Applied Thermal Engineering 128 (2018) 1476–1487

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Research Paper

Experimental evaluation of a solid desiccant system integrated with

cross flow Maisotsenko cycle evaporative cooler
M. Kashif Shahzad a,⇑, Muzaffar Ali a, Nadeem Ahmed Sheikh b, Ghulam Qadar Chaudhary c,
M. Shahid Khalil a, Tanzeel Ur Rashid a
a
Energy Engineering Department, University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila, Pakistan
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, HITEC University, Taxila 47080, Pakistan
c
Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila, Pakistan

h i g h l i g h t s

Solid desiccant dehumidifier was integrated with cross flow Maisotsenko cooler.

Performance of MC-DAC was experimentally investigated over a wide range of operating conditions.

MC-DAC can provide comfort conditions at low regeneration temperatures of 70 °C in subtropical climatic conditions than DAC.

MC-DAC system is 60–65% more efficient than conventional DAC in terms of COP.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper presents the performance investigation of a solid desiccant dehumidifier integrated with
Received 10 July 2017 Maisotsenko cycle (M-Cycle) based cross flow heat and mass exchanger (MC-DAC). The experimental test
Revised 16 August 2017 rig consisting of a silica gel based desiccant wheel and a heat recovery wheel is coupled with M-Cycle
Accepted 21 September 2017
indirect evaporative cooler. The effect of wide range of inlet air parameters such as ambient temperature,
Available online 28 September 2017
humidity ratio, and regeneration temperature on the performance of integrated system was analyzed and
compared with the conventional desiccant air conditioning (DAC) system. Set of experiments were car-
Keywords:
ried out for both systems at constant process as well as return air mass flow rates under different oper-
Solid desiccant
Maisotsenko cycle
ating conditions. MC-DAC system was observed to be around 60–65% more efficient than the other
Cross-flow HMX system in terms of COPth providing same supply air conditions at low regeneration temperatures.
Evaporative cooling Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction undeniable, especially from the context of energy starved coun-

The world’s energy consumption is rising at an exceptional rate
and is being estimated that it will rise about 35% from 2010 to
2035 [1]. The total energy consumption by the building sector is
about 30–40% and about 50% of this is being consumed by the
air-conditioning appliances to provide human comfort [2]. It is
obvious from the facts that the significant portion of energy is
being consumed to maintain the indoor conditions comfortable
for the humans. Moreover, this increasing consumption of energy
is causing global warming rise throughout the world due to higher
emission of greenhouse gases in the environment. So, the need for
alternative means of energy generation and efficient appliances is
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: shahzadk7861@gmail.com (M. Kashif Shahzad).
tries, to accommodate the changing face of energy provision.
Traditional air conditioning systems relying on vapor compres-
sion cycle, usually operate in two processes. First, the air is cooled
below the dew point by condensing moisture which leads to low
evaporating temperature and poor system performance. This
cooled air is then dehumidified to the desire humidity level in
the second process and is reheated to the desired indoor tempera-
ture, which results as overall higher energy consumption. One of
the most promising solutions to all of the aforementioned prob-
lems is to replace these traditional systems with the desiccant
air-conditioning [3]. These systems combine the desiccant device
with direct evaporative coolers for the moisture removal and then
subsequent cooling. Two different technologies are being used for
dehumidification purpose: liquid and solid desiccants. Liquid des-
iccant systems consist of an absorber and regenerator. These are
better dehumidifiers and require low regeneration heat than solids

