Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

In Canada, at least half of the energy consumed in buildings is used for heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC). A substantial amount of energy is used to condition outdoor air in order to provide adequate ventilation air to buildings. Several air-to-air exchangers have been used to reclaim the otherwise wasted energy in exhaust air to precondition outdoor air before outdoor air is supplied to buildings. However, a group of air-to-air exchangers called fixed-bed regenerators have recently been applied to building HVAC systems, and their application is limited to only heat recovery. The aim of this project is to develop, test and optimize the performance of fixed-bed heat and moisture regenerators. The fixed-bed regenerators work by periodically reversing the direction of outdoor and exhaust air streams that flow through a heat/moisture exchanger. These regenerators potentially guarantee high efficiency for both heat and moisture recovery.