The silica gel wheel for drying the air has been known for a few decades – it had not been widely used only becuase of the size contraints. There are very few commercial systems available for cooling the air using liquid desiccants. The problems were,

• Desiccant carry over,
• Regeneration of desiccant
• Limited drying of the air,
• resulting in reduced chilling among others.

SECO’s design overcomes these and can reduce the air temperature to as low as 27 degree – and the target humidity of 60%. One of the main design feature is the innovative regeneration of liquid desiccant, and the desiccant trapping. The concept has to be tested, and the development is held up for want of dedicated personnel and money. A partially constructed prototype was available (now dismantled after 8 years), and anyone who is intersted is welcome to join with SECO, for proving the concept, and subsequent commercial exploitation. Even if the targetted humidity is not achieved, it should be possible to reduce the cooling load for fresh air by almost 80%, by using PHE and the desiccant based cooler together.