IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v327y2025ics0360544225018997.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Feasibility analysis of desiccant evaporative cooling technologies in various climate conditions: Present and future potential

Author

Listed:
  • Zeoli, Alanis
  • Pacak, Anna
  • Gendebien, Samuel
  • Chorowski, Maciej
  • Xie, Xiaoyun
  • Lemort, Vincent

Abstract

Due to global warming, air conditioning in indoor spaces is responsible for the growing energy demand in buildings worldwide. Evaporative cooling technologies, potentially coupled with desiccant dehumidification, offer an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional air-conditioning methods. However, the performance of these techniques strongly depends on outdoor climate conditions. To deepen the knowledge of evaporative cooling technologies and assess their potential worldwide, the International Energy Agency has launched the Annex 85 project on indirect evaporative cooling. It is in this context that this work proposes a new approach allowing the building designers to decide on the relevance of desiccant evaporative cooling system configurations by obtaining the expected number of hours of operation of each component. The authors propose a generic system configuration and develop a systematic methodology based on a combination of performance indicators for each component. The resulting feasibility analysis methodology is applied to ten climate zones using current and projected meteorological data. Although active cooling systems dominate the market nowadays, it is demonstrated that there is a potential to use desiccant evaporative cooling systems in almost all climate zones, both now and in the future. Finally, general recommendations are provided regarding the implementation of desiccant evaporative cooling technologies worldwide.

