Desiccant solar air conditioning in tropical climates: I—Dynamic experimental and numerical studies of silicagel and activated alumina

This paper presents a dynamic study of moist air dehumidification in view of its use in an air conditioning process by evaporative cooling in tropical climates. A special device has been built to study dehumidification of tropical-like inlet air, through a fixed compact bed of silicagel and activated alumina. The compact desiccant storage is composed of two parallel beds to reduce the pressure drop. A good agreement is obtained for our experiment, and the computed amount of cycled water from the numerical model in the adiabatic process. This analytical model is used to simulate a complete air conditioning open cycle operating with hot and humid air.