Compressor / Desiccant (Hybrid) Units

The GENIUS hybrid air conditioners contain an energy exchanger that allows heat and moisture exchange by means of a proprietary liquid desiccant mechanism involving a permeable substrate. Also included are two standard refrigerant-based compressors. Evaporator and condenser energies are transferred to liquid desiccant by means of plate heat exchangers.

Return air is subject to the energy exchanger thus absorbing moisture and heat from the outside air. It is then exposed to desiccant pumped from the supply air channel where it has absorbed moisture. This desiccant is raised in temperature by heat transfer from the refrigerant-to-desiccant heat exchangers. The air, when passing through the desiccant wetted media, rises in temperature and is reduced in relative humidity sufficiently to evaporate moisture from the desiccant. This concentrated desiccant is returned to the supply air chamber. The air, now with high moisture content, is exhausted to the atmosphere via a water chamber which is used to remove excess heat from the compressor condenser.

The supply air may be viewed as having contacted three sources of energy removal. These include the energy exchanger, the cooling (evaporator) side of the compressor, and moisture removal using the heat from the compressor condenser. Depending upon outside conditions, the overall compressor CoP may approach three times that of standard systems when treating outside air to supply conditions.