PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF THE CO2 HEAT PUMP-COMBINED DESICCANT

AIR-CONDITIONING SYSTEMS APPLIED TO DEDICATED OUTDOOR AIR

SYSTEMS

Yaw-Shyan Tsay
1
, Shinsuke Kato
2
, Ryozo Ooka
2
, Makoto Koganei
3
,
Kousaku Nishida
4
, Norio Shoda
3
and Koichi Kawamoto
5


1
Department of Architecture & Urban Design, Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Taiwan
2
Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
3
Research & Development Center, Asahikogyosha Co., Ltd., Chiba, Japan
4
Research & Development Center, Mayekawa MFG. Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
5
Amefrec Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan


ABSTRACT
A desiccant air-conditioning system has been suggested as being suitable to improve indoor air quality
due to its superior humidity control. However, this system has the drawback of being less energy
efficient, so it is typically used in conjunction with co-generation systems or solar heating systems to
improve its energy efficiency. In previous studies, we proposed a new type of desiccant air-conditioning
system combined with a CO
2
heat pump, and studied its applicability through experiments and
simplified calculations. In this system, the CO
2
heat pump can provide the desiccant air-conditioning
system with a steady heat source for both cooling and heating (regeneration).
In this paper, the combined system is assumed to be applied to the dedicated outdoor air system of a
hotel, and theoretical calculations were carried out to study the system performance. As a result, we
propose a system whose overall coefficient of performance is higher than conventional air-conditioning
systems.

KEYWORDS
Indoor Air Quality, Non-Condensing Environment, Dedicated Outdoor Air System, CO
2
Heat Pump,
Desiccant Rotor

INTRODUCTION
In hot and humid climates, dampness in buildings leads to significant microbial contamination and
building damage. A desiccant air-conditioning system has been suggested as suitable to improve
indoor air quality (IAQ) based on its superior humidity control. However, this system suffers from lower
energy efficiency, and thus was generally combined with co-generation or solar power systems to
improve its energy efficiency. In previous studies (Y.-S. Tsay et al. 2006), we proposed a new type of
desiccant air-conditioning system in combination with a CO
2
heat pump, and studied its applicability
through experiments and simplified calculations. In this system, the CO
2
heat pump can provide the
new system with a steady heat source for both cooling and heating (regeneration) when co-generation
systems are not available. Furthermore, the system also can improve IAQ by providing a
non-condensing environment (no condensation either within the indoor environment or inside the
air-conditioning system).
The Dedicated Outdoor Air System (DOAS) is a system designed to provide 100% outdoor air (OA),
and was suggested over 20 years ago (G. Meckler 1986). In this system, the outdoor air is conditioned
separately from the return air before it enters the building. The concepts of the DOAS are that the latent

Corresponding Author: Tel: + 886-2-2861-0511 ext. 41334, Fax: + 886-2-2861-0263

E-mail address: cyx10@faculty.pccu.edu.tw
loads from the outdoor air intake and generated in spaces are removed using a 100% OA ventilation
system (i.e. the DOAS). The space sensible loads are removed using a parallel mechanical cooling
system, such as fan coil units (FCU), conventional variable air volume (VAV), and ceiling-mounted
radiant cooling panels independent of the ventilation system.
In recent years, some of the difficulty in achieving good ventilation performance with a VAV system has
been that the thermal loads of individual zones do not necessarily vary with the ventilation requirements,
so increased total ventilation airflows are required to ensure acceptable zone ventilation under all
operating conditions. DOAS overcomes these issues by directly delivering ventilation air to the
conditioned space, allowing the ventilation air system to be sized and operated to provide the
ventilation airflow rate required by codes such as ASHRAE Standard 62 (J. Dieckmann et al. 2003).
Some research (K. M. Shank et al. 2001) (S. A. Mumma 2001) also indicated that using DOAS in
parallel with distributed sensible cooling terminal equipment provides an energy-saving advantage.
This is because the indoor cooling units are not required to condense water vapor in the air (sensible
cooling only), the water supplied for cooling can be as high as 17~20C, around 10C higher than in
conventional systems. The evaporation temperature of the chiller can be raised, allowing the
Coefficient of Performance (COP) of the chiller to be raised with some energy-saving advantage.
In this paper, a CO
2
heat pump-combined desiccant air-conditioning system is being applied to DOAS
as shown in Figure 1. The CO
2
heat pump-combined desiccant air-conditioning system is used to
condition sensible heat for the outdoor air, and latent heat for both outdoor and indoor air. The indoor
FCU is used only to provide sensible cooling for the indoor space. In this system, not only can the COP
of the chiller be raised with some resultant saving of energy, but also IAQ can be improved.
Performance calculations included energy consumption and COP of both the CO
2
heat
pump-combined desiccant air-conditioning system and conventional air-conditioning systems were
carried out to validate the energy-saving advantage.