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2017.09.105
1359-4311/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 M. Kashif Shahzad et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 128 (2018) 1476–1487
Nomenclature
CC system cooling capacity, kW
COP co-efficient of performance
DAC desiccant air conditioning system
DEC direct evaporative cooler
H enthalpy content in the air stream, kJ/kg k
HMX heat and mass exchanger
_
m air mass flow rate, kg/s
MC-DAC integrated Maisotsenko cycle and desiccant air condi-
tioning system
M-Cycle, MC Maisotsenko cycle
N rotational speed, rev/hour
Q heat transfer rate, kW
but there are drawbacks too e.g. higher initial installation cost, cor-
rosion factor in heat exchanger and proper monitoring of saline
concentration [4]. On the other hand, solid desiccants which also
functions due to partial pressure difference between the air flow
and its surface. Alumina silicate, silica gel and zeolite are most
commonly used adsorbents in the form of fixed blades, as rotary
wheels or cross flow beds [5]. Rotary wheels are more appropriate
for air conditioning applications as they can operate easily without
any disruption.
A traditional ventilation cycle based desiccant evaporative cool-
ing system is shown in Fig. 1, which comprises a desiccant wheel,
rotary heat exchanger and direct evaporative coolers. Rotary heat
exchanger pre-cools the dehumidified air which is further pro-
cessed through direct evaporative cooler for cooling [6,7]. The main
drawback of these systems is that there is moisture addition to the
dehumidified air, in the direct evaporative cooling, resulting in
poor system performance and uncomfortable provision of indoor
conditions. This poor system performance is due to the fact that
direct evaporative cooler’s thermal effectiveness is limited to the
wet-bulb point of inlet air stream. Moreover, regeneration heat
requirement of such systems increases in hot and humid climates,
where high regeneration temperatures (90–120) °C are not easily
achievable.
In view of above mentioned drawbacks, new technologies and
methods are being simulated, experimented and studied to
enhance the effectiveness of desiccant air conditioning systems.
Montazeri et al. [8] performed CFD based simulations to evaluate
evaporative cooler’s performance. It was observed that system’s
sensible cooling capacity for the inlet water of 35.2 °C can be
enhanced to 40%. Moreover, the temperature gradient between
inlet water and inlet air was increased from 0 °C to 8 °C. Chen
et al. [9] analyzed a desiccant material made from the mixture sil-
ica gel, sodium polyacrylate and polyacrylic acid to determine best
mixing ratio. This analysis resulted that such desiccant material
has 41% more sorption capacity than silica gel as sorptive material.
Fig. 1. Schematic of a typical Desiccant Air Conditioning (DAC) System.
1477
T temperature, °C
x humidity ratio, g/kg
Subscripts
DW desiccant wheel
HW heat wheel
in inlet or intake air
sup supply air
Reg regeneration air
P process air
R return air
Th thermal
She et al. [10] studied a hybrid refrigeration system with liquid
desiccant based evaporative cooling system for subsequent air
cooling. The liquid desiccant based system used thermal energy
from the condenser to derive it and the obtained results deter-
mined the optimal proportions used for liquid desiccant under dif-
ferent operating conditions. Later on, Jani et al. [11] analyzed a
hybrid system using mechanical compression and solid desiccant
through TRNSYS. The system was simulated under cooling load
of 1.8 kW and the obtained results indicated that system is more
effective in hot and humid climates. Kim et al. [12] experimentally
evaluated a liquid desiccant based evaporative air-conditioning
system using outdoor air conditions. System used water side free
cooling arrangement with desiccant solution to increase system
effectiveness. The results highlighted that the water temperature
required for cooling is higher for desiccant solutions than the con-
ventional cooling water. Moreover, the system was good from eco-
nomic point of view expecting that energy savings might
compensate the initial cost.
It is clear from all of the aforementioned studies that several
studies have been done on the desiccant systems using direct evap-
orative cooling mainly. However, one prominent issue with this
system is the high regeneration temperature requirement apart
from its limitation to work in hot and humid climates. Therefore,
researchers focused on different techniques to solve the problem
by integrating indirect evaporative coolers with desiccant systems.
Elgendy et al. [13] performed a simulation study on the desiccant
air-conditioning system with direct/indirect evaporative coolers
using TRNSYS and EES. The study concluded that the desiccant sys-
tems with indirect evaporative coolers have more COP than tradi-
tional systems. Gao et al. [3] studied numerically a desiccant
system integrated with counter flow indirect evaporative cooler
by using low grade heat source for regeneration purpose. The effec-
tiveness of desiccant wheel and counter flow heat and mass
exchanger was assessed based on the number of heat transfer units
(NTUs) and the operating parameters. This study indicated that for
1478 M. Kashif Shahzad et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 128 (2018) 1476–1487
the best performance of the system, inlet air temperature should
be less than 35 °C and moisture content should be less than 18 g/
kg. Gao et al. [14] analyzed experimentally a liquid desiccant sys-
tem integrated with M-cycle based indirect evaporative cooling.
