidifying materials to reduce the latent load associated with the moisture content of the airflows is studied. A literature review is proposed, highlighting the benefits of using MOFs instead of other adsorbents (e.g., silica-gel) and discussing the unique features (high water uptake capacity and low regeneration temperatures) that make MOFs a preferential desiccant. The possibility to finely tune these properties is also underlined, reporting some explicative examples. A theoretical proposal of a psychrometric transformation, to be performed in a HVAC system equipped with a MOF-Assisted Dehumidifier (MAD), is presented. This transformation is compared with a traditional one (cooling and dehumidification operated by a cooling coil with low temperatures of the coolant). The preliminary numerical simulations, conducted on a reference case study in Florence, Italy, show an estimated energy saving of 30–50%, leading us to consider the use of this technology as a very competitive one in the air-conditioning sector.

Maintaining mechanical ventilation has been identified as a potential strategy for reducing the risk of virus infections. However, in hot and humid climatic conditions, delivering fresh air to a building comes at an energy cost and could impact occupant comfort due to the persistent need for simultaneous cooling and dehumidification. In this paper, the performance of a novel hybrid air conditioning system that handles fresh air is studied. In this system, dehumidification is accomplished by a solid desiccant dehumidifier coupled with a cooling coil integrated with the cooling tower of an existing chiller system. Using the data available from an operational desiccant cooling system, a system-level model has been developed and validated to study the potential application of the system in hot and humid climates. The study found that such a system is effective in delivering sensible cooling in all types of climates; thanks to the two-stage cooling in cooling coil and chilled water coils, respectively. However, the system is effective in delivering thermal comfort in regions where the climate has a relatively moderate ambient humidity. For the tropical cities of Darwin, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok, the system can provide comfortable temperatures, but faces challenges in keeping the humidity within the comfort zone. The system electrical coefficient of performance (COP) is higher than that of refrigerative systems. This system also has the benefit over the refrigerative system of the supply air, which is entirely fresh ambient air and is expected to improve the indoor environmental quality largely.

The current standard of residential buildings is based on well-insulated and airtight construction as an effective way to reduce primary energy consumption. On the other hand, this intensifies the issue of the indoor air quality. In this paper, the applicability of a hybrid dehumidification/evaporative cooling system for the processing and supply of fresh air is evaluated. The proposed novel system employs cross-flow hollow-fiber membrane modules. To provide a better insight into this novel approach, the system’s performance is numerically investigated using a validated mathematical model. The proposed fresh air processing system provides supply air parameters in or close to the summer comfort range. The analyzed system is characterized by a high coefficient of performance (COP) of up to 33.2 at an outdoor air temperature in the range of 30 °C to 38 °C and a humidity ratio in the range of 8 g/kg to 14 g/kg. Moreover, a temperature difference of up to 9.7 °C can be obtained after the two-stage membrane processing and the mixing process.

In this study, we report the influence of carbon-based spacer-oxidized derivatives of fullerenes (fullerenols) C60(OH)26–32 and graphene oxide nanoribbons on the performance and pressure stability of graphene-oxide-based composite membranes. The impact of the intercalant shape and composition on the permeance of the selective layers for water vapors has been studied under pressure gradients. It is shown that the insertion of ball-shaped fullerenols between graphene oxide nanoflakes allows a suppression in irreversible permeance loss to 2–4.5% and reversible permeance loss to 2O/N2 selectivities of up to ~30,000. The demonstrated approach opens avenues for the highly effective stabilization of GO membranes at elevated pressures for industrial-scale dehumidification.

