An analysis of the innovative exhaust air energy recovery heat exchanger (original) (raw)
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Analysis and design of an air to air heat exchanger used in energy recovery systems
Journal of energy systems, 2022
With the continuous worldwide energy use increase, energy efficiency is gaining high importance. Consequently, many methods have been investigated for potential energy savings. One of these methods is the use of heat recovery systems. These systems basically re-use waste heat and reduce energy consumption. Also, they are increasingly used to reduce heating and cooling demands of buildings. Their main feature is to provide fresh air to the place which is heated by the exhaust air with the help of a heat exchanger (HEX) working between two different temperature sources. The most commonly used types of heat exchangers in ventilation systems are cross-flow and counter-flow heat exchangers. Cross-flow heat exchangers have a thermal efficiency in the range of 50-75% while counter-flow heat exchangers have 75-95%. Many studies have been carried out to increase the efficiency of this type of heat exchangers. In this study, different designs of crossflow and counter-flow exchangers are compared using ANSYS Fluent software. The aim is to determine how the plate surface geometry affects heat transfer and pressure drop. It is aimed to find the optimum design with maximum efficiency, high heat transfer and low pressure drop for heat exchangers. As a result, it has been observed that thermal efficiency increased from 18% to 60% when changing from cross flow to counter flow in flat plate design, while it increased from 25% to 77% in enhanced plate designs. For enhanced designs, counter flow heat exchanger is 52% more efficient than cross flow heat exchanger. Also, improvements to increase the surface area and turbulence in both flow types have increased heat transfer and thermal efficiency.
A Review of Heat Recovery in Ventilation
Energies
The purpose of the article was to present information on heat recovery in ventilation systems and to highlight what has not been sufficiently researched in this regard. A lot of information can be found on methods and exchangers for heat recovery in centralized systems. Decentralized, façade systems for cyclical supply and exhaust air have not been sufficiently researched. It is known that these devices are sensitive to the influence of wind and temperature, hence heat recovery may be ineffective in their case. The literature describes the aspect of heat recovery depending on the location in climatic zones, depending on the number of degree days (HDD). Attention was also paid to the risk of freezing of heat recovery exchangers. The literature review also showed the lack of a universal method for assessing heat recovery exchangers and the method of their selection depending on the climate.
Experimental Performance Analyses of a Heat Recovery System for Mechanical Ventilation in Buildings
Nowadays the increasing trend to make buildings more and more energetically efficient leads to an improvement of the thermal performance of the elements such us walls, windows and doors, making the envelope a strong barrier between the indoor and outdoor environment, also for air infiltrations. If this circumstance results useful for energy consumption reduction, it constitutes a problem for indoor air quality and comfort. Mechanical ventilation systems are often provided, and, at the aim of abating the thermal (or cooling) loads linked to the inlet of air from the external environment, heat recovery systems became more and more popular; for high values of air mass flow treated, many national regulations make the installation of heat recovery systems compulsory. An experimental test bench was built at the Thermal Engineering Laboratory of the University of Perugia, aimed at evaluating the performance of air heat recovery devices. The first measurements were carried out on a commercial plate-type heat exchanger, made of polystyrene. This plastic material is characterized by a low value of thermal conductivity, but its easiness of workability allows to increase the heat exchange surface, overcoming also issues linked to the weight and the cost of the product. The flow-rates, the pressure drops, and all temperatures of interest for the heat exchanger were acquired. The energy efficiency index of the heat recovery system was assessed with several tests conducted with different boundary conditions of the indoor and outdoor ambient, as well as different air flow rates. Results were compared with data gathered from the manufacturer, highlighting the points of contact and the differences between the experimental outcomes and the company information sheet, providing further details that are commonly not available.