The results indicated that the dehumidification process has direct
effect on the cooling capacity of integrated system. Moreover the
system was good in energy balance in the range of ±20% with the
experimental conditions. Saghafifar et al. [15] modeled and per-
formed seasonal simulations on different configuration of solid
desiccant system integrated with Maisotsenko cycle based evapo-
rative cooler for the UAE climate. The results indicated that new
integrated system in ventilation and recirculation mode is capable
to operate in worst climatic conditions as compared to traditional
systems. Pandelidis et al. [16–18] performed numerical modeling
and analyzed different indirect evaporative coolers like cross flow
HMX, Counter flow and Cross flow HMX based on M-Cycle inte-
grated with desiccant system for the low and medium climates.
This study indicated that system can operate at low regeneration
temperatures even at 60 °C depending on the inlet parameters.
It can be seen that significant work has been done to discover
new methods and configurations to improve the desiccant based
air conditioning. However, no experimental study has been
reported on integrated solid desiccant system with M-cycle cross
flow HMX. Therefore, the current study provides an experimental
comparison between the conventional and integrated systems
using cross flow configuration under a wide the range of operating
conditions.
2. System description
2.1. Cross flow M-Cycle indirect evaporative cooler
In conventional indirect evaporative cooling process air is
cooled to the wet bulb temperature of inlet ambient air. Maisot-
senko [19–21] invented a new indirect evaporative cooling config-
uration, known as M-Cycle is shown in Fig. 2. This cooling
technique is claimed to cool the hot air to the desired low temper-
ature range using cross flow heat exchanger. M-cycle have same
wet and dry sides of the plate as compared to the traditional indi-
rect evaporative cooler but has different flow configuration. This
modified configuration has the ability to cool the hot dry air (Point
1) below the wet bulb and to the dew point of inlet air (Point 1, 2).
More details about the heat and mass transfer mechanism can be
found in [6]. Zhan et al. [22] performed a study to compare cross
flow HMX and simple indirect evaporative cooler. It was observed
that M-Cycle is 16.7% more effective than conventional indirect
evaporative cooler. Moreover, M-Cycle has dramatic rise in its cool-
ing effectiveness with the rise of inlet temperature but it is less
effective in the high moisture conditions.
To solve the M-Cycle’s limitation viability for the humid cli-
mates, its integration with desiccant system has been studied here.
Fig. 2. Working principle and Psychrometric representation of M-Cycle HMX [22].
In this system, humid air is passed through the desiccant media
and the dehumidified air is cooled to the dew point temperature
through M-Cycle evaporative cooler. An experimental setup con-
sisting of desiccant air condition system integrated with M-Cycle
is used to investigate the effect of different inlet temperatures as
well as humidity ranges on the overall system performance.
2.2. Integrated Maisotsenko cycle-desiccant air conditioning system
(MC-DAC)
Schematic diagrams of the M-Cycle cross flow indirect evapora-
tive cooler and the integrated desiccant cooling system are shown
in Fig. 3. The integrated system comprises two parts: first part is
for the dehumidification and initial cooling purposes while the sec-
ond part is for subsequent dew point cooling of the inlet air.
First part consists of a desiccant wheel, rotary heat recovery
wheel and auxiliary heaters to regenerate the desiccant wheel.
Heat and mass transfer processes in the whole system are shown
in the Fig. 4(a), where air at the inlet point is assumed to be pre-
treated to the required temperature and moisture state. Hot and
humid air is dehumidified through the rotary desiccant wheel by
adsorbing water (1–2) and this dehumidified heated air due to
the adsorption of water is then passed through rotary heat wheel
(2–3) to precool the air. This pre-cooled air is then brought into
the cross flow indirect evaporative cooler and is passed through
working and product channels. Air flowing through the product
(dry) channels is cooled at stage (3–4) due to the temperature gra-
dient by the water evaporation in the wet channel. Some part of
the pre-cooled air is passed to the wet side through the perfora-
tions created in the dry side of the plates and sensibly exchanges
heat with adjacent dry channels flowing vertically upside. The air
in the wet channels gradually approaches the saturation stage
flowing across the guides and is released into the environment.
At the same stage, air in the product channels is cooled gradually
to the dew point temperature by exchanging heat to the wet side
causing evaporation. One of the main advantages of this indirect
evaporative cooling is that there is no moisture addition to the pro-
duct air in addition to significantly lower temperatures, while in
traditional evaporative cooling moisture is added into air stream
while having relatively higher temperatures.
3. Experimental setup
3.1. Test chamber
The experimental setup for the MC-DAC system is shown in
Fig. 4. The integrated system consists of a solid desiccant wheel,
heat recovery wheel, M-Cycle cross flow heat and mass exchanger,
water spraying system, two fans, and auxiliary heaters for regener-
ation purpose. An arrangement consisting of hot water heaters,
heat exchanger and a humidifier was used to create inlet ambient
 M. Kashif Shahzad et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 128 (2018) 1476–1487 1479

