Meet TauhaTauha

Name: Muhammad Tauha Ali
Research interest: Heat transfer, cooling, desalination
Email: mali@masdar.ac.ae

 

Research Summary

I am working on low-lift, radiant-cooling with pre-cooling control project being carried out at Masdar Institute (MI), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). In low-lift cooling, the compressor provides a minimum pressure difference for delivering the desired cooling effect. A variable speed/load matching compressor delivers the cooling load at highest energy efficiency for the same external temperature difference. The savings achieved over constant electric drives are reported between 20%-40%.

Energy use is further reduced by using radiant cooling to achieve cooling with higher chilled water temperature and less transport energy. Over 40% increase in system efficiency is reported to be achieved through radiant cooling. However, the radiant cooling system only handles sensible loads. Therefore, a separate ventilation system is needed to replace humid air with dry air. Among the different types of ventilation systems available for handling latent loads, desiccant dehumidification can achieve up to 25% energy savings over conventional systems.

For Abu Dhabi, it is estimated that sensible cooling accounts for around 80% of the buildings cooling load. Implementation of low-lift, radiant cooling with pre-cooling control can reduce this load by around 70% for Abu Dhabi.

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Fig 1: Estimates of load attributed to each weather component

 

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Fig 2: Low Lift Cooling T-s Chart

 

Selected Publications

•       M.T. Ali, H.E.S. Fath, P.R. Armstrong, “A comprehensive techno-economical review of indirect solar desalination” Sustainable and Renewable Energy Reviews Accepted/In Press

•       M. Mokhtar, M.T. Ali et al, “Solar-assisted Post-combustion Carbon Capture: Application in the Australian Context” Applied Energy Accepted/In Press

•       M.T. Ali, M. Mokhtar et al, “A cooling change-point model of community-aggregate electrical load,” Energy and Buildings, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 28-37, Jan. 2011

•       M. Mokhtar, M.T. Ali et al, “Systematic comprehensive techno-economic assessment of solar cooling technologies using location-specific climate data,” Applied Energy, vol. 87, no. 12, pp. 3766-3778, Dec. 2010.