Space cooling demand is increasing globally due to climate change. Cooling has also been linked to all 17 sustainable development goals of the United Nations. Adequate cooling improves productivity and thermal comfort and can also prevent health risks. Meanwhile, policy initiatives such as the European Union’s Green Deal require participants to cut greenhouse gas emissions and reduce energy use. Therefore, novel cooling systems that are capable of efficiently producing high levels of thermal comfort are needed. Radiant cooling systems provide a design capable of fulfilling these goals, but their application in hot and humid climates is limited due to the risk of condensation. In this study, we compare the performances of radiant cooling systems with and without dehumidification. The studied systems are supplied by geothermal energy. The study is conducted using building energy models of a small office building belonging to a three-building school complex located in Sant Cugat near Barcelona in Spain. The studied location has a Mediterranean climate. The simulations are conducted using IDA Indoor Climate and Energy 4.8 simulation software. The results show that the radiant cooling system with dehumidification (RCD) produces considerably improved thermal comfort conditions, with maximum predicted mean vote (PMV) reached during the cooling season being 0.4 (neutral) and the maximum PMV reached by the radiant cooling system without dehumidification (RC) being 1.2 (slightly warm). However, the improved thermal comfort comes at the cost of reduced energy and exergy efficiency. The RCD system uses 2.2 times as much energy and 5.3 times as much exergy as the RC system. A sensitivity analysis is also conducted to assess the influence of selected input parameters on the simulation output. The results suggest that maximising dehumidification temperature and minimising ventilation flow rate can improve the energy and exergy efficiency of the RCD system while having a minor effect on thermal comfort.

Traditional air conditioning systems use a significant amount of energy on dehumidification by condensing water vapor out from the air. Membrane-based air conditioning systems help overcome this problem by avoiding condensation and treating the sensible and latent loads separately, using membranes that allow water vapor transport, but not air (nitrogen and oxygen). In this work, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model has been developed to predict the heat and mass transfer and concentration polarization performance of a novel active membrane-based energy exchanger (AMX). The novel design is the first of its kind to integrate both vapor removal via membranes and air cooling into one device. The heat transfer results from the CFD simulations are compared with common empirical correlations for similar geometries. The performance of the AMX is studied over a broad range of operating conditions using the compared CFD model. The results show that strong tradeoffs result in optimal values for the channel length (0.6–0.8 m) and the ratio of coil diameter to channel height (~0.5). Water vapor transport is best if the flow is just past the turbulence transition around 3000–5000 Reynolds number. These trends hold over a range of conditions and dimensions.

This work is motivated by the difficulty of cultivating crops in horticulture greenhouses under hot and arid climate conditions. The main challenge is to provide a suitable greenhouse indoor environment, with sufficiently low costs and low environmental impacts. The climate control inside the greenhouse constitutes an efficient methodology for maintaining a satisfactory environment that fulfills the requirements of high-yield crops and reduced energy and water resource consumption. In hot climates, the cooling systems, which are assisted by an effective control technique, constitute a suitable path for maintaining an appropriate climate inside the greenhouse, where the required temperature and humidity distribution is maintained. Nevertheless, most of the commonly used systems are either highly energy or water consuming. Hence, the main objective of this work is to provide a detailed review of the research studies that have been carried out during the last few years, with a specific focus on the technologies that allow for the enhancement of the system effectiveness under hot and arid conditions, and that decrease the energy and water consumption. Climate control processes in the greenhouse by means of manual and smart control systems are investigated first. Subsequently, the different cooling technologies that provide the required ranges of temperature and humidity inside the greenhouse are detailed, namely, the systems using heat exchangers, ventilation, evaporation, and desiccants. Finally, the recommended energy-efficient approaches of the desiccant dehumidification systems for greenhouse farming are pointed out, and the future trends in cooling systems, which include water recovery using the method of combined evaporation–condensation, as well as the opportunities for further research and development, are identified as a contribution to future research work.

In this study, using response surface methodology and central composite design, regression models were developed relating 12 input factors to the supply air outlet humidity ratio and temperature of 4-fluid internally-cooled liquid desiccant dehumidifiers. The selected factors are supply air inlet temperature, supply air inlet humidity ratio, exhaust air inlet temperature, exhaust air inlet humidity ratio, liquid desiccant inlet temperature, liquid desiccant concentration, liquid desiccant flow rate, supply air mass flow rate, the ratio of exhaust to supply air mass flow rate, the thickness of the channel, the channel length, and the channel width of the dehumidifier. The designed experiments were performed using a numerical two-dimensional heat and mass transfer model of the liquid desiccant dehumidifier. The numerical model predicted the measured values of the supply air outlet humidity ratio within 6.7%. The regression model’s predictions of the supply air outlet humidity ratio matched the numerical model’s predictions and measured values within 4.5% and 7.9%, respectively. The results showed that the input factors with the most significant effect on the dehumidifying process in order of significance from high to low are as follows: supply air inlet humidity ratio, liquid desiccant concertation, length of channels, and width of channels. The developed regression models provide a straightforward means for performance prediction and optimization of internally-cooled liquid desiccant dehumidifiers.

