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New Commercial Applications
For Desiccant-Based Cooling
About the Author
Kevin McGahey is product marketing manager at Fresh Air
Solutions in Hatboro, Pa. Previously, he was director of technol-
ogy for the American Gas Cooling Center. He has an M.S. in
mechanical engineering from Ohio State University.
T
By Kevin McGahey
Associate Member ASHRAE
he expansion of desiccant technology in the market-
place has sent engineers scrambling to learn about
new applications for this technology. The require-
ment for more fresh air in buildings has dramatically
changed the way designers provide a healthy, comfortable and
productive environment for patients, customers and employ-
ees. However, when larger amounts of fresh air are brought in
to satisfy the new criteria for ventilation, a large amount of
water in the air must be removed to maintain a reasonable hu-
midity level in the conditioned space and ductwork.
Engineers have solved this problem by including a desic-
cant-based cooling unit as an integral part of the buildings HVAC
system. This supplies the large volumes of fresh air required by
building codes. As engineers evaluate these systems for the
first time, new questions arise. When should engineers consider
desiccant systems? How can engineers and customers deter-
mine if a desiccant-based system is right for their application?
Although these systems do have their applications, they are not
a panacea and cannot be considered for every application.
Market Forces
In the late 1980s a number of market forces combined to
create a demand for desiccant-based air-conditioning equip-
ment. Three distinct events provided significant opportunities
for change in an industry perceived as impervious to change.
Indoor Air Quality (IAQ). The major building codes in the
United States have adopted ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62-1989,
Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality into their codes
by requiring that all new buildings and major retrofits comply
with this new standard.
This means that buildings must increase ventilation air (out-
side air) on average from 5 cfm per person to 1520 cfm per
person. This trend changes the latent to sensible heat ratios
that HVAC systems must treat.
Concern over the potential for litigation has led to the de
facto adoption of Standard 62 even where it is not found in the
local building code.
Demand for Comfort. Controlling comfort involves bringing
the air temperature and relative humidity into a reasonable range
for human comfort. It is noted that humidity is at least as impor-
tant as temperature because, as is often said, Its not the heat,
its the humidity.
In the late 1980s, desiccant applications that provided a di-
rect economic benefit to supplying superior humidity control
became popular. In hotels, musty odors and clammy environ-
ments forced travelers to seek out more comfortable
accomodations. In supermarkets, cold frozen food aisles has-
tened shoppers through the freezer sectiondiscouraging im-
pulse buying. In hospital operating rooms uncomfortable sur-
geons selected alternative hospitals with better climate control
to perform their surgical procedures. The direct economic im-
pact that comfort had on these facilities resulted in the demand
for improved humidity control.
The New Economics of Air Conditioning. In the past, ap-
plications that demanded better humidity control were a chal-
lenge to engineers. Museums required humidity control all year
long to protect their collections. Hospitals required specific
temperature and humidity conditions for certain operating pro-
cedures. From the engineers perspective, if the only tool on
hand is a hammereverything looks like a nail! Similarly, engi-
neers tried to solve humidity problems using the only tool avail-
able standard cold coil technologyto over-cool and some-
times re-heat the air.
Humidity problems arose in other applications, creating a
second tier of costs that sometimes dominated the economics
of comparing equipment cost and operating cost. In supermar-
kets, humidity would frost freezer cases and frozen foods, driv-
ing up defrost and door heater costs and spoiling the
productsappearance in the cases.
In hotels, mold problems damaged floor and wall coverings
as well as furniture. The American Hotel and Motel Associa-
tion estimated this damage to be approximately $65 million
dollars annually in the United States.
1
Non-energy related eco-
nomic concerns moved to the forefront for these and other
applications.
Criteria for Evaluation
To decide whether a desiccant system makes sense for a
certain application requires an understanding of the loads (both
latent and sensible) and the functional requirements for that
particular building. However, six criteria emerge in application
after application. If one or more of the following criteria apply,
the engineer would be well advised to consider desiccant sys-
tems for that application.
