Dehumidification potential of a solid desiccant based evaporative cooling system with an enthalpy exchanger operating in subtropical and tropical climates

The technical and economic attractiveness of a solid desiccant based evaporative cooling system depend on several factors: Configuration of the system components and their individual performance, availability of cheap but reliable regeneration heat source. In the tropical and subtropical regions, the air conditioning systems are expected to address not only the sensible loads but also, and most importantly—the loads due to higher outside humidity levels that can severely affect the thermal comfort of the building occupants. This paper reports on the dehumidification potentials of solid desiccant based evaporative cooling systems with an enthalpy exchanger operating in subtropical and tropical climates. In particular, the study presents the cooling and dehumidification capabilities of the enthalpy exchanger observed through the impact of its sensible and latent effectiveness on the thermal comfort of the conditioned space. The key performance indicators are split into two groups: (1) the thermal comfort of the conditioned space, and (2) the coefficient of performance. It was found that this cooling system with enthalpy exchanger performed better than the one without enthalpy exchanger in terms of dehumidification; however, the impact depends on the climate where the system operates.