The research group of the University of CórdobaResearch Applied Thermal Engineering within the framework of the WeDistrict project, has created a renewable air cooling unit, known as RACU for its acronym in English (Renewable Air Cooling Unit). This is a … system that allows controlling the temperature, humidity and CO2 of the air inside a building in a way more effectiveand efficient than conventional air conditioning systems under different outdoor weather conditions.
This has been verified by the research team formed by researcher María Jesús Romero Lara and researchers Francisco Comino and Manuel Ruiz de Adana through more than 60 experimental trials carried out in the Air Conditioning Laboratory of the Leonardo Da Vinci Building on the Rabanales Campus and in which they have been varying the values of the outside temperature, the outside humidity and the air flow in order to, in the words of Romero Lara, “analyze the potential of application of the RACU to different climatic zones.
An efficient project with low electrical consumption
Thanks to this study published in the journal Energy Conversion and Management, the RACU prototype demonstrated a high capacity to cool and dehumidify the air. Process that is also carried out with a rlow electricity consumption. By taking into account the high capacity to cool and dehumidify, on the one hand, and the low electrical consumption used, on the other, RACU achieved a maximum energy efficiency coefficient of elevenwhile conventional air conditioning equipment usually shows an efficiency of 2.
Energy saving is not the only advantage of RACU compared to traditional systems. In addition to controlling the temperature, humidity and CO2 concentration of the air in buildings (in conventional air only the temperature is controlled), the prototype does not use refrigerants (which means a low environmental impact) and runs on air 100% exterior and with renewable energy sources. To this must be added the ability to increase its energy efficiency with severe climatic conditions, that is, where the temperature and humidity values are very high, which is another point in its favor compared to traditional systems in which the increase in outside temperature represents a decrease of the energy efficiency of the equipment, producing less cold and having greater energy consumption.
Technology prepared to combat heat waves
All this is thanks to the two main technologies that are integrated into the RACU prototype: a desiccant wheelwhich is responsible for controlling humidity, and a evaporative cooler indirect dew point, which allows reducing the temperature and controlling the CO2 in the air.
In this way, the prototype, which had already demonstrated its usefulness in the face of a heat wave and which is intended to be installed in buildings or district networks, “and can become a Referrer within hybrid air cooling systems in scenarios of heat events and global climate change,” explains researcher Romero Lara.
WeDistrict Project
The RACU prototype has been developed within the WeDistrict project, an international research project funded with almost 15 million euros by the EU and in which 21 European partners participate. This project aims to demonstrate that district networks, a system of networks that transport cold or hot water to provide hot or cold air conditioning service to a group of buildings, can operate with energy. 100% renewable.
For this, they are used different technologies such as low-emission biomass boilers, thermal storage tanks using molten salts, absorption machines, or solar energy technologies such as parabolic trough collectors, fresnel collectors or flat solar collectors.
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