Study of an innovative solar desiccant cooling system producing both dry air and chilled water.

A novel solar desiccant cooling system is proposed. The system includes two subsystems: desiccant dehumidification subsystem and evaporative cooling subsystem. They are used for dehumidifying the air and making chilled water, respectively. For the subsystem of chilled water producing, the influence of the effectiveness of cross-flow heat exchanger and the relative humidity of the dry air are discussed. It is found that the performance of this subsystem is sounded when the temperature of the supply chilled water is 15°C, with the cooling capacity more than 10 kJ/kg dry air and the thermal COP about 0.8. Moreover, the performance of the whole system is studied, Under ARI summer condition, the cooling capacity and the thermal COP of the proposed system are around 20 kJ/kg dry air and 1 respectively. It is proved that this novel system is feasible. And, as it can handle the sensible and latent heat load separately without the assistance of vapour compression system, it is superior to the hybrid desiccant cooling system to some degree besides overcoming the drawbacks of vapour compression system and simple desiccant cooling system.