Experimental investigation on performance of desiccant coated heat exchanger and sensible heat exchanger operating in series

As a novel solid desiccant component, solid desiccant coated heat exchanger (DCHE) is proposed by coating solid desiccant material to conventional sensible heat exchanger (SHE) surface. The idea of adopting a DCHE and an SHE operating in series is proposed and an experimental setup was built up to investigate its performance. Results show that with the use of an auxiliary SHE, the temperature variable rate increases, while about 4 °C lower outlet temperature can be obtained, the corresponding cooling power and COP increase by about 75% and 13% respectively. Besides, lower cooling water temperature is recommended to obtain enhanced system performance; system performance increases with increasing inlet air temperature and relative humidity ratio, the recommended air velocity is different with respect to different aims.