A solar-assisted regenerative desiccant air conditioning with indirect evaporative cooling for humid climate region

A solar-assisted regenerative desiccant air conditioning is proposed for humid climate regions. In addition, the indirect evaporative cooling is employed to reduce air temperature. The air conditioning system can work in three different modes: dehumidification (DE), dehumidification-indirect evaporative cooling (DE-IEC), and dehumidification-indirect evaporative cooling-return air (DE-IEC-RA), in response to different humid climate conditions. The working region and system performance of the three working modes are explored theoretically and experimentally. The corresponding temperature regions of the above three working modes are 22-26 degrees C, 26-34.7 degrees C and 34.7-40 degrees C, respectively. With these operational modes, the supply air temperature and humidity can be within 23.2-26.1 degrees C and 51.4-59.7 %. In DE-IEC and DE-IEC-RA modes, system cooling efficiency eta DE-IEC and eta DE-IEC-RA reach 1.0-2.79 and 1.93-2.70, respectively. Moreover, the relative humidity of the supply air after desiccant dehumidification can be kept below 60 % within 95 min. With solar-assisted electric heating regeneration, the desiccant regeneration time is 24-30 min, 18-28 min shorter than only solar or only electric heating regeneration.