Our OA Series liquid-desiccant air conditioners create exciting new opportunities for solar cooling.  Most solar cooling systems now in operation use absorption chillers.  A smaller number use adsorption chillers.  These systems work, but attractive applications are hard to find.  Part of the problem is the absorption chiller itself.  Absorption chillers and electric centrifugal chillers perform identical functions: they deliver 45 F chilled water to the building.  In non-solar applications, size, first cost, maintenance and operating costs often steer a purchasing decisions to the electric chiller.  Adding an absorption chiller (or adsorption chiller) to a solar cooling system makes the system more difficult to sell.

The OA Series liquid-desiccant air conditioners are an attractive alternative to their electric counterparts.  Compared to a conventional electric air conditioner that has been designed to be a  Dedicated Outdoor Air System, the OA Series air conditioners will:

►do more latent cooling as a fraction of the total

►have lower air-side pressure drops

►be smaller

►have a comparable first cost (and lower first cost in the future)

In solar applications the OA Series air conditioners will compete better than absorption chillers in most applications because:

►they are air handlers that easily replace or integrate with the roof-top air conditioners used on most commercial buildings

►they can easily and efficiently store "cooling" as concentrated desiccant, allowing the solar cooling system to meet the large late afternoon and early evening cooling loads that occur on most buildings

►they require a smaller cooling tower

►when operating on 180 F to 200 F hot water, they will have an approximately 15% higher COP

►they can effectively operate at hot water temperatures below 180 F, where absorption chillers quickly lose efficiency.

A conference paper (490 KB) presented at the 2006 ASES meeting describes in more detail both the laboratory testing and field operation of the technology used in the OA Series air conditioners.   Engineering specifications for the OA Series appear in brochures for the general product line (260 KB) and solar applications (204 KB).  These brochures are relatively early drafts.  Please contact Dr. Andrew Lowenstein at ail@ailr.com if you should have any questions or need additional information on the OA Series.