Performance of Rotary Enthalpy Exchangers

Abstract

Rotary regenerative heat and mass exchangers allow energy savings in the heating and cooling of ventilated buildings by recovering energy from the exhaust air and transferring it to the supply air stream. In this study the adsorption isotherms and the specific heat capacity of a desiccant used in a commercially available enthalpy exchanger are investigated experimentally, and the measured property data are used to simulate the regenerator performance and to analyze the device in terms of both energy recovery and economic profitability. Based on numerical solutions for the mechanism of combined heat and mass transfer obtained with the computer program MOSHMX for various operating conditions, a computationally simple model is developed that estimates the performance of the particular enthalpy exchanger and also of a comparable sensible heat exchanger as a function of the air inlet conditions and the matrix rotation speed. The model is built into the transient simulation program TRNSYS, and annual regenerator performance simulations are executed. The integrated energy savings over this period are determined for the case of a ventilation system for a 200 people office building (approx. 2 m3/s) for three different locations in the United States, each representing a different climate. Life cycle savings that take into account the initial cost of the space-conditioning system as well as the operating savings achieved by the regenerator are evaluated for both the enthalpy exchanger and the sensible heat exchanger over a system life time of 15 years. The present worth of the accumulated savings ranges from $ 28,000 to $ 38,000 for the enthalpy exchanger and from $ 7,000 to $ 24,000 for the sensible heat exchanger. The enthalpy exchanger results in greater payoffs in all locations, but its advantage is most significant in a warm and humid climate where the sensible heat exchanger performs poorly.