Fig. 3. Schematics of (a) M-Cycle cross flow HMX and (b) MC-DAC system.

conditions to the desiccant wheel. Water spraying system used for
cross flow HMX consists of a pump, water tank, valves and sprin-
klers. MC-DAC is the main experimental rig, in which dehumidified
and precooled air is passed through cross flow HMX for cooling
purpose.
During the experiments, three steps procedure were followed to
achieve the desired experimental parameters and perform differ-
ent operating scenarios: (1) the inlet air was pretreated in an aux-
iliary ambient conditions generator to process the air through
desiccant system at desired temperature and humidity ratios. (2)
Process and return air flow rates were set equal using frequency
modulation unit. (3) Dehumidified and precooled air is then passed
through cross flow HMX for further cooling, water spraying is used
to add water to the wicked (Working) channels. Once all the
required parameters are achieved and set values were maintained,
the experiments were performed. The detailed parameters of this
integrated system are listed in the Table 1.
3.2. Measuring instruments
Air parameters before and after each component of the inte-
grated system were measured to analyze the performance of inte-
grated MC-DAC and traditional DAC system. The measured
parameters include the air temperature, humidity and flow rate.
The air flow rates of the supply and return air were calculated by
the pressure difference, measured using the standard manometers.
1480 M. Kashif Shahzad et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 128 (2018) 1476–1487

Fig. 4. Experimental setup for the integrated MC-DAC system.

