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

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• 批准号: 2325126
• 负责人: Rawand Rasheed
• 金额: $ 27.49万
• 依托单位: HELIX EARTH TECHNOLOGIES INC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-15 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2325126&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Retrofit; Dehumidifiers; Enable

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.

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）I阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力着重于开发用于空调的改造除湿系统（AC），以减少潜在负载并节省AC系统消耗的能源的50％以上。空调每年在全球范围内消耗超过2,300亿美元的能源，占全球总二氧化碳（CO2）排放量的4％以上。该SBIR I期项目的目的是为现有的AC基础架构开发一个倒入解决方案，以大大降低AC系统的能源使用和运营成本。这些掉落的除湿系统有可能每年节省1000亿美元的能源成本，每年可节省1千克二千克的二氧化碳排放。该项目中开发的创新将有助于减轻全球气候变化的影响，同时通过帮助大大降低AC系统的运营成本来确保在全球范围内访问全球的负担得起的冷却系统。该项目的智力优点在于其最初用于空间应用程序的液滴过滤方法的利用。这种过滤方法可实现由液体干燥剂喷雾反应器供电的改造除湿剂，该喷雾反应器能够实现高速率，高效率的除湿化。由于液体干燥剂部署的方法，该项目中的除湿方法与当今市场上的其他最先进方法有所不同，这可以使液体和气体之间的高表面积接触。该过滤方法通过使用三个不同的滤波器长度尺度以非常低的压降（100 pascals）捕获近100％的细滴（30微米），从而实现高效率除湿化。仪表尺度的过滤器是用毫米尺度的螺旋孔加上制造的，可实现低压惯性捕获细滴的量，这些液滴通过毛细管在过滤器的微米尺度的多孔介质中吸收。这些过滤器使比当今市场上其他方法更有效地运行6-8倍的除湿剂，并且过程速率非常高，与其他技术相比，系统量降低了20倍。该阶段I项目将从实验室规模的概念证明到窗口尺度AC单元的系统原型。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响标准通过评估来支持的。