Experimental performance investigation on a desiccant-assisted two-stage evaporative cooling system in hot and humid areas

The escalating demand for energy-efficient and eco-friendly air conditioning systems in buildings has spurred the development of comfortable, efficient, and cost-effective air handling system configurations. Desiccant cooling has shown a higher coefficient of performance (COP) compared to traditional vapor compression refrigeration (MVCR) systems. However, current desiccant cooling facilities struggle to decouple and efficiently handle indoor heat and moisture loads. The complexity of these facilities has kept intricate cooling systems remaining theoretical, requiring simplification and experimental investigation. This paper presents an experimental study on a compact, two-stage evaporative cooling system assisted by a liquid desiccant. A key innovation of this system is the inclusion of a two-stage heat exchanger that adeptly manages the decoupling of indoor heat and moisture loads under challenging high-temperature and high-humidity conditions. Performance analysis was conducted experimentally under three hot and humid climatic conditions using an optimized operating parameter scheme. Starting from an initial condition of 36.22 °C and a humidity ratio of 0.028 kg/kg, the proposed system achieves COP values ranging from 11.3 to 18.4 without compromising indoor comfort or facility compactness. Under high heat and high humidity conditions, the optimized system extracts 20 % of the product air as the secondary air source. It can reach a minimum supply air temperature of 18.44 °C, achieved under optimized conditions of low wind speed (1.0 m/s), high desiccant concentration (35 %), and substantial desiccant flow (0.09 kg/s). Experimental studies of this new system provide the possibility of achieving high efficiency in air handling over a wide range of temperatures and humidity.