Applied Thermal Engineering 203 (2022) 117912

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Applied Thermal Engineering

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Experimental investigation of an integrated absorption- solid desiccant air

conditioning system
Muzaffar Ali a, *, Muhammad Farhan Habib b, Nadeem Ahmed Sheikh c, Javed Akhter d,
Syed Ihtsham ul Haq Gilani e
a
Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila, Pakistan
b
Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila, Pakistan
c
Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering & Technology, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan
d
Department of Mechatronics Engineering, University of Chakwal, Pakistan
e
Mechanical Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610 Seri Iskandar, Malaysia

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Separate handling of sensible and latent components of building loads can be an energy efficient approach
Integrated system compared to simultaneous management of both. This paper presents a detailed experimental analysis of an
Solid desiccant energy efficient air conditioning system using solid desiccant integrated with absorption system for separate
Dehumidification
building thermal load handling. The experimental system consists of silica-gel based solid desiccant for latent
Thermal load
Absorption system
load handling, whereas the gas fired air-cooled NH3-H2O absorption chiller is used to handle sensible load of the
space. A chilled water-cooling coil heat exchanger is installed on the process side of desiccant cooling system to
integrate it with the absorption chiller. The performance of integrated absorption- solid desiccant system is
compared with a standalone conventional desiccant air conditioning system with a direct evaporative cooler
considering it as baseline system under wide range of operating conditions including air temperature, air hu­
midity, and regeneration temperature. The comparative analysis is performed in terms of supply air temperature,
cooling capacity, and coefficient of performance. The experimental results exhibit that supply air temperature of
the integrated system is 15.2 ◦ C compared to 24.6 ◦ C achieved by conventional desiccant system. Moreover,
COPth of the integrated system is also 50–55% higher than its counterpart and it is almost comparable with
double-effect absorption chiller. It is concluded that the integrated system using separate load management
approach is more efficient for HVAC applications.

on the development and investigation of energy efficient strategies at

1. Introduction
The world-wide energy consumption is rising with an exponential
rate and is expected to increase by 35% from 2010 to 2035 [1]. Almost
up to 50% of building energy and 20% of overall total energy is used for
air conditioning applications [2]. Due to rising demand for thermal
comfort under rapid growth in population and urbanization especially in
developing countries, the demand of air conditioning has increased
manifold in the past few decades [3]. The conventional air-conditioning
systems especially vapor compression devices have several drawbacks
including high electricity consumption along with greenhouse emissions
[4]. In this regard development of a sustainable cooling system is
imperative for the future air-conditioning applications.
Over the years, many research studies have been conducted focusing
the component as well as system levels. The alternates have shown
somewhat promising results, however the design and commercialization
cycle for most of the alternate air conditioning systems are still under
process. While the available commercialized technologies such as
desiccant & absorption cooling methods, offer some innovative in­
tegrations for desired results, some recent studies have also shown
promising impact of integrating renewable energy sources for the im­
provements of coefficient of performance (COP) of these systems. For
instance, a study of absorption system [5] revealed that use of variable
speed pump instead of fixed speed pump for solar loop enhanced the
solar fraction by 11%. It is also noted that as compared to conventional
system, a considerable amount of energy can be saved by using closed
type sorption methods for cooling of a building [6]. In terms of COP, a
double stage absorption system showed that COPth increased from 1.1 to