Table 1 analyzed in term of the parameters: supply air temperature

Design characteristics and operating parameters of the experimental setup. (Tsupply), supply humidity ratio xsupply , cooling capacity (CC) and
system coefficient of performance (COP). The thermal co-efficient
Parameter Value
of performance, COPth of the system is usually expressed as the
Desiccant wheel
ratio between the cooling capacity or the cooling effect produced
Desiccant material Silica gel
Model number ECDS-151210-17 by the system and total heat required for the regeneration [23].
(EcoTech)
CC
Wheel diameter (mm) 370 COPth ¼ ð1Þ
Wheel thickness (mm) 200 Q reg
Overall cross section area (m2) 0.11
Fractional area of process zone 0.5 where
Nominal capacity (at Treg = 80 °C, Air 3.5 kg/hr
Flow = 660 kg/hr) _ p ðh5  h4 Þ
CC ¼ m ð2Þ
Air handling capacity 450 CFM
Heat wheel _ r ðh7  h6 Þ
Q reg ¼ m ð3Þ
Wheel diameter (mm) 370
Wheel thickness (mm) 210
M-Cycle indirect evaporative cooler 4. Experimental methodology
Length of HMX, m 0.90
Width of HMX, m 0.28
Height of HMX, m 0.48 Before starting performance analysis on the integrated solid
Channel type Rectangular desiccant and Maisotsenko cycle based cross flow HMX air condi-
Channel height, mm 25 tioning system, initial testing of both systems was performed by
Channel width, mm 5
assessing the effect of inlet ambient conditions, regeneration tem-
Wall thickness, mm 0.3
Wick material thickness, mm 0.1 perature and mass flow rates. Thorough experimentation on both
Rated power of driving motors for wheels 0.75 kW the systems was performed under the same inlet ambient condi-
Rated power of supply and return air fans 0.75 kW tions, regeneration temperatures, mass flow rates and the same
return air conditions. The range of parameters for analysis was per-
formed is listed in Table 3.
Temperature, relative humidity were measured using (DHT-22) The ambient air conditions (temperature and humidity) at the
sensors and Arduino programs was used for data logging. The spec- inlet of desiccant wheel and return air conditions at the inlet of
ification of different measuring instruments is listed in the Table 2. heat recovery wheel were generated using a pre-conditioner. This
pre-conditioner was consisting of electric heaters, humidifier, tem-
perature and humidity sensors. The experimental setup was run at
3.3. Data reduction the initial conditions, until the inlet parameters were set to a stable
state according to scenario and the data acquisition system was
To assess the system performance, different air parameters run to collect data until the current scenario is completed to the
were measured during the experimentation and were used to mea- set parametric range. After completing each scenario, experimental
sure the overall system performance. System performance was setup was set back to initial conditions and the similar operation
was performed for the next scenario.
Table 2
This analysis was carried for the wide range of humidity ratios
Specifications of different measuring instruments.
ranging from medium to high. The whole analysis was performed
Parameter Measuring Device Accuracy Range by considering regeneration temperature in the range of 60–
Air flow rate Manometer (Dwyer) ±3.0% 10–15 psi 80 °C according to the inlet ambient conditions. It is important
Air temperature DHT-22 ±0.5 °C 40–125 °C here to mention that the regeneration heat production is not the
Relative humidity DHT-22 2–5% 0–100%
subject of this study, the study is focused to assess the system
 M. Kashif Shahzad et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 128 (2018) 1476–1487 1481

