Design, construction and preliminary test of a prototype of a heat-driven air-conditioning system integrated with marine aerosol removal

Hot and humid air with a high marine aerosol content, which is known as 3-high air and is ubiquitous in tropical coastal areas and islands, deteriorates living environments and severely damages human health. A novel type of heat-driven air-conditioning system integrated with marine aerosol removal (AC-MAR) is proposed in this study to treat 3-high air. An integrated prototype with an air treatment capacity of 3000 m3/h is designed and constructed. Function and performance tests on the integrated prototype are performed using auxiliary subsystems, including a marine atmospheric environment simulation subsystem, a heating and cooling water subsystem, and a measurement and control subsystem. The test results show that the integrated prototype has a fresh air treatment capacity of 3000 m3/h, where the fresh air state is 80% RH@30 °C. Air processing using the integrated prototype produces a supply air state of 55% RH@18 °C and decreases the aerosol content by over 94.7%. The system coefficient of performance (COP) is 0.4. Test results show that the proposed method/prototype is especially suitable for tropical islands with prominent energy supply shortages and problems associated with 3-high air