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: muzaffar.ali@uettaxila.edu.pk (M. Ali).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2021.117912
Received 22 August 2021; Received in revised form 30 November 2021; Accepted 2 December 2021
Available online 7 December 2021
1359-4311/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M. Ali et al.
Nomenclature
Abbreviations
COP Coefficient of performance
DAC Desiccant air-conditioning system
h Specific Enthalpy (kJ/kg)
IADS Integrated absorption desiccant system
ṁ Mass flow rate (kg/s)
M-Cycle Maisotsenko Cycle
N Speed of Revolution (rev/h)
Q Rate of Heat transfer (kW)
T Temperature (˚C)
Greek Letter
ω Humidity ratio (g of water vapors/kg of dry air)
Subscripts
a Air
DW Desiccant Wheel
in Inlet
pr Process Air
rt Return air
rg Regeneration air
th Thermal
1.4 [7]. In another study, a conventional vapor compression pump (used
as reference system) of 2.5 COP was used to act as a baseline system. The
solar thermal integration for the heat pump for three different climates
showed up to 80% energy saving using 1.8 m3 volume of storage tank
and 50 m2 area of solar thermal collectors [8]. The results of an exper­
imental study on solar based H2O-LiBr absorption system designed for
40 m2 room showed that up to 65% requirement fulfilled with COPth of
0.6 [9]. It is important to mention here that the conventional vapor
compression systems use chilled air to re-humidify the conditioned air
for latent load control. This inadvertently burden the cycle as the ther­
mal comfort requirements sometimes necessitates the air reheat (typi­
cally in AHU systems) to bring air temperature as well as humidity in
desired levels. Thus the alternative cooling & heating leads to extensive
energy consumptions [10,11].
That the thermal performances of standalone conventional and
commercial systems are severely affected when simultaneously handling
both sensible and latent loads. The desiccant based system enables
separate load handling where direct/indirect evaporative cooling caters
for sensible cooling in addition to desiccant based chemical water
removal. However, the air-cooling capacity is major limitation that re­
quires large areas of heat exchange and/or evaporation for desired re­
sults. One the other hand, vapor compression systems as well as
absorption-based cooling methods conveniently achieve the sensible
cooling. This provides an opportunity of hybridization of desiccant and
absorption systems that is capable of separate handling of sensible and
latent loads. In a recent investigation [12], it is observed that hybrid
system achieved separate management of sensible and latent loads of
10.94 kW peak and 4.44 kW peak respectively. Moreover, the COPth of
the hybrid system (1.52) was also found greater than stand-alone system
(0.55).
In humid climates, experiencing large latent loads, considerable
amount of energy is consumed to maintain the humidity level within
desired limits. Therefore, hybridization of desiccant and conventional
systems can be helpful in efficiently handling of both types of loads.
Such hybrid systems especially coupled with vapor compression system
have been reported in the literature. For instance, an experimental
investigation of a hybrid system with 1.8 kW cooling capacity exhibited
viability for hot and humid climates only [13]. It was observed that
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Applied Thermal Engineering 203 (2022) 117912
room supply air temperature remained below 16 ◦ C for ambient tem­
peratures of 30 ◦ C, 34 ◦ C, 38 ◦ C and 41 ◦ C. In another study [14], a
ground coupled desiccant based dehumidification system was used for a
wide range of regeneration temperatures. It was concluded that the
thermal performance of the system affected severely by increasing
regeneration temperature. The supply air temperature was observed in
the range of 21 ◦ C to 23 ◦ C and specific humidity of 0.008 kg/kg. The use
of evaporative cooling on performance of cooling system has also been
investigated using direct evaporative coolers. In a study [15], three
different configurations of the cooling system were examined based on
the placement of direct evaporative cooler. It was concluded that the
configuration having an additional evaporative cooler had maximum
COPth (0.44–0.72) compared to other configurations and 54% more
efficient in terms of energy saving. A numerical study of hybrid solar
assisted system with adsorption technology performed efficiently with
COPth greater than 0.4 and outlet temperature of less than 20 ◦ C [16]. In
another type of integration, a vapor compression system integrated with
desiccant system was able to save 37.5 % electricity while maintaining
regeneration temperature at 80 ◦ C, supply air temperature at 30 ◦ C and
relative humidity at 55 % [17]. Fong et al. [18] used solar assisted
desiccant cooling and heating system integrated with absorption chiller
for a low-rise building in subtropical climate of Hong Kong. The system
achieved about 17.7% to 18% saving in the primary energy. A desiccant
system integrated with geothermal system had proved good perfor­
mance for hot and humid climate. The hybrid system was able to save
primary energy of 68%, 43.8% and 53.3 % when compared to conven­
tional vapor compression system, stand-alone ground source heat pump
system and stand-alone absorption system, respectively [19]. Jani et al.
[20] carried out a simulation-based study of desiccant system using
TRNSYS for two different configurations i.e. ventilation and recircula­
tion configurations. The results of the system designed for a cooling load
of 30 kW, showed that the COPth during recirculation mode was 40%
greater than ventilation mode. An experimental study of composite