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A SHRAE J OURNAL
Bringing Fresh Air to Businesses
The following article was published in ASHRAE Journal, July 1998. Copyright 2002 American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-
Conditioning Engineers, Inc. It is presented for educational purposes only. This article may not be copied and/or distributed electronically or
in paper form without permission of ASHRAE.
J ul y 1998 ASHRAE J our nal 42
D E S I C C A N T
Low Sensible Heat Ratios. A load can be broken down into
two parts: the latent (moisture) load and the sensible load. En-
gineers often refer to the ratio of the sensible load to the total
load as the sensible heat ratio. Conventional equipment (such
as a rooftop unit) works well when the sensible heat ratio is
above 80%. When the sensible heat ratio falls below 80%, con-
ventional equipment begins to lose control of humidity and the
air may begin to feel cold and clammy.
A restaurant is a good example of an application with a low
sensible heat ratio. The ASHRAE HandbookHVAC Applica-
tions states that, Often, the ideal design condition must be
rejected for an acceptable condition because of equipment cost
or performance limitations. Restaurants are frequently affected
in this way, because ratios of latent to sensible heat may result
in uneconomical equipment selection, unless a combination of
lower design dry-bulb temperature and higher relative humidity
is selected. Again, this statement only considered the con-
ventional rooftop unit.
Restaurants usually have seating areas designed to accom-
modate a large number of patrons in a relatively small area. A
high people density requires large ventilation loads per square
foot in addition to the makeup air required to replace the air
exhausted through the kitchen exhaust hoods. This situation is
worsened by the fact that restaurants draw the largest crowds
in the evenings when the sensible load carried by the ventila-
tion air is reduced. However, the ventilation air still carries a
large amount of water with it, and the people in the restaurant
continue to release moisture through perspiration and respira-
tion. All these factors combine to create a situation where the
restaurant has a very low sensible heat ratio. Consequently, the
restaurant seems cold to the patrons.
Low Humidity Requirements. Is there an economic benefit
to having low humidity? An ice rink is an excellent example of
an application that benefits financially from maintaining low
humidity. Conventional equipment does a good job of provid-
ing air at a dew point of 50F (10C). However, the ice sheet in
an ice rink is about 28F (2.2C), so water quickly condenses
out of the air onto the ice sheet, softening the ice, contributing
to fog over the ice and requiring the operator to frequently
resurface the ice. Additionally, the heat that water drops trans-
fer to the ice sheet as it condenses must be removed by the
refrigeration systems, which drives up the operating cost of the
ice-making system.
Ice rinks often shut down in the spring because of fog over
the ice created by humidity problems. Desiccant systems solve
problems like this by maintaining the rink at a dew point of 30F
to 35F (1.1C to 1.6C). The air can be kept at a warmer but
dryer condition, providing more comfort for spectators and a
higher quality ice sheet for skaters. The rink can stay open all
year long resulting in additional revenue for the owner.
Need for more fresh air. As previously discussed, Standard
62 demands 15 cfm (7 L/s) per person be brought into most
buildings to address IAQ issues. Conventional equipment works
well up to 15% outside air. However, once the percentage of
outside air goes beyond 15%, most units begin to lose control
over humidity. As owners bring their existing buildings up to
code, they are faced with this equipment limitation in providing
more fresh air to the conditioned space.
An example of a facility under this constraint would be a
school. A typical classroom in Atlanta using the old guideline
of 5 cfm (2.3 L/s) per person would have a load that is about
30% latent and 70% sensible.
4
Bringing the school up to the
new guideline of 15 cfm (7 L/s) per person of ventilation air
changes the load to one that is about 40% latent. If the new dew
Figure 1: Typical desiccant system.
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point design conditions outlined in the 1997 ASHRAE Hand-
bookFundamentals are used, the load is now 50% latent,
making it almost impossible for conventional equipment to main-
tain a reasonable humidity condition inside the school.
One solution is to add a desiccant-based makeup air unit to
handle the majority of the fresh air requirements, while operat-
ing the existing equipment at 10% fresh air. This approach al-
lows the owner to bring a building up to code, avoid replacing
existing equipment and provide a more comfortable environ-
ment by independently controlling humidity.
