Process for dehumidifying air in an air-conditioned environment

A method for improving operation of an air conditioning system for cooling and decreasing relative humidity of a flow of air which includes a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve, and an evaporator connected in series by conduit for circulating refrigerant in a closed loop therethrough, the evaporator positioned to receive a flow of air, the method comprising:

• transmitting liquid refrigerant through the expansion valve into the evaporator;
• vaporizing a portion of the liquid refrigerant to effect cooling of the flow of air;
• transmitting vaporized refrigerant from the outlet of the evaporator to the inlet of the compressor;
• compressing the vaporized refrigerant to produce compressed vapor refrigerant;
• transmitting the compressed vapor refrigerant from an outlet of the compressor to an inlet of the condenser at a first temperature and first pressure;
• condensing the compressed vapor refrigerant to discharge liquid refrigerant at a second temperature less than the first temperature;
• boosting the first pressure of the liquid refrigerant discharged from the condenser by an incremental pressure to a second pressure;
• transmitting the liquid refrigerant at said second pressure to an inlet of a reheater, the reheater positioned adjacent the evaporator to receive the cooled flow of air from the evaporator;
• and
• subcooling the liquid refrigerant in the reheater to a third temperature less than said second temperature and partially reheating the cooled flow of air received by the reheater from the evaporator thereby decreasing the relative humidity of the cooled flow of the air.