The aim of this study is to propose an agro-industrial heat transport system from industrial to agricultural areas for horticultural facilities with high heat demand to fill the problematic gap in the current heat transport system, and to derive by simulation the conditions under which this system can be used economically as well as environmentally. In this study, HASClay was used as a high-performance medium. HASClay has the ability to supply carbon dioxide (CO2) at the same time as heat and dehumidify the inside of the house, so it can be expected to increase the yield in addition to reducing the environmental load by using heat. The simulation results show that the proposed system of supplying heat to a large greenhouse in HASClay in 20-ton containers would have an economic budget similar to that of the previous system, but with an environmental impact of about 80% less tomatoes and 84% less chrysanthemum fuel than the previous system of heating with fuel oil. On the other hand, the analysis showed that the power of the fan could be reduced as an improvement of the heat transport problem using HASClay. As a countermeasure, the use of natural energy and the change of the fan for heat supply from a damper system to an inverter system to control the air volume were considered. For transport to the 10a scale, which has environmental advantages, a system was proposed in which the heat from the HASClay is divided into mini-tanks and transported to stations envisaged in each region, where it is collected by the agricultural producers. In summary, the authors concluded that our proposal for an agro-industrial fusion system based on the transport of heat using HASClay is an effective method for the realization of a sustainable society. The environmental benefits of the project are likely to attract participation from the industrial sphere in order to meet future demands for CO2 reductions.

Massive droplets can be generated to form two-phase flow in steam turbines, leading to erosion issues to the blades and reduces the reliability of the components. A condensing two-phase flow model was developed to assess the flow structure and loss considering the nonequilibrium condensation phenomenon due to the high expansion behaviour in the transonic flow in linear blade cascades. A novel dehumidification strategy was proposed by introducing turbulent disturbances on the suction side. The results show that the Wilson point of the nonequilibrium condensation process was delayed by increasing the inlet superheated level at the entrance of the blade cascade. With an increase in the inlet superheated level of 25 K, the liquid fraction and condensation loss significantly reduced by 79% and 73%, respectively. The newly designed turbine blades not only remarkably kept the liquid phase region away from the blade walls but also significantly reduced 28.1% averaged liquid fraction and 47.5% condensation loss compared to the original geometry. The results provide an insight to understand the formation and evaporation of the condensed droplets inside steam turbines.

Air conditioning energy consumption accounts for most building energy consumption, indoor dehumidification is the main cause of air conditioning energy consumption. Optimize the dehumidification methods of air conditioning systems have great significance to the development of green buildings and people’s pursuit of comfort. Improvement of fins on air conditioning heat exchangers is a hot topic of current research and has achieved considerable results in terms of indoor dehumidification and energy saving compared to traditional air conditioners. This paper reviews two kinds of heat exchangers modified by coating, including desiccant-coated heat exchangers and hydrophobic/hydrophilic coated heat exchangers. For desiccant-coated heat exchangers, the preparation methods of advanced desiccant materials and the possibilities of using this material to achieve excellent energy efficiencies were presented, and the operating parameters that affect thermal performance and dehumidification are determined, including airflow temperature, air velocity, inlet air relative humidity, and regeneration temperature. For hydrophobic/hydrophilic coated heat exchangers, different kinds of hybrid hydrophobic-hydrophilic surfaces are highlighted for they are a high water droplet nucleation rate and surface heat transfer efficiency. In addition, the challenges and future works are explained at last. This paper will provide a valuable reference for the follow-up research, which will be helpful for indoor humidity control and reducing the energy consumption of air conditioning.