Table 3 Furthermore, it can be seen from the Fig. 5 that integrated MC-
Range of operating condition parameters. DAC system supplies the air at 9.6 g/kg while the DAC system is sup-
Parameters Range plying at 11.8 g/kg at the same regeneration temperature of 70 °C. It
Inlet air temperature (°C) 25–45 is due to the fact that DAC system increases the moisture in the sup-
Regeneration air temperature (°C) 60–80 ply air, which can lead to the uncomfortable indoor conditions.
Inlet air moisture (g/kg) 12–18 Therefore, in the case of DAC system, high regeneration temperature
Return air temperature (°C) 26–30 is required to dehumidify the ambient air to such an extent that it
Return air moisture (g/kg) 12–14
Process air flow (kg/h) 660
should be supplied in comfort range after direct evaporative cooling.
Return air flow (kg/h) 660 Moreover, return air which is used to regenerate the desiccant
NDW (turns/hour) 10 wheel is dryer in the case of MC-DAC system and have more capacity
NHW (turns/minute) 20 to absorb the moisture from process ambient air. This is one of the
reasons that such a system can operate at lower regeneration tem-
peratures. The downside of the M-Cycle is that a portion of the pre-
performance of integrated MC-DAC system and compare it with treated air is diverted into the working channels, which leads to the
traditional one. CFM decrement. To fulfill the CFM requirement, the system should
be coupled with larger desiccant wheel.
5. Results and discussion
5.2. Effect of the inlet ambient temperature and humidity ratio
5.1. Comparative analysis between the systems
The effect of inlet ambient temperature with varying humidity
The psychrometric comparison of the integrated MC-DAC and ratio on the supply air temperatures of both the systems at con-
DAC systems based on inlet ambient air temperature of 35 °C, inlet stant regeneration temperature of 70 °C and constant return air
moisture of 14 g/kg, regeneration temperature of 70 °C, return air conditions (27 °C and 12.5 g/kg) is shown in the Fig. 7. It can be
temperature of 27 °C and 12.5 g/kg moisture for return condition observed that the supply air temperature is increasing with rise
is shown in Fig. 5. It can be observed that a significant difference of inlet ambient temperature at constant inlet humidity. This is
in the working of both the systems is evident as the supply air tem- due to the fact that the rising ambient air temperature results in
perature achieved from both MC-DAC and DAC systems is 18.1 °C higher air temperature at the desiccant wheel outlet and the pre-
and 24.6 °C respectively, under the same operating conditions. cooled air at the inlet (point 3) of evaporative cooler has higher
Such low temperatures are achieved due to the considerable rise value. Moreover, the wet bulb temperature of dehumidified air
in the cooling effectiveness of the cross flow HMX with the rise rises with the increasing inlet air temperature which causes lower
in temperature. Fig. 6 indicates supply air points for both the sys- dehumidification efficiency of desiccant wheel. The effectiveness of
tems. It can be observed from the chart that the MC-DAC supplies evaporative coolers primarily depends on the wet bulb tempera-
the air at lower temperature than conventional system and can ture of inlet air. So, the rising wet bulb temperature results as
keep the conditioned space within comfort range at such low higher supply air temperatures from the system. Similar the
regeneration temperature of 70 °C. negative effect of more humid air on the supply air temperature

Fig. 5. Comparison between the conventional DAC and integrated MC-DAC systems.
1482 M. Kashif Shahzad et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 128 (2018) 1476–1487

Fig. 6. Psychrometric chart indicating supply air points for both systems.

Fig. 7. Effect of inlet ambient temperature and humidity on the supply air temperature.

