Advanced performance of an open desiccant cycle with internal evaporative cooling

An enhanced evaporatively cooled open sorption cycle which can be driven by solar thermal heat is presented as an environmentally benign alternative to conventional air conditioning cycles. Experimental data of the core component- the desiccant coated heat exchanger - cooled by water evaporation is given. This evaporation of water in the heat exchanger leads to an increase in adsorbed water mass by 46% and an enhancement of the cooling capacity by factor 4.1 when compared to a solely air cooled process. The newly designed heat exchanger is then compared by a simulation analysis to data of an air cooled open sorption process published in earlier research. It is shown that the desiccant mass is used more efficiently in the more recent prototype. Further considering the evaporation in the heat exchanger underlines the more advanced performance that can be achieved with the new concept and prototype design.