desiccant system, using a composite CaCl2/jute, showed that the pre­
cooled air increased the dehumidification rate up to 54.1% with an
average COPth of 0.46 by using evacuated tube solar source for regen­
eration [21]. In another experimental study related to hybrid desiccant-
vapor compression system, it was found that the system could save
25–28% energy leading to 35–40 % reduction in CO2 emissions [22].
Moreover, the hybrid system configuration was found 12.4% more
efficient than conventional system in terms of COPth for hot and humid
climate of Egypt. Another hybrid configuration was constructed by
integrating a conventional vapor compression system with thin multi­
layer bed of activated alumina with three option of single, double and
triple layers [23]. It was also observed that when a direct evaporative
cooler was integrated with desiccant material, the cooling capacity of
the system was increased but a high regeneration temperature was
required to operate the system. [24]. A hybrid absorption-compression
system with liquid desiccant system had resulted in 34.97% primary
energy saving and decreased regeneration temperature from 100 ◦ C to
60 ◦ C [25]. An experimental study revealed that a desiccant system with
ground coupled borehole type heat exchanger can have around 70%
electricity saving compared to conventional system [26]. It was also
concluded from an experimental investigation [27] that a desiccant
system integrated with vapor compression hybrid system performed
better in hot and humid climates. The system was extremely sensitive
towards outdoor conditions and it is capable to reduce 61.7% humidity
ratio of process air as compared to inlet air. The comparison between
conventional air-conditioning system and hybrid desiccant system with
indirect evaporative cooler i.e. Maisotsenko Cycle showed that the
hybrid system was 60–65% more efficient than conventional system
[28]. Some other investigations also evaluated the performance of
hybrid desiccant systems using different hybridization techniques and
configurations [29–32]. In a recent study, a cogeneration hybrid HVAC
system consisting of vapor compression, liquid-desiccant, and absorp­
tion chiller was established. This hybrid HVAC system was used to
M. Ali et al.
Fig. 1. Conventional Desiccant air-conditioning system.
Fig. 2. Schematic presentation of the conventional desiccant air-conditioning system.
match the thermal demand of a building of 20,000 m2 in Beijing, China.
This study revealed that CO2 emission reduced up to 40% and 2 years are
enough to recover extra initial cost [33]. Another cogeneration system
based on a desiccant HVAC system and a natural gas-fired Micro Com­
bined heat and power (MCHP) was experimentally evaluated in labo­
ratory. It is found that about 30 % primary energy saving was achieved
along with 40% reduction in CO2 emission [34]. In another recent study,
a hybrid solar-powered desiccant system integrated with vapor
compression system was analyzed and concluded that the hybrid system
was a promising option as compared to the conventional vapor
compression based air-conditioning system. Moreover, the performance
of hybrid system proved well in transient hot and humid climate con­
ditions in view of energy consumption and maintaining required indoor
conditions [35].
Based on the above literature review, it is observed that various in­
tegrated cooling and heating systems, in terms of various combinations
of conventional and innovative techniques, have been evaluated under
different climate conditions. However, it is very subjective to differen­
tiate between absorption and electrical chillers or any other technology.
Actually, electric chillers always outperform absorption chillers in terms
of COP. In other words, comparing these systems based on COPs is not
fully justified, as mechanical energy is more expensive than thermal
energy. Hence, sometimes the second law (or exergetic) efficiency is
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Applied Thermal Engineering 203 (2022) 117912
used to compare different refrigeration systems. It is observed that the
second law (or exergetic) efficiency of absorption system is of the same
order as that of a compression system. In addition, the electric chillers
perform dehumidification to achieve latent loads by bring the temper­
ature of air below its dew point and then re-heating is required in many
cases which is not considered as energy efficient strategy. Moreover,
part load performance of absorption systems is relatively good and
adiabatic thermal efficiency does not drop off at part load like it does
with mechanical refrigeration systems [36]. It found that many studies
have used the idea of hybridization with and without renewable energy
integration (primarily as heat from solar energy). While few simulation-
based studies of integrated systems have also been reported. However, it
is pertinent to mention that the impact of separate load handling using
hybrid configurations has been rarely studied in the past. Only limited
experimental work is performed, with the idea of separate load handling
through integration of absorption and solid desiccant cooling systems.
Therefore, in the current study, a detailed experimental comparative
analysis is performed at the system level instead of component level. It is
achieved through establishment of two experimental setups: (1) Con­
ventional desiccant air conditioning system (DAC) which is used as a
baseline system for comparison, and (2) integrated absorption-desiccant
system (IADS) that involves silica-gel based solid desiccant system and a
gas fired air-cooled NH3-H2O absorption chiller. Experimentation is
M. Ali et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 203 (2022) 117912