When soils are used for a long period of time as arable land, their properties change. This can lead to soil degradation and loss of fertility, as well as other important soil biosphere functions. Obtaining data on the trends in arable soil conditions over large areas using traditional field survey methods is expensive and time-consuming. Currently, there are large archives of satellite data that can be used to monitor the status of arable soils. The analysis of changes in the color of the surface of arable chernozem soils of the Belgorod region, for the period from 1985 to the present, has been carried out based on the analysis of Landsat TM5 satellite data and information about the spectral reflectance of the soils of the region. It is found that, on most parts of arable lands of the region, the color of the soil surface has not changed significantly since 1985. Color changes were revealed on 11% of the analyzed area. The greatest changes are connected with the humus content and moisture content of soils. The three most probable reasons for the change of humus content in an arable horizon of soils are as follows: the dehumidification of soils during plowing; the reduction of the humus content due to water erosion; and the increase in humus content due to changes in the land-use system of the region in recent years. The change in soil moisture regime has mainly been found in arable lands in river valleys, most likely conditioned by the natural evolution of soils. Trends of increasing soil moisture are prevalent. The revealed regularities testify to the high stability of arable soils in the region during the last few decades.

Several greenhouse energy saving technologies and management strategies have been developed in order to meet the needs for implementation of production systems with low and efficient energy use and low CO2 emissions. Towards this aim, a number of greenhouse concepts that make use of these technologies have been developed and tested, such as the closed greenhouse, the solar greenhouse, the energy-producing greenhouse, and others. The closed or semi-closed greenhouse concept is widely accepted as a concept to achieve the targets for energy saving and low CO2 emissions. A major difference of this concept to a conventional greenhouse is that climate control by window ventilation is partially or completely replaced by systems that treat the air, regulate the air exchange between inside and outside, and in few cases collect and store the excess heat load in order to be reused at a later time. A semi-closed greenhouse allows temperature, humidity, and CO2 concentration to be controlled independently, during heating as well as cooling mode function. Among others, semi-closed greenhouses offer possibilities for better control of greenhouse environment, for increasing water use efficiency by decreasing the evaporation losses via ventilation and for reducing the pesticide use by decreasing the entry of insects and fungal spores in the greenhouse through the ventilation openings. The aim of this review is to focus on the design, control, and performance aspects of semi-closed greenhouse systems which use either (a) an air treatment corridor with evaporative cooling pad connected with an air distribution system with perforated polyethylene tubes or (b) decentralized air treatment units distributed inside the greenhouse. It gives on overview of the principles of the semi-closed greenhouse, the potential energy consumption and the expected savings. Additionally, it gives insight into the climate conditions in relation to the conventional greenhouse, crop growth, water consumption, and pest control.

The packaged terminal air conditioning with reheat (PTACR) system, as a commonly used dehumidification system, faces the problem of extra energy consumption in the deep-cooling and reheating processes. Therefore, different heat pump assisted hybrid solid desiccant cooling (HPDC) systems were proposed and their characteristics were investigated via EnergyPlus simulations. The system energy efficiency presents an upward trend with the increase in outdoor temperature and humidity. A high-humidity climate leads to the improvement of system performance. The dehumidification performance of the desiccant wheel in the HPDC system declines when outdoor humidity increases. Compared with the PTACR system, the energy consumption of the HPDC system in which the evaporator was placed upstream of the desiccant wheel is reduced by 36%, 66%, and 64%, respectively, under different high-humidity climates. The system maintained the indoor environment within the comfort zone, and eliminated the need for a heat source for desiccant regeneration. In conclusion, the HPDC system is an available alternative that considers both energy consumption and system performance. Placing the evaporator upstream of the desiccant wheel is more advantageous in high-temperature and high-humidity climates.

The oil-free compressor is a key component in fabricating polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles for beverages and water. At present, the main compressor type used for blowing PET bottles is the reciprocating compressor. However, compared to screw compressors, reciprocating compressors have shortcomings of high energy consumption and too many consumable parts. Many manufacturers of PET bottles in Asia are seeking to replace reciprocating compressors with screw compressors, as we know. Screw compressors can be classified as single-screw compressors (SSC) and twin-screw compressors. Since the load in a twin-screw compressor is far larger than that in an SSC, SSCs are more suitable for being developed for high-pressure applications such as PET bottle blowing. This paper presents a performance study on an oil-free single-screw compressor as the first stage of the PET compressor unit. A 5.4 m3·min−1 prototype and its test rig were developed. The thermophysical process of the moist air is theoretically analyzed. The pressure loss on the flow path and the influence of the important parameters are experimentally investigated. It is found that water vapor cannot be separated during the adiabatic compression process. The results also show that the pressure loss from the discharging duct to the check valve accounts for the largest percentage of the total pressure loss. The experimental results further show that the discharge capacity and shaft power increase almost linearly with the motor speed. The efficiency declines with increasing injected water temperature. The discharge capacity and shaft power all increase with the injected water flowrate, and an optimum flowrate is found to ensure a highest isentropic efficiency. With the increase in discharge pressure, the discharge capacity decreases, and the shaft power increases. The isentropic efficiency is found to have its maximum value at a certain discharge pressure.

