Abstract—Desiccant cooling systems are heat-driven cooling units and they can be used as an alternative to the conventional vapor compression and absorption cooling systems. Its operation is based on the use of a rotary dehumidifier Desiccant Wheel (DW) in which air is dehumidified. The resulting dry air is somewhat cooled in a sensible heat exchanger Rotary Regenerator (RR), and then further cooled by an evaporative cooler. The resulting cool air is directed into the room. The system may be operated in a closed cycle or more commonly in an open cycle in ventilation or recirculation modes. A heat supply is needed in the system to regenerate the desiccant (natural Zeolite) and a low-grade heat at a temperature of about 60.95. C may be used. The thermal and reversible COPs of an open desiccant cooling system depend on operating conditions of the system. In this paper, we propose a desiccant cooling system with certain operating characteristics for all components. We use this operation as a standard model for calculating thermal and reversible COPs for both ventilation and recirculation modes of the system operation. Parametric studies are performed to investigate the effects of ambient temperature and relative humidity on the various COP terms and cooling load.

Index Terms—Desiccants, Desiccant cycle, First and second law analysis of desiccant cooling system

Cite: Gaurav Pundir and S N Mishra, "Analysis of Desiccant Cooling System," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol.1, No.3, pp. 431-438, October 2012.