Fig. 3. Schematic presentation of the integrated system.

Fig. 4. Absorption chiller.

performed under a wide range of operating conditions, such as air inlet
temperature, air inlet humidity ratio, and regeneration temperature.
Initially, experimentation is performed for the conventional desiccant
evaporative cooling system under controlled inlet air conditions. Then,
the integrated absorption-desiccant system is experimentally analyzed
under similar operating conditions. Finally, a detailed comparative
analysis of the two systems is carried out to determine the feasibility of
separate load handling. The performance of the hybrid system is eval­
uated under separate load handling strategy and the results are pre­
sented. It is concluded from the comparative analysis that such an
integration of solid desiccant with absorption chiller leads to the system
performance of a single-effect absorption chiller almost equivalent to
double-effect absorption chiller. Moreover, the analysis by considering
gas-fired system provides a way forward for utilizing waste heat re­
covery from industries to achieve separate load handling. Finally, this
work can serve as the basis for further integration studies and numerical
simulations for system optimization and benchmarking.

4
M. Ali et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 203 (2022) 117912

Fig. 5. Experimental Setup of integrated absorption desiccant system (IADS).

Table 1 Table 3
Operating and design parameters of the experimental setup. Operating parameters and their range.
Parameter Value Parameter Range (state)

Material of desiccant wheel Silica gel Temperature of inlet air (◦ C) 25–45 (T1)
Desiccant wheel model number ECDS-151210-17 Humidity ratio of inlet air (g/kg) 12–18 (ω1)
(EcoTech) Regeneration air temperature (◦ C) 60–80 (T8)
Thickness of Desiccant wheel (m) 0.2 Flow rate of process air (kg/h) 660
Diameter of Desiccant Wheel (m) 0.37 Flow rate of regeneration air (kg/h) 660
Cross section area (m2) 0.11 NHW (turns/h) 1200
Process side fractional area (%) 0.5 NDW (turns/h) 10
Capacity of air handling for both wheels (m3/h) 765
Material of Heat wheel Aluminum
Diameter of Heat Wheel (m) 0.37 for dehumidification of desiccant wheel for this system is 4 kg/h if the
Thickness of Heat Wheel (m) 0.21 regeneration temperature is 70 ◦ C and air flow is 800 kg/h. The outdoor
Heat Wheel sensible effectiveness 0.75
Rated power of motors to drive wheels (kW) 0.75
air enters at stage 1 and passes through desiccant wheel where it is
Rated power of exhaust and supply fan (kW) 0.75 dehumidified and heated due to heat of adsorption at stage 2. This air
Nominal cooling capacity of absorption machine (kW) 15 then is cooled down through heat recovery wheel at point 3 and moves
Condenser and absorber type Air cooled through direct evaporative cooler for further cooling but with moisture
Nominal COP of absorption system 0.67
addition in order to achieve thermal comfort and finally supply air at
stage 4 move to target space. Whereas, in the regeneration side, the
room return air at stage 5 flows through direct evaporative cooler and
Table 2 cools down followed by heat recovery wheel at stage 6 where air gets
Measuring instruments and their specifications. hot. This hot air is further heated by passing through electric heater in
Parameter Measuring Device Accuracy Range order to get required heat of regeneration (stage 7–8) and finally the
Temperature of air AM-2302 0.5 C
◦
− 40 ◦ C to 100 ◦ C desiccant wheel is regenerated and exhausted through the system at
Relative humidity of air AM-2302 2–5% 0% to 100% stage 9.
Flow rate of air Manometer (Dwyer) ±3% 10 psi to 15 psi The process flow schematic diagram of conventional (ventilation
mode) desiccant air-conditioning system (DAC) is shown in Fig. 2.
The IADS consists of two sub-systems to implement the idea of
2. Description of the proposed system
separate load handling. The vapor absorption system is used to handle
sensible load using chilled water from the system and desiccant system
In the current work, a conventional desiccant evaporative air con­
handles the latent load by extracting humidity by desiccant wheel from
ditioning system (DAC) is considered as a baseline system that consists
hot and humid air that is entering into the system. Heat recovery wheel
of desiccant wheel for dehumidification, heat recovery wheel for sen­
is used to exchange sensible heat from hot air to the wheel. The complete
sible heat exchange, two direct evaporative coolers (DEC) and a con­
process of air-conditioning is described with the help of schematic dia­
ventional heater to heat air for regeneration as shown in Fig. 1. The
gram shown in Fig. 3. The key difference between the setups is instal­
material of solid desiccant rotary wheel is silica-gel and the heat re­
lation of liquid to air heat exchanger through which the chilled water
covery wheel is simply a rotary heat exchanger. The nominal capacity