This paper presents a humidification−dehumidification (HDH) desalination system with an air-cooling condenser. Seawater in copper tubes is usually used in a condenser, but it has shown the drawbacks of pipe erosion, high cost of the copper material, etc. If air could be used as the cooling medium, it could not only avoid the above drawbacks but also allow much more flexible structure design of condensers, although the challenge is whether the air-cooing condenser can provide as much cooling capability as water cooling condensers. There is no previous work that uses air as cooling medium in a condenser of a HDH desalination system to the best of our knowledge. In this paper we designed a unique air-cooling condenser that was composed of closely packed hollow polycarbonate (PC) boards. The structure was designed to create large surface area of 13.5 m2 with the volume of only 0.1 m3. The 0.2 mm thin thickness of the material helped to reduce the thermal resistance between the warm humid air and cooling air. A fan was used to suck the ambient air in and out of the condenser as an open system to the environment. Results show that the air-cooling condenser could provide high cooling capability to produce fresh water efficiently. Meanwhile, cellulous pad material was used in the humidifier to enhance the evaporative process. A maximum productivity of 129 kg/day was achieved using the humidifier with a 0.0525 m3 cellulous pad with a water temperature of 49.5 °C. The maximum gained output ratio (GOR) was 0.53, and the maximum coefficient of performance (COP) was 20.7 for waste heat recovery. It was found that the system performance was compromised as the ambient temperature increased due to the increased temperature of cooling air; however, such an effect could be compensated by increasing the volume of the condenser.

Demands of standalone dehumidification systems have been increasing in order to realize energy savings in air-conditioning processes. In a desiccant dehumidification system, the water vapor from the moist air undergoes a phase change phenomenon, this being from vapor to adsorbed phase, a process analogous to latent heat exchange. The energy exchange involved in such a process is often significant—up to 80% of the total energy exchange. In this study, the influence of the phase change phenomena involved in a desiccant dehumidification system was evaluated experimentally, along with the performance investigation under low desorption air temperatures of 308, 318, 328, 338, and 345 K. The system was driven by a constant adsorption temperature of 293 K. The dehumidification ability, latent heat ratio, and latent effectiveness were employed as key performance indexes. The results showed that with the increased desorption temperature, the latent heat ratio decreased, whereas the dehumidification ability and latent effectiveness increased. The highest latent heat ratio was found to be 0.61 at the desorption temperature of 308 K, whereas the highest latent effectiveness was obtained at the desorption temperature of 345 K. A suitable temperature for the effective and efficient dehumidification was observed to be 318 K for the current system.

In this paper, the performance of a compact Three-Fluid Combined Membrane Contactor (3F-CMC) is investigated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), supported and validated with a good agreement by an experimental campaign made on a fully working prototype. This internally-cooled membrane contactor is the core component of a hybrid air conditioning system for electric vehicles (EVs) developed in a successful H2020 project called XERIC. In the adopted numerical approach, the conjugate heat and mass transfer inside the 3F-CMC is described by non-isothermal incompressible flows and vapor transport through a PTFE hydrophobic membrane. The sensitivity of the 3F-CMC performance to air/desiccant flow rates, temperature, humidity, and desiccant concentration is analyzed numerically through the validated CFD codes. According to this study, the moisture removal increases by the inlet humidity ratio, nearly linearly. Under the considered conditions (where the inlet air temperature is 26.2 °C), when the inlet relative humidity (RH) is 75% the moisture removal is about 450% higher than the case RH = 37%, while the absorption effectiveness declines about 45%. Furthermore, this study shows that the amount of absorbed vapor flux rises by increasing the airflow rate; on the other hand, the higher the airflow rate, the lower is the overall absorption efficiency of the 3F-CMC. This investigation gives important suggestions on how to properly operate a 3F-CMC in order to achieve the requested performance, especially in hot and humid climates.

