Skip to main content
European Commission logo
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
CORDIS Web 30th anniversary CORDIS Web 30th anniversary
Content archived on 2024-05-24

Adsorption cooling of buildings with integrated pv/solar air heating facades ('AIRCOOL')

Objective

Objectives and problems to be solved :The overall aim of the project is to develop a low cost adsorption cooling system based on solar heated air. The potential to reduce the costs of solar powered desiccant cooling technologies consists of using building integrated solar air systems (ventilated PV and solar air collectors), develop low cost control strategies and optimise the system performance of the desiccant cooling system. The heating energy generation of photovoltaic double facades in summer is usually not known, as the thermal energy is usually vented to the outside and thus unused. The achievable solar fraction, especially with combined solar air collector/PV facades needs to be determined. For an integral energy balance, the cooling load of the facade itself has to be included in the analysis. Description of work :In the project all components of a solar powered desiccant cooling system have to be analysed in terms of their energetically performance. The adsorption wheel technologies currently on the market are tested on a pilot plant with a maximum volume flow of 3000 m³/h at the University of Applied Sciences in Stuttgart. The dehumidification potential as a function of both ambient and regeneration flow rates, flow velocities, temperatures etc. is tested with high measurement accuracy on the pilot plant. The research then shifts to the Matura library building in Spain with a combined PV/solar air collector facade and a ventilated PV shed roof, where an optimised prototype DCS system of about 18.000 m³/h air volume flow will be implemented. The research focuses on the energetically performance of the building integrated components (their cooling load versus the thermal energy production), the performance of the DCS system using varying control strategies and finally the performance of hybrid operation using the existing electrical compressor coolers. An economic evaluation of the proposed integrated concept demonstrates the application potential of this technology. Expected Results and Exploitation Plans :The project aims to develop a high performance, but low cost, integrated solar cooling system. The four industrial partners involved jointly exploit the project results and use their marketing experience in different European market section. The set-up of a solar cooling system requires the engineering of the machine itself (carried out by Siegle+Epple/Germany), design and implementation of the control strategy (jointly carried out by Siegle+Epple and Sauter Ibérica), a solar air system manufacturer (the German company Grammer) and finally a company on site responsible for installation, operation and maintenance of the integrated system (TFM/Spain). The industrial companies form a consortium to market the cost optimised DCS system, maintaining their respective roles described above. The two research institutions University of Applied Sciences Stuttgart and Loughborough University follow-up and monitor further installations. Such integrated cooling system are of especial interest for the Mediterranean market, but can also be used successfully in northern European climates, where summer cooling of office buildings becomes more and more of an issue. The cost reduction targets for the DCS technology itself are from a current 6,3 EUR/(m³/h)) by at least 20%, i.e. 5 EUR/(amah).

Call for proposal

Data not available

Coordinator

FACHHOCHSCHULE FUER TECHNIK STUTTGART
EU contribution
No data
Address
25,Schellingstrasse 25
70013 Stuttgart
Germany

See on map

Total cost
No data

Participants (5)