Novel air conditioning system using desiccant coated heat exchanger.

The individual control of temperature and humidity is important for a comfortable ambient environment. Typically, conventional air-conditioning systems perform dehumidification while cooling. This may decrease efficiency; moreover, a drain tube is required. With regard to humidification, an additional humidifier and a supply of water are required, and no-feed water humidification is desired. The desiccant draws increasing attention to humidity control with high efficiency. In this study, a novel air-conditioning system using a desiccant coated heat exchanger (DCHE) is proposed. The system has a DCHE as the third heat exchanger in addition to the original evaporator and condenser, and the DCHE enables the system to control the ambient air temperature and humidity with high efficiency. A numerical simulation was carried out in order to estimate the system performance. The energy conservation of the proposed system was calculated by considering sensible and latent heat transfer.