5
M. Ali et al.
Fig. 6. Comparison between DAC, and IADS.
Fig. 7. Supply air state points of the two systems on psychometric charts.
from the absorption system is being circulated (stage 3–4) instead of
direct evaporative cooler. The nominal cooling capacity of absorption
system is 15 kW and the condenser type is air cooled. Moreover, air
temperature, humidity and pressure sensors are installed at critical
points for the measurement of different operating parameters through a
data logger.
3. Experimental setup
In the current study, the experimental setup comprised of a heat
recovery wheel, a desiccant wheel, a cooling coil heat exchanger,
climate condition control section at supply side, a vapor absorption
chiller, a supply fan, an exhaust fan and a regeneration chamber.
Nominal capacity of desiccant dehumidifier is 3.5 kg/h at an air flow
rate of 660 kg/h with regeneration temperature at 80 ◦ C. Inlet air con­
ditions in terms of temperature and humidity are controlled through a
climate condition control section at both supply and return sides. This
climate control section comprises of an electric heater to heat the water,
a spray-type humidifier to adjust the humidity of air, a heating coil air-
6
Applied Thermal Engineering 203 (2022) 117912
water heat exchanger to adjust the temperature of air stream, a tem­
perature and humidity sensors. Moreover, the chiller consists of air-
cooled condenser and absorber having nominal cooling capacity of
around 15 kW with nominal COP of 0.67 [37]. Set point temperature is
adjusted to the required value using the dedicated control panel. The
chilled water from evaporator is directed towards cold water storage
tank. The experimental setup of the vapor absorption chiller is shown in
Fig. 4. In addition, the surface temperature of cooling coils is always
kept above dew point temperature to ensure only sensible heat ex­
change. It is achieved by keeping the VARS evaporator temperature
constant at 8 ◦ C and providing chilled water around 10–12 ◦ C to the
cooling coils. The air dew point temperature is around 13 ◦ C, whereas,
the averaged surface temperature of cooling coils is around 15 ◦ C.
Afterwards, using pumps, chilled water is supplied to cooling coil
heat exchanger to exchange sensible heat of water with dry and hot air.
The complete arrangements and process flow of the experimental setup
of integrated absorption-desiccant system is shown in Fig. 5.
The experimental procedure is as follows, first of all the desiccant air-
condition system get started and atmospheric air enters to the condition
M. Ali et al.
Fig. 8. Effect of inlet ambient conditions of air on supply air temperature.
control section at inlet side and the required inlet condition (air tem­
perature and humidity) is achieved in this section and air is then sent to
the desiccant wheel for dehumidification. Air gets dried from desiccant
wheel and then went towards heat wheel for heat recovery. Air tem­
perature drops to some extent in heat recovery wheel and then air enters
in the air-water heat exchanger in which sensible heat exchange take
place and air gets cooled above dew point temperature. In air-water heat
exchanger chilled water come from the chilled water tank of absorption
system and after circulating from the heat exchanger it goes back to the
tank. Finally, dry and cool air come in the room (cooling space) after
exchanging sensible heat in the heat exchanger. Then air from room
enters to the condition control section at outlet side and required con­
ditions of air is achieved. After that air goes toward the heat recovery
wheel for heat exchange and then goes into the regeneration chamber in
which air further gets heated for regeneration purpose. Then this heated
air passes through the desiccant wheel to extract moisture from the
wheel and regenerated it so that the wheel further able to extract
moisture from the incoming air to the system. Temperature and hu­
midity sensors are being placed at positions where values to be needed
and a data logger is used to record values from sensors.
Some important design parameters of IADS are given in Table 1.
3.1. Measuring instrumentation and uncertainty analysis
The parameters that are considered during the experimentation
included air temperature, relative humidity, and air flow rate. Each
parameter has been measured at critical positions in the system to
investigate the performance of IADS as shown in Fig. 3. Air flow rate for
process side and return side has been calculated with the help of
7
Applied Thermal Engineering 203 (2022) 117912
pressure difference that was recorded by standard manometers. Tem­
perature and relative humidity were recorded by a sensor of AM2302
type and NI data logger was used for the purpose of data logging and
recording.
All the sensors calibrated with standard sensor after placing all
sensors in the duct and continued varying humidity and temperature of
regeneration air in the return side. In the experiment, uncertainty is
always related with the primary measurement that has been using in the
experiment. So, uncertainties in the performance parameters has been
calculated using error formula propagation that was proposed by Mc
Clintockas follows and Kilne [38]. Uncertainties in performance pa­
rameters can be calculated as,
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
W− y = (
∂y
Wx1)2 + (
∂y
Wx2)2 + (
∂y
Wx3)2 + ⋯
∂x1 ∂x2 ∂x3
Total uncertainty calculated in cooling capacity and COP was 8.9%
