Carbon-Methanol Based Adsorption Heat Pumps: Identifying Accessible Parameter Space with Carbide-Derived Carbon Model Materials

Abstract

In adsorption heat pumps, the properties of the porous adsorbent and the refrigerant determine the performance. Major parameters for this working pair are the total uptake of the adsorptive, its kinetics, and the heat transfer characteristics. In the technical application despite powdered adsorbents, thin consolidated layers of the adsorbent can be attractive and obtained by a binder-based approach but likely result in competing material properties. Thus, for a process optimization, the accessible parameter space and interdependencies have to be known and were deduced in this work for model porous carbons (carbide-derived carbons derived from TiC and ZrC) and methanol as well as the addition of different amounts of boron nitride, silver, and graphite as heat-conductive agents and the use of two binders.