XERIC climate-control system for energy-efficient electric vehicles: first experimental results and numerical evaluation of the overall performance

The paper reports the main developments and results achieved so far within the EU-funded H2020 XERIC project, which is aimed at developing a new climate control system that is able to increase Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) autonomy thanks to its high energy efficiency. The XERIC system combines a traditional Vapor Compression Cycle (VCC) with a Liquid Desiccant Cycle (LDC), by taking advantage of an innovative component, called Three-Fluids Combined Membrane Contactor (3F-CMC). The two experimental setups arranged to test LDC alone and the overall XERIC system are presented. Then, the experimental results obtained in the first test campaign are given and discussed. Finally, the numerical tool developed in the Matlab/Simulink environment for the evaluation of the performance of the overall XERIC system is introduced and a preliminary comparison between numerical results and experimental measurements is provided