and 9.8 % respectively.
General specifications of different instruments are given in Table 2.
3.2. Performance indicators
In the current work, the system performance has been measured in
terms of humidity ratio of supply side, temperature of supply air, cooling
capacity of overall system or cooling effect (Qc) and thermal coefficient
of performance (COPth). The COPth is considered which excludes the
parasitic loads (fans, pumps etc.). Thus, COPth is determined as ratio
between the total cooling effect produced to the total heat energy
required by the overall system.
M. Ali et al.
Fig. 9. Effect of inlet ambient conditions of air on the humidity ratio of supply air.
Qctotal
COPth =
Qreg + Qg
Where,
Qctotal is the total cooling effect produced by the overall integrated
system (kW) including cooling effect (CE) produced by desiccant cooling
system and the nominal cooling capacity of the vapor absorption system
i.e. 15 kW. Whereas, Qg is the nominal heat input of vapor absorption
system i.e. 23 kW [36].
CE = ṁa,pr (h5 − h4)
The heat input for regeneration of desiccant wheel of the desiccant
system is determined by:
Qreg = ṁa,rt (h8 − h7)
3.3. Measurement procedure
Experimentation was performed under wide range of operating pa­
rameters like humidity ratio, temperature, and air flow rate. A para­
metric change in the values of these variable was carried out to assess
the impact of change in ambient conditions on supply conditions as well
as system performance. Experimentation of both IADS and DAC con­
figurations were performed under similar operating conditions. The aim
of this study is to extensively analyze the systems performance under
wide range of real climate and operating conditions. The selected range
of various like air temperature i.e. 25–45 ◦ C and humidity ratio i.e.
12–18 g/kg are typical upper and lower limits encountered in different
climates. Whereas, the range of regeneration temperature i.e. 60–80 ◦ C
Applied Thermal Engineering 203 (2022) 117912
is selected based on the minimum and maximum moisture desorption
(1)
temperature of silica gel to analyze the variation of amount of regen­
eration heat required with supply air conditions. All other fixed oper­
ating parameters are related to the design specifications of the
experimental setup. The parametric range and measuring state points of
the variables according to Fig. 3 along with the system design values
used in the analysis is listed in Table 3.
The conditions of inlet and return air in terms of humidity ratio and
temperature were achieved from conditions control section at each sides
of the cycle i.e., process as well as regenerative sides. For each set of
parametric change, in terms of controllable inlet/process variable,
experimental setup was properly prepared and sensors were allowed to
achieve steady conditions then the outlet variables were recorded
through data acquisition system. Similarly, for the subsequent set of
experimentation, the process/inlet parameters are appropriately upda­
ted and the next set of readings was taken. Humidity ratio of inlet air,
temperature of inlet air and regeneration temperature of air were varied
according to the range given in Table 3. Supply air conditions of IADS
and DAC such as supply air humidity ratio (ωsp), supply air temperature
(Tsp), cooling capacity and COPth of the system were determined.
4. Results and discussion
In the current work, a comprehensive experimentation of IADS is
carried out to investigate the performance of the system. Experimenta­
tion is done for a wide range of operating parameters. Inlet ambient
conditions of the system comprises of inlet air temperature, air humidity
ratio and air flow rate at supply and return side. The system performance
8
M. Ali et al.
Fig. 10. Effect of inlet ambient conditions and temperature of regeneration air on the temperature of supply air.
is monitored in terms of supply air temperature, supply air humidity
ratio, cooling capacity and COPth of the system. Moreover, the investi­
gation is extended to examine the effect of variation in regeneration
temperature along with inlet conditions on supply air temperature and
supply air humidity ratio. The main focus of the study is a comparative
analysis between IADS and DAC.
The process comparison of DAC and IADS on psychometric chart is
presented in Fig. 6 with the set point conditions as inlet temperature
35 ◦ C, inlet humidity ratio 14 g/kg, regeneration temperature 70 ◦ C,
return air humidity ratio 12.5 g/kg and return air temperature 27 ◦ C
from the space. The connections between state points 4 and 5 as well as
between 4′ and 5 are shown because, generally, the supply air (4 and 4′ )
to the target space which handles the load can be used for regeneration
side as a return air (state point 5) at temperature around 27 ◦ C. This is
typical case of “Ventilation cycle”. However, in some other cases,
ambient air can also be used for regeneration side. It can be observed
that there is significant difference in the performance of both systems as
the supply air temperature 24.6 ◦ C is achieved for DAC and for IADS it is
15.2 ◦ C. Hence, improved supply conditions for IADS enhances the
cooling effect of the system compared to DAC.
It is important to mention that the points shown in the Fig. 6 and
Fig. 7 are indicating the supply air conditions as a primary air i.e. the air
9
Applied Thermal Engineering 203 (2022) 117912
which is leaving the system. Subsequently, the air temperature and
