Enhancing the cooling potential of a solar-assisted desiccant cooling system by ground source free cooling

This work investigates the hourly operation of the Uckan configuration of the desiccant system that uses ground and solar energies in combination. In this system, the ground source heat exchanger (GSHE) is used as a cooling component after the desiccant wheel (DW) (post-cooler) together with using simultaneously before (pre-cooler) and after the DW. The validity of this configuration is evaluated in several hot-humid regions, and an economic assessment is performed to confirm the system cost-feasibility. This study examines the impact of the return air ratio on the level of thermal comfort established, system COP, energy consumed for regeneration, and solar fraction (SF). Here, a guideline for sizing various components in the system is demonstrated. For the best scenario in which the GSHE is placed before and after the DW, the system would successfully provide thermal comfort for 95% of its working time, using low energy consumption when compared to conventional configurations. The best scenario resulted in the highest COP of 0.43, the highest SF of 63.6%, and the payback period of 6.8 years. With the results, increasing the return air ratio promotes system COP and SF, while it decreases the consumed energy.