Energy and Exergy Analyses of an Air Membrane Heat and Mass Exchanger for Air Conditioning Applications

A comparison of energy and exergy analyses for an air conditioning system with and without an air membrane heat and mass exchanger was performed. The study considered several key performance parameters, including coefficient of performance, second law efficiency, exergy destruction rate, evaporative cooling rate, compressor input power, fuel depletion ratio, relative irreversibility, productivity lack, exergetic factor, and exergetic improvement potential. A membrane significantly improves the second law efficiency, while it has only a small effect on the coefficient of performance. However, in the presence of a membrane both the required cooling energy and the required input power decrease significantly. In addition, the total exergy destruction rate is lower when a membrane is used, and the evaporator has the highest irreversibility ratio compared with the other components. The total exergy destruction decreases, on average, by more than 50% when a membrane is used compared with the case when no membrane is used. Therefore, the second law efficiency increases when a membrane is used and this study reveals that it increases by more than 5%.