humidity ratio will increase accordingly under load. Thus, these are not
the conditions of the cooling zone. When this supply air condition is
delivered to the targeted zone then the thermal comfort (22–24 ◦ C and
around 50% relative humidity) is achieved to ensure desired load.
In addition, for comparative analysis, supply air conditions of DAC
and IADS are shown in Fig. 7. It is cleared that supply air temperature for
IADS is well below enough to meet the required room load to achieved
desired comfort level even at low regeneration temperature i.e. 70 ◦ C.
Moreover, supply air humidity ratio of IADS (9.6 g/kg) is less than DAC
(11.8 g/kg) because in DAC moisture is added through direct evapora­
tive cooler after heat wheel.
4.1. Effect of inlet ambient air conditions on the temperature of supply air
Ambient air conditions can have a significant influence on the per­
formance of the integrated system. Fig. 8 indicates the effect of variation
in inlet air temperature i.e. 25 ◦ C to 45 ◦ C at fixed regeneration tem­
perature of 70 ◦ C on supply air temperature for different inlet humidity
ratio i.e. (a) 12 g/kg, (b) 14 g/kg, (c)16 g/kg and (d) 18 g/kg. It can be
observed that high inlet air temperature results high supply air tem­
perature. However, IADS has resulted much lower supply air
M. Ali et al.
Fig. 11. Effect of inlet ambient conditions and temperature of regeneration air on the humidity of supply air.
temperature compared to DAC due to chilled water supply. Thus, IADS
can handle more sensible load. Regarding inlet air humidity ratio,
especially at high value of 18 g/kg, DAC is unable to ensure desired
thermal comfort. Where, IADS, still provides low enough supply air
temperature which can maintain required thermal conditions of the
target space. This is due to the reason that the more humid air requires
more efficient dehumidification that is only possible when regeneration
air temperature is also high. At higher humidity ratio of inlet air IADS is
best as at higher humidity ratio, the supply air temperature slightly in­
creases. But in case of DAC, supply air temperature increased by
increasing humidity ratio of inlet air due to less evaporation caused by
direct evaporative cooler.
4.2. Effect of inlet ambient air conditions on the humidity ratio of supply
air
Air humidity ratio of supply air is another key parameter to ensure
indoor thermal comfort. Therefore, the effect of inlet air conditions on
outlet humidity ratio of the air being supplied to room is analyzed as
indicated in Fig. 9. Four inlet humidity ratios are considered at constant
regeneration temperature of 70 ◦ C. According to ASHRAE standard, the
upper acceptable limit of air humidity is 12 g/kg for human thermal
comfort. It can be analyzed that by increasing inlet temperature, supply
10
Applied Thermal Engineering 203 (2022) 117912
air humidity ratio increases to a small extent. The reason is that the
efficiency of dehumidification for desiccant wheel drops by increasing
inlet air temperature. However, with an increase in humidity ratio of
inlet air supply air humidity ratio also increased. Supply air humidity
ratio for IADS is well with the acceptable upper limit (Fig. 9a,b) due to
efficient absorption and regeneration of desiccant wheel. But, in case of
high inlet air humidity (Fig. 9c,d), high regeneration temperature is
required as discussed in section 4.3. Whereas supply air humidity ratio
of DAC is violating this acceptable limit due to direct evaporation.
4.3. Effect of regeneration temperature on supply air conditions
Fig. 10 shows the effect of inlet ambient temperature and regener­
ation temperature of air on supply air temperature. Three regeneration
temperatures are considered i.e. 60 ◦ C, 70 ◦ C, and 80 ◦ C with fixed air
humidity ratio of 14 g/kg. It can be analyzed that supply air temperature
increases for both systems with an increase in regeneration air tem­
perature. Although, absorption and desorption of air moisture will in­
crease but the temperature of dry air exiting from desiccant wheel also
increases. Subsequently, supply air temperature is increased with an
increase in regeneration temperature. In addition, IADS is much better
compared to DAC system in terms of low air supply temperature.
Moreover, regeneration air temperature also influences supply air
M. Ali et al.
Fig. 12. Variation of cooling capacity at different ambient air conditions.
humidity ratio as shown in Fig. 11. It can be observed that high regen­
eration temperature results in more desorption of air moisture and
consequently high absorption on process side. Therefore, supply air
humidity ratio decreases with an increase in regeneration air tempera­
ture for the both systems. However, in case of IADC, the decrease in
humidity ratio is less compared to DAC because the later has direct
evaporative cooling, but it is almost always within the upper acceptable
limit of human thermal comfort i.e. 12 g/kg, except at low regeneration
temperature of 60 ◦ C. So, for IADS, humidity ratio of air at the point after
heat recovery wheel remains same as the humidity ratio of supply air.
Furthermore, the reason in the decrement of supply air humidity ratio
with increase in regeneration temperature is that more hot air re­
generates the heat wheel more efficiently i.e. more moisture contents are
extracted by a more heated air compared to less heated. So, desiccant
wheel absorbs more moisture from inlet entering air and highly dry air