can be observed in the results. This is due to the reason that the
higher inlet humidity ratio to the desiccant wheel requires more
efficient dehumidification which is possible only by supplying
higher regeneration temperature.
It can be observed from the results that there is about 4.0 °C rise
in the supply air temperatures of both the systems when humidity
is increased from 12 to 18 g/kg at constant regeneration tempera-
ture of 70 °C The key advantage of M-cycle under such circum-
stances is that its cooling effectiveness increases with the rise of
temperature due to the increased evaporation rate in the working
channels. Moreover, it has the ability to cool the air below its wet
bulb temperature to the dew point. This is the reason that air is
supplied at lower temperatures in MC-DAC system as compared
to the DAC system.
The effect of inlet ambient temperature and humidity on the
moisture of supplied air, xsupply is shown in Fig. 8. It can be seen
 M. Kashif Shahzad et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 128 (2018) 1476–1487
Fig. 8. Effect of inlet ambient temperature and humidity ration on xsupply .
that xsupply increases with the rise of ambient temperature due to
the fact that the dehumidification efficiency of the desiccant wheel
drops with rise of inlet temperature. Moreover, the negative effect
of more inlet humid air on xsupply can be observed from the graphs.
The increase of moisture content in inlet air from 12 to 18 g/kg at
constant regeneration temperature of 70 °C leads to the lower
dehumidification and supplies the air with higher moisture con-
tent. The reason behind the difference between moisture contents
of both systems is that there is moisture addition in the DAC sys-
tem due to direct evaporative cooling and no moisture is added
in MC-DAC system. In the cross flow HMX, pre-treated air is
divided into two working air streams flowing in two different
channels, one in the wet channel and other in dry channel. The
air is cooled and supplied into the room without any moisture
addition.
Fig. 9 shows the variation in cooling capacity and COP th of both
the analyzed systems with respect to inlet ambient temperature
for a room condition of 27 °C and 12.5 g/kg with different inlet
air humidity ratios at constant regeneration air temperature of
70 °C. It can be seen that cooling capacity and COP th are decreasing
with the increase of inlet air temperature. This drop is due to the
lowering dehumidification efficiency and higher supply air
temperatures of the system at higher inlet temperatures. More-
over, a significant drop can be seen when the more humid air
(12–18 g/kg) is treated at constant regeneration temperature of
70 °C. This is due to the following two reasons: (1) the rising inlet
air humidity supplies the air at higher temperature, and (2) system
supplies the air at higher humidity ratios when the regeneration
temperature is kept constant and inlet humidity is increased. So,
due to the rising inlet humidity ratio at constant regeneration
temperature, air is less humidified which lead to the decreasing
enthalpy difference. Therefore, cooling capacity of the both systems
1483
drops with increasing humidity. In addition, it can be observed that
both the systems are more sensitive towards inlet humidity than
the inlet ambient temperature. As the inlet humidity is increased
from 12 to 18 g/kg, the performance of DAC system decreases sig-
nificantly and is unable to meet the cooling requirements, while
the integrated system is somewhat shows capacity to work even
under such high humid conditions with high regeneration require-
ment. It is important here to mention that the cooling capacity in
the case of DAC is 35.1% higher than that of MC-DAC system due
to the higher supply air mass flow rates in conventional system.
However, overall system performance of MC-DAC system is
60–65% more in terms of COP th than conventional DAC system.
5.3. Effect of the inlet ambient temperature and regeneration
temperature
The effect of inlet ambient temperature on supply air tempera-
ture with varying regeneration temperature at constant humidity
ratio of 14 g/kg and constant return air conditions (27 °C and
12.5 g/kg) is presented in the Fig. 10. It can be analyzed that the
supply air temperature is increasing with the rise of inlet ambient
temperature but shows decrement with the increase of regenera-
tion air temperature from 60 to 80 °C. The reason behind the neg-
ative effect of rising supply air temperature is the higher outlet
temperatures from desiccant wheel at higher inlet temperature.
While the positive impact of rising regeneration air temperature
is due to the uniqueness of the cross flow HMX having higher cool-
ing effectiveness that makes it capable to cool the air to the dew
point [24]. Under higher regeneration temperatures, ambient air
is heated more intensively which results in more effective precool-
ing in the heat recovery wheel and later on more cooling effective
due to enhance evaporation in wet channels of HMX.
1484 M. Kashif Shahzad et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 128 (2018) 1476–1487

Fig. 9. Effect of inlet ambient temperature, humidity ratio on cooling capacity and COP th .

Moreover, at higher regeneration temperatures ambient air is tiveness is higher, when it operates with air of low humidity
dehumidified to lower level due to increased dehumidification effi- ratios. On the other hand, DAC systems in which direct evaporative
ciency. It is the key aspect of M-cycle HMX that its cooling effec- cooling follows the constant wet bulb line, processed air has not
 M. Kashif Shahzad et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 128 (2018) 1476–1487 1485

Fig. 10. Effect of inlet ambient and regeneration air temperature on the supply air temperature.

Fig. 11. Effect of inlet ambient temperature and regeneration air temperature on xsupply .
1486 M. Kashif Shahzad et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 128 (2018) 1476–1487