SYSTEM PERFORMANCE CALCULATIONS
The performance study model
In this paper, a hotel model was used to study the performance when the CO
2
heat pump-combined
desiccant air-conditioning system when applied to DOAS, and indoor FCU are used to deal with the
sensible cooling load of the rooms. In Japan, 65.5% of business hotels, 87.1% of city hotels, and 52.3%
of resort hotels use DOAS and indoor FCU for their air-conditioning systems (The Society of Heating,
Air-Conditioning and Sanitary Engineers of Japan, 1989). In this paper, the system mentioned above is
defined as the proposed system. Furthermore, the conventional system, which is defined as the
combination of a conventional DOAS and indoor FCU, was studied for comparison with the proposed
system.
In the proposed system as shown in Figure 2, a CO
2
heat pump and an air-source chiller are the heat
Figure 1. The CO
2
heat pump combined desiccant outdoor air system
sources for the DOAS and indoor FCU. The gas cooler and evaporator of the CO
2
heat pump provide
heating and cooling energy for the air-heater and air-cooler directly. A total enthalpy heat exchanger
and a sensible heat recovery rotor are used to recover the heat to reduce the cooling load.
On the upper side of the DOAS, outdoor air (Point 1) is first cooled and dehumidified by the total
enthalpy heat exchanger (Point 1), then dehumidified further by the desiccant rotor (Point 2) before
being cooled to the appropriate supply air temperature by the air-cooler without condensation (Point 4).
In the other side of the DOAS, return air (RA) (Point 3) is used to regenerate the desiccant rotor after
being heated by the sensible recovery rotor and air heater before being exhausted (Point 9). In the
hotel room, supply air from the DOAS is mixed with return air from the room at the indoor FCU, and
then supplied to the room.
Figure 3. System flow for conventional systems
Figure 2. System flow for the proposed system
Table 1. Performance Assumptions for the heat source machine
Systems Outdoor air system Indoor cooling unit
Proposed system - CO
2
heat pump
- Air-source chiller, COP=2.85
- Providing 15C cooling water
Conventional systems
- Air-source chiller, COP=2.48
- Providing 7C cooling water
- Air-source chiller, COP=2.48
- Providing 7C cooling water

In conventional systems as shown in Figure 3, two air-source chillers are the heat sources for the
conventional DOAS and indoor FCU. Only a total enthalpy heat exchanger is used in the conventional
system. On the upper side of the DOAS, outdoor air (Point 1) is first cooled and dehumidified by the
total enthalpy heat exchanger (Point 2), then cooled and dehumidified (by condensation) by the cooling
coil (Point 3) before being cooled and dehumidified (by condensation) again by the indoor FCU.
Assumptions of the city hotel model
In the performance analysis, only one floor of a city hotel with 25 rooms (26 m
2
per room) is studied. On
that floor, one DOAS with an airflow rate of 2,000 m
3
/h was used to provide fresh air to the rooms
(ventilation rate 80 m
3
/h for each room), and one FCU was used in each room. The airflow rate of the
indoor FCU was 350 m
3
/h, which included 80 m
3
/h of fresh air from the DOAS and 270 m
3
/h of return air
from the rooms. The outdoor air conditions were set as 32C and 65% RH (0.0196 kg/kg) to simulate
the mid-summer climate of Tokyo, and for indoor air were set as 26C and 50% RH (0.0105 kg/kg). The
sensible heat load of each room was set as 1,189 W and the latent heat load was set as 256 W in
accordance with the reference (Institute for Building Energy Conservation, 1991). In the calculations,
the total enthalpy heat exchange rate of the total enthalpy heat exchanger was 0.6, and the sensible
Table 2. Calculation assumptions for the CO
2
heat pump
Parameter Assumption Parameter Assumption
z Degree of superheat of evaporator
z Evaporator temperature
z Minimum temperature difference
of air-heater
z Minimum temperature difference
of air-cooler
z Minimum temperature difference
of inner heat exchanger
10C
16C
7C

