Impact of the adsorbent materials and adsorber bed design on performance of the adsorption thermophysical battery: Experimental study

Abstract

The adsorption thermophysical battery (ATB) is considered one of the solutions for energy shortage problems in many energy-stressed countries. Various cheap energy resources such as, geothermal and solar energy can be used as power inputs in the ATB systems. This research offers an experimental study into the influence of utilizing two different types of adsorber bed units. The experimental setup has been designed to allow testing of two adsorber beds; conventional ABU and modified ABU (MABU) for improving ATB performance for air conditioning applications. Three adsorbents, namely, silica gel-RD, silica gel-blue and MCM-41with water refrigerant as working pairs were examined. The results revealed that, the refrigerant vapor uptake at temperature 30 °C increased by 36%, 43% and 16% for silica gel-RD, silica gel-blue and MCM-41 respectively compared with that at 35 °C. The outlet chilled coolant temperature in the case of MABU was decreased by 17%, 15% and 18.5% for silica gel-RD, silica gel-blue and MCM-41, respectively, compared with ABU. The results revealed an enhancement in COP using MABU and SCP in the case of using ABU, by 18%, 16% and 15% and by 12%, 17% and 27% for silica gel-RD, silica gel-blue and MCM-41 respectively.

Keywords

• Adsorber bed
• Adsorbent materials
• Thermophysical battery
• Experimental
• A/C application