This work investigates a small-scale hybrid experimental setup developed combining the two technologies of liquid desiccant dehumidification and vapour compression refrigeration. A hybrid system of 5 kW capacity is designed and developed for energy saving analysis. The experiments are designed with central-composite design scheme using three variables namely air mass flow rate, desiccant inlet temperature, and desiccant inlet concentration. Three responses namely specific humidity change in the dehumidifier, dehumidifier heat load and hybrid system performance coefficient are considered for the investigation. The regression correlations for all three responses are developed and presented. Further, the performance comparison of the hybrid system with the standalone vapour compression refrigeration unit is also carried out. The comparative results reveal that the maximum improvement of 27.54% is observed in the coefficient of performance at which 54.93% of the total latent heat load is being covered by the dehumidifier. Finally, the energy saving analysis reveals that the hybrid system is having payback duration of 4 years compared to the standalone vapour compression refrigeration system of same cooling capacity.

这项工作研究了结合液体干燥剂除湿和蒸汽压缩制冷两种技术开发的小型混合实验装置。设计并开发了容量为5 kW的混合动力系统，用于节能分析。实验采用中央复合设计方案，使用空气质量流量，干燥剂入口温度和干燥剂入口浓度三个变量进行设计。研究考虑了三个响应，即除湿机中的特定湿度变化，除湿机热负荷和混合动力系统性能系数。开发并展示了所有三个响应的回归相关性。此外，还对具有独立蒸气压缩制冷单元的混合动力系统的性能进行了比较。比较结果表明，除湿机覆盖了总潜热负荷的54.93％时，性能系数最大提高了27.54％。最后，节能分析表明，与具有相同制冷量的独立蒸汽压缩制冷系统相比，混合动力系统的投资回收期为4年。