Suggested Citation

  • Zeoli, Alanis & Pacak, Anna & Gendebien, Samuel & Chorowski, Maciej & Xie, Xiaoyun & Lemort, Vincent, 2025. "Feasibility analysis of desiccant evaporative cooling technologies in various climate conditions: Present and future potential," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 327(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:327:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225018997
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.136257
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544225018997
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2025.136257?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gjoka, Kristian & Rismanchi, Behzad & Crawford, Robert H., 2023. "Fifth-generation district heating and cooling systems: A review of recent advancements and implementation barriers," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    2. Campaniço, Hugo & Soares, Pedro M.M. & Hollmuller, Pierre & Cardoso, Rita M., 2016. "Climatic cooling potential and building cooling demand savings: High resolution spatiotemporal analysis of direct ventilation and evaporative cooling for the Iberian Peninsula," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 766-776.
    3. Campaniço, Hugo & Hollmuller, Pierre & Soares, Pedro M.M., 2014. "Assessing energy savings in cooling demand of buildings using passive cooling systems based on ventilation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 426-438.
    4. Elnagar, Essam & Pezzutto, Simon & Duplessis, Bruno & Fontenaille, Théodore & Lemort, Vincent, 2023. "A comprehensive scouting of space cooling technologies in Europe: Key characteristics and development trends," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    5. Duan, Zhiyin & Zhan, Changhong & Zhang, Xingxing & Mustafa, Mahmud & Zhao, Xudong & Alimohammadisagvand, Behrang & Hasan, Ala, 2012. "Indirect evaporative cooling: Past, present and future potentials," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(9), pages 6823-6850.
    6. Abohorlu Doğramacı, Pervin & Riffat, Saffa & Gan, Guohui & Aydın, Devrim, 2019. "Experimental study of the potential of eucalyptus fibres for evaporative cooling," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 250-260.
    7. Pandelidis, Demis & Anisimov, Sergey & Rajski, Krzysztof & Brychcy, Ewa & Sidorczyk, Marek, 2017. "Performance comparison of the advanced indirect evaporative air coolers," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 138-152.
    8. Cui, Yuanlong & Zhu, Jie & Zoras, Stamatis & Liu, Lin, 2021. "Review of the recent advances in dew point evaporative cooling technology: 3E (energy, economic and environmental) assessments," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    9. Lanbo Lai & Xiaolin Wang & Gholamreza Kefayati & Eric Hu, 2021. "Evaporative Cooling Integrated with Solid Desiccant Systems: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-23, September.
    10. María Jesús Romero-Lara & Francisco Comino & Manuel Ruiz de Adana, 2021. "Seasonal Analysis Comparison of Three Air-Cooling Systems in Terms of Thermal Comfort, Air Quality and Energy Consumption for School Buildings in Mediterranean Climates," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-25, July.
    11. Elnagar, Essam & Zeoli, Alanis & Rahif, Ramin & Attia, Shady & Lemort, Vincent, 2023. "A qualitative assessment of integrated active cooling systems: A review with a focus on system flexibility and climate resilience," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    12. Rambhad, Kishor S. & Walke, Pramod V. & Tidke, D.J., 2016. "Solid desiccant dehumidification and regeneration methods—A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 73-83.
    13. Sadighi Dizaji, Hamed & Hu, Eric Jing & Chen, Lei, 2018. "A comprehensive review of the Maisotsenko-cycle based air conditioning systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 725-749.
    14. Muhammad Kashif & Hassan Niaz & Muhammad Sultan & Takahiko Miyazaki & Yongqiang Feng & Muhammad Usman & Muhammad W. Shahzad & Yasir Niaz & Muhammad M. Waqas & Imran Ali, 2020. "Study on Desiccant and Evaporative Cooling Systems for Livestock Thermal Comfort: Theory and Experiments," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-18, May.
    15. Mujahid Rafique, M. & Gandhidasan, P. & Rehman, Shafiqur & Al-Hadhrami, Luai M., 2015. "A review on desiccant based evaporative cooling systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 145-159.
    16. Anisimov, Sergey & Pandelidis, Demis & Danielewicz, Jan, 2015. "Numerical study and optimization of the combined indirect evaporative air cooler for air-conditioning systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 452-464.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lanbo Lai & Xiaolin Wang & Gholamreza Kefayati & Eric Hu, 2021. "Evaporative Cooling Integrated with Solid Desiccant Systems: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-23, September.
    2. Sadighi Dizaji, Hamed & Hu, Eric Jing & Chen, Lei & Pourhedayat, Samira, 2018. "Development and validation of an analytical model for perforated (multi-stage) regenerative M-cycle air cooler," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 2176-2194.
    3. Yang, Yifan & Cui, Gary & Lan, Christopher Q., 2019. "Developments in evaporative cooling and enhanced evaporative cooling - A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1-1.
    4. Salins, Sampath Suranjan & Kota Reddy, S.V. & Shiva Kumar,, 2021. "Experimental Investigation and Neural network based parametric prediction in a multistage reciprocating humidifier," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    5. Xiao, Xin & Liu, Jinjin, 2024. "A state-of-art review of dew point evaporative cooling technology and integrated applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    6. Xin Cui & Le Sun & Sicong Zhang & Liwen Jin, 2019. "On the Study of a Hybrid Indirect Evaporative Pre-Cooling System for Various Climates," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-16, November.
    7. Zhou, Yuanyuan & Zhang, Tao & Wang, Fang & Yu, Yanshun, 2018. "Performance analysis of a novel thermoelectric assisted indirect evaporative cooling system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 299-308.
    8. Oliveira, Cíntia Carla Melgaço de & Brittes, José Luiz Pereira & Silveira Junior, Vivaldo, 2019. "Dynamic operating conditions strategy for water hybrid cooling under variable heating demand," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(C), pages 635-645.
    9. Mahmood, Muhammad H. & Sultan, Muhammad & Miyazaki, Takahiko & Koyama, Shigeru & Maisotsenko, Valeriy S., 2016. "Overview of the Maisotsenko cycle – A way towards dew point evaporative cooling," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 537-555.
    10. Pandelidis, Demis & Cichoń, Aleksandra & Pacak, Anna & Anisimov, Sergey & Drąg, Paweł, 2018. "Counter-flow indirect evaporative cooler for heat recovery in the temperate climate," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(PA), pages 877-894.
    11. Xu, Peng & Ma, Xiaoli & Zhao, Xudong & Fancey, Kevin, 2017. "Experimental investigation of a super performance dew point air cooler," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 761-777.
    12. Anisimov, Sergey & Pandelidis, Demis & Jedlikowski, Andrzej, 2015. "Performance study of the indirect evaporative air cooler and heat recovery exchanger in air conditioning system during the summer and winter operation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 205-225.
    13. Elnagar, Essam & Pezzutto, Simon & Duplessis, Bruno & Fontenaille, Théodore & Lemort, Vincent, 2023. "A comprehensive scouting of space cooling technologies in Europe: Key characteristics and development trends," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    14. Tariq, Rasikh & Sheikh, Nadeem Ahmed & Livas-García, A. & Xamán, J. & Bassam, A. & Maisotsenko, Valeriy, 2021. "Projecting global water footprints diminution of a dew-point cooling system: Sustainability approach assisted with energetic and economic assessment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    15. Shazia Noor & Hadeed Ashraf & Muhammad Sultan & Zahid Mahmood Khan, 2020. "Evaporative Cooling Options for Building Air-Conditioning: A Comprehensive Study for Climatic Conditions of Multan (Pakistan)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-23, June.
    16. Nemati, Nasibeh & Omidvar, Amir & Rosti, Behnam, 2021. "Performance evaluation of a novel hybrid cooling system combining indirect evaporative cooler and earth-air heat exchanger," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 215(PB).
    17. Chen, Yi & Yan, Huaxia & Yang, Hongxing, 2018. "Comparative study of on-off control and novel high-low control of regenerative indirect evaporative cooler (RIEC)," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 233-243.
    18. Elsarrag, Esam & Igobo, Opubo N. & Alhorr, Yousef & Davies, Philip A., 2016. "Solar pond powered liquid desiccant evaporative cooling," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 124-140.
    19. Jan Taler & Bartosz Jagieła & Magdalena Jaremkiewicz, 2022. "Overview of the M-Cycle Technology for Air Conditioning and Cooling Applications," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-19, March.
    20. Shahzad, Muhammad Wakil & Lin, Jie & Xu, Ben Bin & Dala, Laurent & Chen, Qian & Burhan, Muhammad & Sultan, Muhammad & Worek, William & Ng, Kim Choon, 2021. "A spatiotemporal indirect evaporative cooler enabled by transiently interceding water mist," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:327:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225018997. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.