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The increasing energy demand for air-conditioning systems has prompted a need to find an energy-efficient alternative to conventional vapor compression cooling systems. Dew point evaporative cooling (DPEC) is an advanced configuration of indirect evaporative cooling (IEC) technology, which has been regarded as a game changer. This vision paper presents recent progress, prevailing challenges, and prospective directions for the advancement of this technology. After a general introduction and a brief overview of the current knowledge, open issues are discussed in five aspects: i) optimizing channel configuration; ii) improving the precision of numerical modelling; iii) developing advanced wetting materials with superior thermal transfer properties; iv) enhancing energy efficiency; v) minimising the physical footprint and energy consumption of the hybrid systems. In each aspect, a brief description of the existing knowledge and the current research status is provided while remarking on their importance in applications. Subsequently, key challenges are highlighted, and promising avenues for future research are delineated. The identified challenges include trade-offs between thermal and economic performance in the structure optimisation, advanced model development, durability and service to new wicking materials, energy efficiency in the water reduction and intermittent water spray technique, and physical footprint and energy consumption of hybrid systems.
Lai et al. (Sat,) studied this question.