Compact adsorption cooling system: An evaluation

Abstract

This work review’s commercial and residential scale adsorption cooling systems and other industrial size adsorption refrigeration systems in line with the need to make enhanced heat transfer a compact system. The main objective of the study is to present the methods used for enhancing the specific cooling power output, cooling effect leading to make a compact adsorption cooling system. Various systems studied include silica gel-water, activated carbon-ammonia, zeolite-water, and metal-organic framework (MOF) material. The review concludes that silica gel-water working pair gives better performance as compared to MOF material with 10-15 min as short cycle time. MOF material gives better results as compared to silica gel-water with more than 60 min of adsorption-desorption cycle time. For the case of activated carbon-ammonia, when the metal powder of copper, iron, and aluminum replaces 10 to 30% of the mixture gives better performance than using activated carbon alone due to the high thermal conductivity of added metals. It is also concluded that performance of Regular Density (RD) silica gel is slightly better than RD 20-60, Type A and Type B silica gel. Silica gel-water working pair is preferable as compared to Zeolite-water pair for low-grade heat utilization.