Desiccant Indirect Evaporative Cooling is a good alternative to conventional vapor compression systems to meet new economic, environmental, and regulatory challenges. The advanced desiccant cooling systems through the Maisotsenko Cycle (M-Cycle) discussed here have the potential to phase out the use of CFC refrigerants, reduce energy-operating costs and peak power demands, meet new ventilation rate standards and improve indoor air quality.
The M-Cycle combines the thermodynamic processes of heat exchange and evaporative cooling in a unique indirect evaporative cooler resulting in product temperatures that approach the dew point temperature (not the wet bulb temperature). This cycle utilizes the enthalpy difference between air, at its dew point temperature, and air saturated at a higher temperature. This enthalpy difference or potential energy is used to reject the heat from the higher temperature air stream [1–3].
The first time the M-Cycle technology was proven was in 1984. Currently Coolerado Corporation produces several air conditioners (commercial, residential, solar and hybrid) relying only on the M-Cycle. The National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) tested Coolerado’s air conditioners documenting that they are up to 80% more efficient than traditional systems [10]. The M-Cycle has been investigated extensively in different countries for unusual applications because it can be used for many applications for producing cooling, power system performance improvement, distilled water production, heat recovery processes and others [see Refs. 4–10, 13–18]. This paper describes the basic M-Cycle and advances by coupling the M-Cycle with a desiccant system.
