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Development and analysis of air-conditioning condensate assisted compact cooler unit: a novel approach in condensate recovery

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Abstract

In line with the waste-to-energy conservation strategies, the present study focuses on the design and analysis of a Compact Cooler Unit (CCU) that can efficiently make use of cold condensate generated from air-conditioning plants. Condensate from air conditioners with cooling capabilities of 115 kW and 175 kW, respectively, producing 23 Lh−1 and 35 Lh−1 at temperatures of 15 ℃ and 10 ℃, are used in the study to investigate cabin thermal comfort. Experimental and simulation studies are conducted to analyze the cooling performance of the CCU within a 6 m3 cabin under likely condensate temperatures. A TRNSYS model, incorporating Type 32 cooling components, assesses indoor parameters at water temperatures of 10 °C and 15 °C against EN ISO 7730:2005. Simulation studies confirmed that CCU performed better at 10 °C compared to 15 ℃, and an experiment was carried out at 10 ℃ to validate the simulation results. The simulated results had good agreement with the experiments with a variation of less than 5%. The results show that the CCU can achieve a saving of 37% with a recovered condensate quantity of 25 Lh−1 at 11 ℃, and a payback period of 4.4 years. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the effective utilization of condensate as a sustainable resource for energy-efficient cooling in air-conditioned plants. It is recommended that CCU be fitted wherever the available condensate quantity would be more than 25 Lh−1, and it could be run along with a conventional chiller unit to achieve better thermal comfort with minimum energy consumption.

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Abbreviations

AC:

Air-conditioning

BRCW:

Base rating of a coil

CAGR:

Compound annual growth rate

CCU:

Compact cooler unit

CFM:

Cubic feet per minute

COP:

Coefficient of performance

CSP:

Cold storage plant

DBT:

Dry bulb temperature

DEC:

Direct evaporative cooling

EAC:

Evaporative air cooler

EN ISO:

European standard-international organization for standardization

HVAC:

Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning

IAQ:

Indoor air quality

ICT:

Information and communication technology

IDEC:

Indirect evaporative cooling

ISHRAE:

Indian society of heating, refrigeration and air-conditioning engineers

LED:

Light-emitting diode

LPD:

Liters per day

PAC:

Packaged ACs’ unit

PMV:

Predicted mean vote

PPD:

Predicted percentage dissatisfied

RH:

Relative humidity

RTD:

Resistance temperature detector

TES:

Thermal energy storage

TRNSYS:

Transient system simulation

VCRS:

Vapor-compression refrigeration system

WSF:

Wetted surface factor

T ambient :

Ambient air temperature (°C)

T cw :

Condensate water temperature (°C)

U bu :

Uncertainty due to bath uniformity

U bs :

Uncertainty due to bath stability

U de :

Uncertainty due to drift error of master sensor

U im :

Uncertainty due to the immersion depth of sensor

U rm :

Uncertainty due to the repeatability of measurement

U c :

Combined uncertainty

x i :

Test reading corresponding to the number of measurements

X′ :

Mean of the test readings

S(X):

Standard deviation of measurement

n :

Number of measurements

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (No. 2019R1A5A8080290). The authors acknowledge the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India, for the development of the experimental setup. We would also like to thank the Department of Energy and Environment for facilitating the workplace for cabin construction and conducting the experiments. We also like to place on record the cooperation extended by Trichy Cold Storage Pvt. Ltd, Thuvakudi and the computer support group of the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli completed the preliminary data collection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information and Communication Engineering, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-Ro, Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk, 712-749, South Korea

    Palanisamy Dhamodharan

  2. School of Mechanical Engineering, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-Ro, Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk, 712-749, South Korea

    Rajendran Prabakaran & Sung Chul Kim

  3. Department of Energy and Environment, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, 620015, India

    Bakthavatsalam Kannappan Ayalur

  4. Department of Mechanical Engineering, SRMIST, Ramapuram Campus, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600089, India

    Santhosh Kumar Annamalai

  5. Department of Automobile Engineering, Kongu Engineering College, Perundurai, Erode, Tamil Nadu, 638060, India

    Rajendran Prabakaran

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  1. Palanisamy Dhamodharan
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Contributions

PD contributed to conceptualization, investigation, writing—original draft preparation. BAK contributed to methodology and reviewing. ASK and RP helped in visualization and investigation. SCK helped in supervision—reviewing and Editing.

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Correspondence to Bakthavatsalam Kannappan Ayalur or Sung Chul Kim.

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Dhamodharan, P., Kannappan Ayalur, B., Annamalai, S.K. et al. Development and analysis of air-conditioning condensate assisted compact cooler unit: a novel approach in condensate recovery. J Therm Anal Calorim 149, 3303–3316 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-024-12923-0

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