Performance analysis of a desiccant evaporative cooling system under hot and humid conditions

The control of air conditioning latent and sensible load separately by using a desiccant dehumidifier operating in conjunction with evaporative cooler can reduce the air conditioning power requirement significantly. This system can also utilize the alternative resources of energy such as solar, waste heat, and natural gas effectively. In this article a mathematical model of desiccant evaporative cooling has been developed and the performance of the system is analyzed for its feasibility under the climatic conditions of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Different performance curves have been drawn to get optimum values of parameters under different operating conditions. Some new parameters such as sensible energy ratio have also been introduced for better prediction of system cooling capacity. The results showed that the proposed system is suitable and feasible solution to meet the high cooling demands for the conditions of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia with performance largely dependent on optimum selection of operating parameters. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 35: 1476–1484, 2016