exits the desiccant wheel that is resulted in the decrement of humidity
ratio of supply air.
4.4. Analysis of cooling capacity of the integrated system
It is evident that the effect of inlet ambient conditions in terms of
temperature and humidity ratio on cooling capacity of the system is
significant as shown in Fig. 12. Cooling capacity of both systems
decrease with an increase in inlet air temperature due to decreasing
dehumidification effectiveness and increasing supply air temperature.
Whereas, for both systems, with an increase in humidity ratio of inlet air,
cooling capacity decreases because of two reasons: (1) higher supply air
temperature for more humid air at Treg = 70 ◦ C, and (2) higher supply air
11
Applied Thermal Engineering 203 (2022) 117912
humidity ratio for more humid air at Treg = 70 ◦ C. Moreover, the cooling
capacity of IADS is 2 kW more than that of DAC. Moreover, another
cause of more cooling capacity of IADS is that the system supply air at
much low temperature due to chilled water-cooling coils compared to
DAC under same operating conditions.
4.5. Analysis of COPth of the integrated system
The thermal coefficient of performance (COPth) also has a dynamic
role to critically analyze the performance of the system as shown in
Fig. 13. Variation in COP with respect to air inlet temperature at
different humidity ratio i.e. 12, 14, 16 and 18 g/kg is presented. This is
the most important parameter to indicate the performance of any ther­
mal system. The performance of both systems decreases with an increase
in inlet air temperature because supply air temperature rises and sub­
sequently cooling capacity decreases along with COP. However, IADS
always resulted with high COP. Moreover, performance of both systems
decrease with increase in inlet humidity ratio which is due to high latent
load resulting at high inlet air humidity ratio. However, in overall, COP
of IADS is much higher than DAC which s means the performance of
IADS is better even in higher humid conditions and COPth of IADS is
50–55% more than DAC because of higher cooling capacity of IADS.
Moreover, in case of IADS, sensible load and latent load are handled
separately, sensible part is handled by absorption chiller i.e. cooling coil
heat exchanger and latent part is handled by solid desiccant dehumid­
ification system. So, by load separation the performance of the overall
system has increased significantly. It is obvious that such integration has
resulted high COP which is almost comparable to double effect
M. Ali et al.
Fig. 13. Comparative analysis of COPth of the both systems at different ambient air conditioning.
absorption chiller.
5. Conclusion
In this study an experimental evaluation is performed under a wide
range of inlet conditions and comparative performance analysis of two
systems is presented (1): desiccant system integrated with absorption
system (IADS), and (2): conventional desiccant air-conditioning system
(DAC). Experimental setup is developed to perform experimentation on
IADS under same operating inlet conditions of both systems.
By experimental investigation and comparative analysis, it is
concluded that:
• Supply air temperature is always less in case of IADS i.e. around
16 ◦ C compared to DAC at all operating inlet conditions even at low
regeneration air temperature.
• Cooling capacity of IADS is about 2 kW more than that of DAC. In
addition, it is determined that the cooling capacity decreases with an
increase in inlet air temperature and this decreasing rate is greater
for more humid air.
• COPth of IADS is considerable higher than that of DAC even for high
humid air. COPth of IADS is 50–55% more than DAC and almost
comparable with double-effect absorption chiller.
• Performance of IADS is satisfactory even in high humid climate
conditions, however, at 18 g/kg or more, high regeneration tem­
perature of about 80 ◦ C) is required.
• For IADS, no moisture is added during the heat exchange between
supply air and chilled water.
12
Applied Thermal Engineering 203 (2022) 117912
• For high humid ambient air, high regeneration temperature is
needed to meet the upper acceptable limit of thermal comfort.
Moreover, the integrated absorption-desiccant system is better op­
tion for air conditioning applications where latent loads are significant.
It is determined that when inlet air humidity ratio increases the per­
formance of DAC decreases, so, supply air conditions do not satisfy
desired thermal comfort. Whereas the performance of IADS is not much
affected when inlet air humidity ratio is increased, i.e. even at high
humidity ratio, IADS provides around 15–16 ◦ C supply air temperature
which is good enough to ensure the desired thermal comfort of the target
space. Thus, the IADS system using separate load management approach
is more efficient than conventional DAC systems for HVAC applications.
It is also important to highlight that one of the major issues with use of
solid desiccant wheels, especially for small capacity systems is the initial
cost. Integration of vapor absorption system also adds to the initial cost
significantly. Considering these economic issues, a detailed economic
analysis could be valuable.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
Authors are thankful to Higher Education Commission of Pakistan
M. Ali et al.
(HEC) for providing financial support for this work through Technology
Development Fund (TDF 03-337 project).
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