Advances in Air Conditioning Technologies : Improving Energy Efficiency

This book highlights key recent developments in air conditioning technologies for cooling and dehumidification with the specific objectives to improve energy efficiency and to minimize environmental impact. Today, air conditioning, comprising cooling and dehumidification, is a necessity in commercial and residential buildings and even in many industrial processes. This book provides key update on recent developments in air conditioning systems, cooling cycles and innovative cooling/dehumidification technologies. Key technologies related to cooling include heat-driven absorption and adsorption cooling and water-based dew point evaporative cooling. Technologies connected with dehumidification involve new generations of adsorbent–desiccant dehumidifiers, liquid-based desiccants and membranes that sieve out water vapor from air. Losses in cooling cycles and thermo-economic analysis for a sustainable economy are also judiciously documented.

Ernest is an Associate Professor with the Department of Engineering, National University of Singapore. He is best known for his research on new generation of thermal technologies, particularly those related to air conditioning and dehumidification. He has won numerous international and local awards and honors including IChemE (UK) and Applied Energy Award (Elsevier) for his innovative works on energy-efficient dew-point cooling, membrane dehumidification and adsorbent coated heat exchanger. According to Shanghai’s Elsevier Global Ranking of Academic, he is one of the highest cited researchers for his works on Energy and Building Science.

Raisul is a Senior Lecturer with the Department of Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS). His research activities include optimization of central air-conditioning systems, vapor absorption cooling systems, desiccant dehumidification systems, indirect evaporative cooling systems and recovery and efficient utilization of low-grade waste heat. Before joining NUS, he was working as a Technical Director in LJ Energy Pte Ltd. His main role was to lead a team of engineers in the energy audit of major energy-consuming systems used in industries and commercial buildings, Green Building projects, design and retrofit of energy-efficient systems.

Ng Kim Choon is currently a Professor in KAUST. His research interests are in thermally driven seawater desalination processes, two-phase energy systems, nuclear power thermal hydraulics, adsorption thermodynamics and solar energy systems. He pioneered adsorption cooling and desalination cycles and boosted the water production yield of desalination processes with the AD and MED/MSF hybrid cycles. He also worked on the solar-powered hydrothermal treatment of seawater and wastewater using the 2-axis mini-dish system.

Wakil is a Research Scientist in KAUST. He works on thermal systems for cooling and desalination and their hybridization (multi-effect desalination,absorption chiller, adsorption chiller and desiccant dehumidifier) for overall system performance improvements. He is also working on heat transfer improvement specially for falling film evaporators at low-temperature operation. He developed a correlation for falling film heat transfer coefficient. He is also working on economic analysis of single and hybrid systems.