Desiccant Based Evaporative Air Condition System for Hot and Humid Climate
Abstract
Conventional air conditioning system fails to provide comfort conditions in humid areas. Moreover, the refrigerants used in the conventional air conditioning system not only contribute to the ozone layer depletion in stratosphere but also directly lead to global warming when released in the atmosphere. Desiccant based evaporative cooling system has the potential to be an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional air conditioning system. The objective of this work is to design and develop a solid desiccant based evaporative cooling system for hot and humid environment. The system consists of a radial blade solid desiccant wheel for the extraction of the moisture from the air, a combination of direct and indirect evaporative coolers to lower the temperature of air, and solar air heater to provide the regeneration heat for desiccant wheel. Results indicate that human comfort zone can be achieved in hot and humid conditions using the proposed solar regenerated desiccant based evaporative cooling system with 70% less energy as compared to its counter vapor compression air conditioning systems.