5C

10C
z Overall adiabatic efficiency of
compressor (
t
)
z Evaporation pressure (Pe)
z Suction pressure drop of
compressor
z Pressure drop of gas-cooler
0.69*

5.211 MPa
0.15 MPa
P
1
=Pe-0.15
0.25 MPa
P
3
=P
2
-0.25
* According to the reference (P. Neksa et al. 1999)
Figure 4. Explanatory diagram for heat balance calculation of heat exchangers and CO
2
heat

Air side (air-cooler)
he=hf -(Qc/m)
Air side (air-heater)
P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

Enthalpy
Working fluid side
(gas cooler)
Internal heat exchanger
hd =he
Pd =Pc
Tahi
hb=ha+
(hb-ha)/t
hb=f(sa)
Suction pressure drop
P1=Pe-0.15
hf =f(Pe,Te)
QC
Qh
Taho
Taci
Taco
sa
Overall
adiabatic efficiency
|
|
.
|

\
|

=
a b
a b
t
h h
h h '
q
Qin=f(m,Tc,Td,Tf,Tg)
Pressure drop
Pc=Pb-0.25
Mass flow rate of air = mah
a
b b c
e f g
d
Mass flow rate of air =mac
Working fluid side
(evaporator)
hc=f(Pc,Tc)
heat exchange rate of the sensible heat
recovery rotor was 0.74.
Table 1 shows the assumptions of the heat
source machine. In the proposed system,
the temperature of the cooling water
provided by the chiller was set as 15C,
while the COP of the chiller was set as 2.85.
In the conventional system, two air-source
chillers provided cooling water at a
temperature of 7C for the DOAS and indoor
FCU, and the COP was set as 2.48.
CO
2
heat pump and heat exchangers
Table 2 shows the assumptions made for the
CO
2
heat pump analysis. The regeneration
air temperature was fixed to 80C, while the
evaporation temperature of the evaporator
was set at 16C to prevent condensation in
the system. The system control method
requires that the CO
2
heat pump adjusts the
heating power to that needed (regeneration
heat load), and the cooling power generation
depends on the performance of the CO
2

heat pump. The expansion valve was used
to control the flow rate of the CO
2
working
fluid to match the heat balance of the heating and cooling sides of the CO
2
heat pump.
The heat balance calculations for the heat exchangers (air-heater and air-cooler) and CO
2
heat pump
as shown in Figure 4 were carried out to study the system performance. Because the critical
temperature of the CO
2
working fluid is 30.98C, which is lower than the regeneration air temperature,
the CO
2
working fluid in the higher pressure side of the refrigeration cycle is a supercritical gas, and
there is no condensing process (trans-critical cycle). The temperature of the supercritical gas declines
with the decrease in enthalpy, and the physical properties of the supercritical gas, such as density and
specific heat, change intensely. To calculate the heat-exchanging phenomenon between air-heater and
gas-cooler precisely, the air-heater was divided into 50 parts, and the heat balance for each part was
calculated. The physical properties of the CO
2
working fluid were as per the REFPROP (Version 7.09)
program.