In this paper, the solid desiccant adsorption packed bed with a three-stage internal cooling (ICSPB) has been proposed to improve the dehumidification efficiency and make a comparison with that of non-internal cooling. To investigate the performance of the ICSPB, the dehumidification capacity, dehumidification efficiency, water content of solid desiccant, moisture ratio of solid desiccant, temperature of solid desiccant and inlet and outlet air temperature difference were discussed in different conditions of inlet air and supplying water temperature. It was found that the dehumidification performance of the bed with internal cooling could be improved greatly in the low temperature and low humidity conditions, while in the high temperature and humid, the improvement was not obvious. With internal cooling, the dehumidification efficiency and the water content of the solid desiccant could be improved 59.69% and 110.7%, respectively, and the temperature of solid desiccant could be reduced 2.2 °C when the ICSPB operated at the inlet air temperature of 20 °C, inlet humidity of 55%, and water temperature of 14 °C. Moreover, the dehumidification performance at each stage of ICSPB was studied. It was found that, the first stage played the most important role in the dehumidification process. In addition, the calculation models that can be used to predict the moisture ratio and the temperature of solid desiccant were established on the test results.

The present study intended to study the dehumidification performance of KCOOH solution both experimentally and numerically. The heat and mass transfer model for internal cooling dehumidifier was built. The influences of different parameters on dehumidification performance were identified by experiments. Results indicated that the air temperature and solution has negligible influence on dehumidification performance. However, the air humidity and solution temperature have significant influence on dehumidification due to its close relationship with mass transfer driving force. The proposed model can simulate the dehumidification performance in terms of absolute moisture change well with the MARD of 6.05%.

In this paper, a solar-powered dehumidification window (SPDW), combining a conventional double-glazed building window with a solid desiccant packed bed and a photovoltaic panel, has been proposed to dehumidify the air supplied to a residential building in an energy-saving way. The solid desiccant packed bed was installed between the double layers of the residential window to achieve the compact building-integrated window-dehumidifying system that could be regenerated by solar energy, and the photovoltaic panel was used to compensate the electricity for the operation of the fans to supply the air to the building. To investigate the dehumidification and regeneration performance of the SPDW, the transient moisture removal, dehumidification efficiency, temperature difference between the building inlet and outlet air, heat transfer characteristics, desiccant temperature, regeneration rate, and the power of the fans and the photovoltaic panel were analysed for different inlet air conditions and simulated solar radiation. It was found that, for the system operated under an inlet air temperature of 19.2 °C and a relative humidity of 86.1% during the dehumidification process, the system performed with a maximum transient moisture removal of 7.1 g/kg, a maximum dehumidification efficiency of 58.60%, a maximum temperature difference between the inlet and outlet air of 10.7 °C, and a maximum released adsorption heat absorbed by the dehumidified air of 89.66%. In the regeneration process, the system performed with a maximum desiccant temperature of 35.3 °C, a maximum regeneration rate of 153 g/h, and a maximum power of the photovoltaic panels of 39.83 W under the simulated solar radiation of 900 W/m2. The results from the established semi-empirical model agreed well with the testing results, and the model could be used to predict the water content ratio of the desiccant modules during the dehumidification process under different conditions, which will be helpful in the analysis and application of the SPDW in the future.

Thermoeconomic diagnosis of refrigeration systems is a pioneering approach to the diagnosis of malfunctions, which has been recently proven to achieve good performances for the detection of specific faults. Being an exergy-based diagnostic technique, its performance is influenced by the trends of exergy functions in the “design” and “abnormal” conditions. In this paper the sensitivity of performance of thermoeconomic diagnosis in detecting a fouled direct expansion coil and quantifying the additional consumption it induces is investigated; this fault is critical due to the simultaneous air cooling and dehumidification occurring in the coil, that induce variations in both the chemical and thermal fractions of air exergy. The examined parameters are the temperature and humidity of inlet air, the humidity of reference state and the sensible/latent heat ratio (varied by considering different coil depths). The exergy analysis reveals that due to the more intense dehumidification occurring in presence of fouling, the exergy efficiency of the evaporator coil eventually increases. Once the diagnostic technique is based only on the thermal fraction of air exergy, the results suggest that the performance of the technique increases when inlet air has a lower absolute humidity, as evident from the “optimal performance” regions identified on a psychrometric chart.