enough cooling capacitance that can make it to cool more than
indirect evaporative coolers. It can be further observed that the
performance of both system is less dependent on regeneration
temperatures, the temperature drop in MC-DAC system is about
1.33 °C by the rise of regeneration temperature from 60 to 80 °C.
Similarly, there is rise of 1.38 °C in supply air temperature of
DAC system by rising regeneration temperature from 60 to 80 °C.
The dependence of supply air humidity (xsupply ) on the regener-
ation air temperature with respect to inlet ambient temperature at
constant inlet humidity of 14 g/kg and constant return air condi-
tions (27 °C and 12.5 g/kg) is shown in the Fig. 11. The rising regen-
eration air temperature (60–80) °C increases the dehumidification
efficiency of the desiccant wheel, while the ambient air tempera-
ture is showing decreasing trend. This rise in xsupply is due to the
drop in dehumidification effectiveness with the increased inlet
temperature while the positive impact due to the fact that at
higher regeneration air temperatures, the desiccant wheel is regen-
erated well and has more adsorption capacity than at lower tem-
peratures. Additionally, it can be seen that xsupply is decreasing
with the rising regeneration temperature. The results show that
when the ambient temperature rise from 25 to 45 °C and air with
14 g/kg is processed through MC-DAC system, it can provide sup-
ply air within comfort range (less than 12 g/kg) at low regeneration
temperature of 70 °C as compared to other system. As the DAC sys-
tem with direct evaporative coolers has lower cooling effectiveness
and adds moisture in the dehumidified air, which needs higher
regeneration temperature 80–90 °C.
The effect of ambient air temperature with respect to varying
regeneration temperature (60–80) °C at constant inlet humidity
ratio of 14 g/kg and constant return air conditions (27 °C and
12.5 g/kg) on the system performance is shown in the Fig. 12. It
can be seen that overall system performance drops with rising
regeneration temperature under constant inlet ambient humidity
and constant air flow rates. Cooling capacitance of MC-DAC system

Fig. 12. Effect of inlet ambient temperature and regeneration temperature on system performance.
 M. Kashif Shahzad et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 128 (2018) 1476–1487
rises with the regeneration temperature due to the more efficient
dehumidification, no moisture addition and slight drop in supply
air temperature but there is less increase in it with respect to the
regeneration heat requirement. On the other hand, cooling capac-
ity of DAC system drops with rise of regeneration temperature
due to rise in supply air temperature and moisture addition. How-
ever, a considerable drop in the COP values of both the analyzed
systems can be observed in the results. The results indicate that
the MC-DAC system is 62.96% more efficient in term of COP than
the traditions DAC system due to its enhanced cooling effective-
ness (due to the increased enthalpy difference between the supply
and return air). However, its cooling capacity is 39.29% less than
the DAC system, because about 40% of the pretreated air is diverted
into the wet channels of HMX which is later releases as exhaust
into the environment. Moreover, reduction in the cooling capacity
means that a larger HMX will be required to full fill cooling capac-
ity demand compared to the traditional DAC system. Given the
additional cost of HMX, MC-DAC is expected to be more expensive
compared to traditional DAC system for a given cooling capacity. In
this regard, a complete thermos-economic analysis is required to
evaluate overall benefits of MC-DAC, which is beyond the scope
of this paper.
6. Conclusion
This study presents an experimental investigation of a desiccant
system integrated with a Maisotsenko cycle based cross flow heat
and mass exchanger (MC-DAC) and its performance comparison
with traditional desiccant air conditioning system (DAC). This
study was carried out by developing an experimental rig and per-
forming extensive parametric experimentation on both the ana-
lyzed systems under same conditions. The parameters include
inlet ambient temperature, inlet humidity ratio, regeneration tem-
perature under constant return and process air flow rates.
By the experimental analysis it is concluded that the MC-DAC
system has higher temperature effectiveness than that of DAC even
when it is regenerated under low temperatures. Moreover, there is
no moisture addition in supply air due to the uniqueness M-Cycle
indirect evaporative cooler. MC-DAC system can provide comfort
indoor conditions at low regeneration temperatures 70 °C in sub-
tropical climatic conditions. In hot and humid climates, it may
require high regeneration temperature but not as much DAC sys-
tem requires. It can be concluded from the results that the system
operates well even in hot climates due to Maisotsenko cross flow
HMX, while it is more sensitive to the inlet ambient humidity ratio.
Acknowledgement
This research project was financially supported by Energy
Engineering Department of the University of Engineering and
Technology Pakistan.
Appendix A. Supplementary material
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
the online version, at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.
2017.09.105.
1487
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