Algorithm for CO
2
heat pump calculations
Figure 5 shows the algorithm for the CO
2
heat pump calculations. The heat balance between the
air-cooler (evaporator), air-heater (compressor), and inner heat exchanger can be described by
Equations 1~6, as shown in Figure 5.
After the heat balance calculations, the energy consumption of the CO
2
heat pump can be calculated
by Equation 7. To evaluate system performance, the heat source based overall COP of the proposed
system (COP
ps
) can be calculated by Equation 8, whose numerator is the sum of the cooling power of
the outdoor and indoor air units, while the denominator is the sum of the energy consumption by the
CO
2
heat pump and the air-source chiller when providing 15C cooling water.
In the conventional system as shown in Figure 3, the overall COP (COP
cs
) can be calculated by
Equation 9, whose numerator is the sum of the cooling power for the outdoor and indoor air units, while
the denominator is the sum of the energy consumption by the air-source chiller when providing 7C
cooling water.
Figure 5. Algorithm for CO
2
heat pump calculation
( )
a b com
h h m E = [7]
( ) ( )
( )
chi com
FCU SA
ps
E E
h h m h h m
COP
+
+
=
5 6 4 1
[Numbers q.v. Figure 2] [8]
( ) ( )
chi
FCU SA
cs
E
h h m h h m
COP
5 6 3 1
+
=
[Numbers q.v. Figure 3] [9]

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Results of the system performance analysis
Figures 6 and 7 show the air conditions for the proposed system and the conventional system plotted
on a psychometric chart. In the proposed system, no condensation occurred either within the
air-conditioning system or the indoor environment. In the conventional system, both DOAS and indoor
FCU cooled and dehumidified the supply air using 7C cooling water, thus condensation occurred twice
(Point 2 to Point 3, Point 5 to Point 6) in the system. The IAQ level, cooling power, energy consumption
and overall COP of the proposed system and the conventional system are shown in Table 3. In the
proposed system, the DOAS conditions the sensible and latent heat of ventilated outdoor air, and the
indoor latent heat of the hotel rooms. Thus the DOAS has greater cooling power than the conventional
0.004
0.006
0.008
0.010
0.012
0.014
0.016
0.018
0.020
0.022
15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85
Dry bulb temperature (C)
A
b
s
o
l
u
t
e

h
u
m
i
d
i
t
y

(
k
g
/
k
g
D
A
)
40
80
60

100 120

E
n
t
h
a
l
p
y
(
k
J
/
k
g
D
A
)
A
i
r
-
h
e
a
t
e
r
R
H
=
2
0
%
A
i
r
-
c
o
o
l
e
r
F
C
U
R
H
=
4
0
%
R
H
=
8
0
%
R
H
=
1
0
0
%
Figure 6. Psychometric chart for the proposed DOAS (Numbers q.v. Figure 2)
Number
Temperature
(C)
Absolute
Humidity
(kg/kg)
1 32 0.0196
1' 28.4 0.0141
2 48.9 0.0060
2' 34.6 0.0060
3 26 0.0105
4 26 0.0060
5 26 0.0100
6 19.6 0.0100
7 29.6 0.0160
8 43.9 0.0160
9 80 0.0160
0.008
0.010
0.012
0.014
0.016
0.018
0.020
0.022
10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Dry bulb temperature (C)
A
b
s
o
l
u
t
e

h
u
m
i
d
i
t
y

(
k
g
/
k
g
D
A
)
40
80
60
E
n
th
a
lp
y
(
k
J
/k
g
D
A
)
R
H
=
4
0
%
R
H
=
8
0
%
R
H
=
1
0
0
%
R
H
=
6
0
%
C
o
o
l
i
n
g

c
o
i
l

o
f

o
u
t
d
o
o
r
a
i
r

c
o
o
l
i
n
g

u
n
i
t
I
n
d
o
o
r

F
C
U

Figure 7. Psychometric chart for the conventional DOAS (Numbers q.v. Figure 3)
Number
Temperature
(C)
Absolute
Humidity
(kg/kg)
1 32 0.0196
2 28.4 0.0141
3 19.8 0.0131
4 26 0.0105
5 24.6 0.0111
6 15 0.0096
system. In the other hand, the indoor FCU of the proposed system provides only sensible cooling for
the hotel room, thus its cooling power is less than the conventional system. The total cooling power for
both systems shows the same value because the conditions for the outdoor and indoor air in both
systems are the same. As a result, the overall COP of the proposed system (COP
PS
) produces a value
of 3.24, which is higher than the overall COP (COP
CS
) of the conventional system. Note that the IAQ
level shown in Table 3 was judged as if condensation occurred in the system.
Discussions
According to the results performance analysis shown above, the proposed system demonstrates better
performance in terms of energy saving and IAQ. Furthermore, there is no need for a drain for
condensing water in this system (drain-less), and it also reduces maintenance fees. This also improves
the potential for interior design, because no drainpipe is needed for an indoor FCU in this system.
However, the proposed system has yet to be commercialized, thus the initial cost of the system is much
higher than for a conventional system. In practice, the proposed system can also be used in many
kinds of public buildings, such as hotels and offices, and is especially suitable for buildings which need
to meet stringent IAQ controls, such as hospitals.

CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, we proposed a new outdoor air system which applies the CO
2
combined desiccant
air-conditioning system with DOAS, and uses indoor FCU only for sensible cooling. As a result, the
overall COP of the proposed system demonstrates a higher value than conventional air-conditioning
systems. Furthermore, the proposed system induces no condensation either indoors or within the
air-conditioning system, thus improving the IAQ and reducing maintenance fees. In practice, the
proposed system can be used in many kinds of public buildings, such as hotels and offices, and is
especially suitable for buildings subject to stringent IAQ controls, such as hospitals.

NOMENCLATURE
P: Pressure (pa), Q: Heat exchange (kW), m: Mass flow rate (kg/h), h: Enthalpy (kJ/kg), T: Temperature
(K),
t
: Overall adiabatic efficiency of compressor, E: Energy consumption (kW)
[Subscripts]
c: Cooling side, h: Heating side, in: Inner heat exchanger, ac: Air-cooler, ah: Air-heater, i: Inlet of heat
exchangers, o: Outlet of heat exchangers, com: Compressor, a~g: State of CO
2
working fluid as shown
in Figure 4, SA: Supply air of DOAS, chi: Air-source chiller, FCU: Fan-coil unit.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank Mr. Hideo Asano (Mayekawa MFG. Co., Ltd.) for his advice on CO
2
heat
Table 3. Calculation results for conventional DOAS and proposed DOAS
Systems Conventional DOAS Proposed DOAS
Heat recovery
Total enthalpy heat
exchanger
Total enthalpy heat exchanger
& Sensible heat recovery rotor
IAQ level Low High
Outdoor air system 19.21 27.35
Indoor cooling Unit 36.60 28.46
Cooling power
(kW)
Total 55.81 55.81
Outdoor air system 2.95 7.26
Indoor cooling Unit 14.76 9.99
Energy
consumption (kW)
Total 17.71 17.25
Overall COP COP
CS
=3.15 COP
PS
=3.24
pump analysis.

REFERENCES
1. Y.-S. Tsay, S. Kato, R. Ooka, M. Koganei, N. Shoda, K. Nishida and K. Kawamoto (2006) Study
on Non-Condensing Air-Conditioning System Performance when Combining Desiccant Cooling
System with CO
2
Heat Pump, HVAC&R Research, Special Issue, Vol. 12, No. 3c, 917-933.
2. G. Meckler (1986) Innovative ways to save energy in new buildings, Heating/Piping/Air
Conditioning, May.
3. J. Dieckmann, K. W. Roth and J. Brodrick (2003) Dedicated Outdoor Air Systems, ASHRAE
Journal, Mar. 2003, 58-59.
4. K. M. Shank and S. A. Mumma (2001) Selecting the supply air conditions for a dedicated outdoor
air system working in parallel with distributed sensible cooling terminal equipment, ASHRAE
Transactions, Vol. 107, Pt. 1.
5. S. A. Mumma (2001) Overview of integrating dedicated outdoor air systems with parallel terminal
systems, ASHRAE Transactions, Vol. 107, Pt. 1.
6. The society of heating, air-conditioning and sanitary engineers of Japan (1989) Handbook of
building equipment, published by The Society of Heating, Air-Conditioning and Sanitary
Engineers of Japan (in Japanese).
7. Institute for Building Energy Conservation (1991) Handbook of hotel design and standard for
energy saving, published by Institute for Building Energy Conservation (in Japanese).
8. Petter Neksa et al. (1999) Development of semi-hermetic CO
2
compressors, 20
th
international
Congress of Refrigeration, IIR/IIF, Sydney.