Experimental evaluation of a sorptive-coated heat exchanger prototype for dehumidification purposes

A prototype of a sorptive-coated air-to-air heat exchanger for the application in air conditioning units has been constructed. This new component allows to couple the process of sorptive air dehumidification with the technology of indirect evaporative cooling. A test facility has been built for the investigation and characterisation of heat exchangers and air ventilation units in the capacity range up to air flow rates of 500 m3/h. Preliminary results of the first experiments underline the positive effect of a cooled adsorption process on the achieved dehumidification and process air temperatures. A first prototype of a sorptive-coated heat exchanger was constructed at Fraunhofer ISE. For the characterization of sorptive-coated air-to-air heat exchangers and ventilation devices a test facility was built and taken into operation. With the help of this test facility first experiments on the prototype were conducted. Preliminary experimental results demonstrated that higher air dehumidification and lower outlet temperatures can be achieved via the cooled adsorption as compared to the adiabatic adsorption. Therefore, a first proof of the system concept was achieved. The experimental data will now be used for the validation of a dynamic model of the sorptive-coated heat exchanger to conduct optimization of the future prototypes.