A new heat pump desiccant dehumidifier for supermarket application

Recently a new equipment for dehumidification was put onto the market. It is a self-regenerating liquid desiccant cooling system able to dehumidify, heating or cooling the ambient air by an electric heat pump that is a part of the equipment. Its operation is here studied in a supermarket application where air temperature and relative humidity play a very important role and the air-conditioning becomes necessary not only to assure a suitable thermal comfort, but also to make the refrigerated display cabinets operate properly. In this paper possible energy savings, compared to a traditional mechanical dehumidification, are evaluated by means of a numerical model that simulates a typical Italian supermarket.