Energy and Buildings, 2003
Current difficulties surrounding air conditioning systems involve an increase in input air aimed at improving indoor air quality (IAQ), the financial costs arising from energy consumption and external environmental impact, linked to the greenhouse effect (GWP) and the destruction of the ozone layer (ODP). One alternative technique which offers an adequate combination of IAQ and acceptable energy saving is the introduction of energy recovery systems using air extracted from air-conditioned premises. We have designed a mixed air-energy recovery system, consisting of two heat pipes and indirect evaporative recuperators. The experimental set-up used is described and the proposed energy recovery system is characterised. A staggered set-up has been chosen for the input air pipe and a parallel one for the extracted air for variable recirculation. By means of the trace gas method and photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) the amount of exfiltrated flow in the installation is measured. The energy characterisation of the mixed energy recovery system was performed by means of the experimental design technique. An analysis was carried out of the influence of factors such as temperature, flow, relative humidity, water flow, etc. on the basic characteristics defined by the mixed system: heat flow, heat efficiency and COP.
Thermal Science, 2019
In this work, thermal, humidity and enthalpy recover efficiency of innovative energy recovery exchanger is presented. The system under analysis allows adjustment of the humidity recovery especially useful in the winter period and forefend energy use for an anti-froze system of energy exchanger. It is shown that the presented method can achieve the real value for humidity and thermal efficiency above 80% and 90%, respectively. Such high efficiency was possible to obtain because the proposed system does not require energy consuming anti-freeze systems. The presented system is able to work even in extremely adverse outdoor air conditions (-20?C and humidity 100%).
A review of heat recovery technology for passive ventilation applications
E3S web of conferences, 2022
Regenerative heat exchangers are widely used in life support systems, gas turbines, boilers and other high-temperature industrial installations. These heat exchangers are used for cooling and heating gases, humidification and dehumidification of gases, heat recovery from high-potential heat carriers. Today, the increase in energy consumption and the increase in energy prices require a large-scale energy-saving policy in the creation of modern engineering structures-residential, commercial and industrial facilities alike. When designing and creating life support systems to save energy, it is advisable to use secondary energy resources, such as, for example, the heat of the air removed from the room. The energy intensity of conventional ventilation systems is on average 50-80% of the total energy intensity of the engineering systems of the facility where they are operated. The use of rotating regenerative heat exchangers in ventilation and air conditioning systems makes it possible to return up to 85% of heat to the system at a relatively low capital investment. In this regard, when improving such systems, considerable attention should be paid to the calculation, optimization and increase in the efficiency of heat exchangers. Thus, this work is about increasing the efficiency of rotating regenerative heat exchangers in ventilation and air conditioning systems.
Nowadays, important efforts are deployed to reduce our current residential building consumption. The most common retrofit option concerns the air tightness and the thermal insulation improvement. However, this latter retrofit option could decrease the air indoor quality because of a reduction of air infiltration flow rate. Installation of an air-to-air heat recovery system allows for an efficient combination between consumption reduction due to the air tightness improvement and acceptable air indoor quality. The study presented in this paper has been realized in the frame of the "Green +" project, which aims at developing decentralized heat recovery ventilation systems.
Energies, 2022
This paper suggests a heat recovery concept that is based on preheating/precooling the cold/hot fresh outside air by means of the relatively hot/cold exhaust air in winter/summer weather conditions. To investigate the feasibility of such a concept, an experimental setup is established to simulate conditions similar to an All-Air HVAC system. The prototype consists of a 6.7-m3 air-conditioned chamber by means of a split unit of 5.3-kW capacity. The heat recovery module consists of a duct system that is used to reroute the exhaust air from a conditioned chamber to flow through the fin side of a fin-and-tube heat exchanger of crossflow type. At the same time, outside, fresh air is flowing through the tube side of the fin-and-tube heat exchanger. A parametric study is performed to assess the amount of heat that can be recovered by varying the mass flow rates on both the duct and heat exchanger sides. The results show that up to 200 W of power can be saved for an exhaust flow rate of 0.1...
Technical and economical analysis of heat recovery in building ventilation systems
Applied Thermal Engineering, 1998
Abstraet--Heat recovery in ventilation systems can be obtained from both the sensible fraction and the latent fraction. The possible sensible and total heat recovery depends on the climate and on the operating period. Total heat recovery is limited in winter by the humidity of the supply air; this lowers the exchange capacity in the heating period.