Desiccant dehumidification in air conditioning for a large commercial building

Abstract

A case study was done to investigate the performance of air conditioning systems for a large newly built supermarket. Data for routine operating conditions were gathered through an automatic data monitoring system and were downloaded for analysis of the system. An alternative conventional cooling system is designed and analyzed for comparison with the desiccant cooling system. The study showed that incorporating the desiccant dehumidification unit improved the performance of the air conditioning system, reduced operating costs, and increased the levels of human comfort, in addition to a simple reduction of humidity. The study also revealed the possible design improvement on the desiccants units. The improvement focused on pre-cooling the make-up air and dehumidifying it with the desiccant before the air blends with return air from the zone. The investigation produced significant information on design and selection criteria of the system and improvement on the system operation of the desiccant unit used for air conditioning systems for large commercial buildings. It is intended to incorporate this study into the thermal design or HVAC course in the mechanical engineering program.