Open solid desiccant cooling air systems: A review and comparative study

The present work is an overview of new methods aimed to provide air conditioning while avoiding CFC emissions by using low grade energy such as solar energy or waste heat. It deals as well with heat and mass transfers in these installations; the desiccant cooling installations composed mainly of a desiccant bed, a heat exchanger and a humidifier. The ventilated air is cooled through these installations to reduce its temperature and adjust its humidity. In this study a cylindrical fixed bed is used instead of a desiccant wheel. The liability and efficiency of the established numerical tool was tested and validated by comparison against numerical and experimental works from the literature. The aim is to give insight on the different desiccant cooling installations by a general literature survey and also to study numerically different configurations of desiccant cooling systems. The temporal evolution of air temperature and humidity at the exit of each element of the desiccant cooling installations were plotted and analyzed.