Abstract
This paper investigates the suitability of bio-desiccants for moisture recovery in energy wheels. Bio-desiccants are environment-friendly materials that have high water vapor adsorption capacities. The main contribution of this paper is that it reports the latent effectiveness of flax-fiber (bio-desiccant) coated energy wheels for a wide range of operating conditions and compares the effectiveness of the flax-fiber wheels with wheels that are coated with commercially available desiccants and other biomaterials. The moisture transfer performance of a flax-fiber coated exchanger is determined using a small-scale test facility and two different experimental methods: single step change tests and cyclic tests. The test results are used to verify the applicability of an effectiveness correlation from the literature. Using the energy wheel correlation and the sorption isotherms, the latent effectiveness of commercially available energy wheels coated with molecular sieve, ion exchange resin and silica gel desiccants are obtained and compared with that of bio-desiccants (flax fiber and starch particles). The highest latent effectiveness is obtained for silica gel followed by starch particles, ion exchange resin, flax-fiber and molecular sieve. The results from this study will be useful in research and development of bio-materials for energy recovery systems for building applications.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 108369 |
| Journal | Building and Environment |
| Volume | 206 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2021 |
Funding
The authors appreciate the financial support of the Government of the Saskatchewan ( Ministry of Agriculture ) through the Agricultural Development Fund (Project # 20160266 ). Sincere appreciations to Mr. Hayden Reitenbach and Mr. Shawn Reinink (Staff of the Department of Mechanical Engineering) for their technical support in equipment modification and maintenance.
Keywords
- Adsorption
- Bio-desiccants
- Desorption
- Flax-fiber
- Latent effectiveness