SBIR Phase I: Retrofit Dehumidifiers to Enable Greater than 50% Air Conditioner Energy Savings Via Elimination of Latent Loads

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的广泛影响/商业潜力侧重于开发空调（AC）的改进型除湿系统，以减少潜在负荷并节省超过50%的空调系统消耗的能源。全球空调每年消耗的能源超过2300亿美元，占全球二氧化碳总排放量的4%以上。SBIR一期项目的目标是为现有的交流基础设施开发一种嵌入式解决方案，从而大幅降低交流系统的能源使用和运营成本。这些嵌入式除湿系统有可能每年为行业节省1000亿美元的能源成本和高达10亿吨的二氧化碳排放。该项目开发的创新将有助于减轻全球气候变化的影响，同时通过帮助大幅降低交流系统的运营成本，确保全球获得负担得起的冷却系统。这个项目的智力优势在于它采用了一种液滴过滤方法，这种方法最初是为空间应用而首创的。这种过滤方法使由液体干燥剂喷雾反应器供电的改进型除湿器能够实现高速率，高效率的除湿。由于液体干燥剂的部署方法，该项目中的除湿方法与当今市场上其他最先进的方法有所不同，该方法可以实现液体和气体之间的高表面积接触。过滤方法通过使用三种不同的过滤器长度尺度，在非常低的压降（100帕斯卡）下捕获几乎100%的细液滴（30微米），从而实现高效除湿。米级过滤器是用毫米级螺旋孔增材制造的，可以实现对细液滴的低压降惯性捕获，这些细液滴通过毛细力被过滤器的微米级多孔介质吸收。这些过滤器使除湿机的运行效率比目前市场上的其他方法高6-8倍，并且具有非常高的处理速率，与其他技术相比，系统体积减少了20倍。这个第一阶段的项目将使除湿机从实验室规模的概念验证成熟为窗口规模的交流单元的系统原型。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project focuses on the development of retrofit dehumidification systems for air conditioners (AC) to reduce latent loads and save more than 50% of the energy consumed by AC systems. Air conditioners consume more than $230 billion in energy annually worldwide, accounting for more than 4% of total global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The goal of this SBIR Phase I project is to develop a drop-in solution for existing AC infrastructure to enable substantial reductions in energy use and operating costs for AC systems. These drop-in dehumidification systems have the potential to save the industry $100 billion in energy costs and up to 1 gigaton of CO2 emissions annually. The innovation developed in this project will help mitigate the effects of global climate change, while simultaneously ensuring access to affordable cooling systems globally by helping substantially reduce operating costs for AC systems.The intellectual merit of this project is in its utilization of a droplet filtration method, initially pioneered for space applications. This filtration method enables retrofit dehumidifiers that are powered by a liquid desiccant spray reactor that enables high-rate, high-efficiency dehumidification. The dehumidification approach in this project is differentiated from other state-of-the-art methods on the market today due to the method of liquid desiccant deployment, which enables high surface area contact between liquids and gasses. The filtration method enables high-efficiency dehumidification by capturing nearly 100% of fine droplets (30 micrometers) at very low pressure drop (100 Pascals) using three distinct filter length-scales. The meter-scale filters are additively manufactured with millimeter-scale helical pores that enable low-pressure-drop inertial capture of fine droplets, which are absorbed in the micrometer-scale porous medium of the filters via capillary forces. These filters enable dehumidifiers that operate 6-8x more efficiently than other methods on the market today and have very high process rates, resulting in a 20-fold reduction in system volume compared to other technologies. This Phase I project will mature the dehumidifiers from a lab-scale proof of concept to a system prototype for a window-scale AC unit.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.