Exhaust post cooling is available. Another situation that
favors desiccant technology is supply and return ducts that
are located close together allowing for heat recovery. Many
desiccant systems have a built-in heat recovery heat exchange
wheel that acts as a heat recovery device in the cooling and
heating season. In the summer, as cool air is exhausted from the
building, exchanging heat with this exhaust stream through the
heat exchange wheel cools the ventilation airstream, reducing
the sensible cooling load. Similarly, in the winter, as the warmer
exhaust air leaves the building, the exhaust air is used to heat
the ventilation air by exchanging heat in the heat exchange
wheel, reducing the buildings heating load.
Low thermal energy costs. Another advantage to desiccant
equipment is that it is thermally driven. The heat can come from
an internal boiler or from an external heat source providing heat
to a manufacturer-supplied coil in the unit. Therefore, the unit
can be driven using waste heat or an under-utilized boiler. Be-
cause natural gas costs usually are low in the summer, the des-
iccant unit saves operating costs by lowering on-peak power
consumption.
Economic benefit to dry ductwork. Fungus and bacteria
thrive when four key ingredients are present. First, bacteria or
mold spores must be present. Second, the temperature must be
suitable for their growth, which is usually the same temperature
humans enjoy. Third, a food source must be present. Mold and
bacteria can find food in just about any duct, floor or wall cov-
ering. Finally, water must be present.
Water is the only element that can be controlled effectively to
slow the growth in ductwork. Standard 62 recommends ductwork
be kept below 70% relative humidity to avoid or minimize the
mold growth in ductwork. If the air supplied by this ductwork is
supplying a hospital operating room where the air is blown to-
ward an open wound, the benefit to dry ductwork is obvious.
Equipment Applications
Finally, when an application for a desiccant-based air-condi-
tioning unit has been identified, the question shifts to how it
should be applied. Should the desiccant system replace the
conventional equipment? While a desiccant unit can act as a
stand-alone unit by providing both latent and sensible cooling,
the unit usually is used in conjunction withnot in place of
conventional equipment. This approach takes advantage of
the strengths of both types of equipment.
The two approaches to applying desiccant equipment in-
clude directly introducing the air into the space or pre-treating
the air into other equipment. Each approach has its advantages
and disadvantages.
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D E S I C C A N T
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Introducing the air directly into the space is usually a good
approach for schools, hotels, supermarkets and ice rinks. This
approach usually minimizes the duct requirements, especially
when used in conjunction with fan coil units. Directly introduc-
ing the dehumidified air into the space has the advantage of
maintaining constant ventilation and humidity control while
allowing lower capacity equipment (now only handling the sen-
sible load) to react to the more diverse sensible loads.
Using this approach requires good circulation of the dehu-
midified airstream from the desiccant unit with the cool air from
the DX or fan coil units. Good air circulation is usually achieved
by positively pressurizing the classroom or hotel room, nega-
tively pressurizing the corridor or hallway with an exhaust fan
and allowing for air movement by using adequately-sized air
passages in the doorways.
The second application approach to applying desiccant-
based cooling systems is to pre-treat the air into either a pack-
aged rooftop air conditioner or into an air-handling unit. Pre-
treating the air into a rooftop unit is a good method for a restau-
rant or movie theater. This approach can be a retrofit solution to
a building with a humidity problem, while minimizing the number
of roof penetrations and using conventional equipment as an
inexpensive way to post-cool the delivered air.
Delivering the pre-treated air to an air-handling unit would
have the same benefit as before, but would be more applicable
to larger applications such as hospitals or office buildings. These
approaches help reduce the size of the conventional equipment
because it deals only with sensible load, while providing inde-
pendent control of humidity.
References
1. American Hotel and Motel Association. 1992. Mold and Mildew in
Hotels and Motels. Washington, D.C.
2. American Gas Cooling Center. 1996. Desiccant Systems Application
Guide. Arlington, Va.
3. ASHRAE Handbook HVAC Applications. 1995. Commercial
and public buildings, chapter 3.5.
4. Active humidity control systems for commercial comfort cooling.
1997. Hatboro, Pa.: Engelhard/ICC.
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