Comparative Study of Three Different Adsorbent-Adsorbate Working Pairs for a Waste Heat driven adsorption air conditioning system based on Simulation

• Main Authors: H. R., Ramji, M. O., Abdullah, I.A. W., Tan, S. L., Leo
• Format: E-Article
• Language: English
• Published: IJRRAS 2014
• Subjects: Q Science (General); T Technology (General); TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/9724/1/Comparative%20Study%20of%20Three%20Differ%28abs%29.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/9724/; http://www.arpapress.com/
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

In a previous study, a laboratory prototype of a thermal-driven adsorption air conditioning system employing activated carbon as adsorbent and methanol as the refrigerant was successfully developed. The experimental results employing the prototype obtained a COP of 0.19 and cooling capacity Q of around 320 kJ. The cooling power P yielded ~ 0.64 kW and it was able to produce chilled air temperature Tchill,out of around 22 °C. In the present study, further works are conducted via simulation to carry out “what-if” analysis viz. to determine the optimal adsorbent-adsorbate working pair based on the prototype. Three types of refrigerants, coupled with activated carbon, were considered in this study, namely (1) methanol (similar to the experimental works); (2) ammonia; and (3) water. The simulation results obtained showed that activated carbon-water pair produced the best cooling compared to activated carbon-methanol and activated carbon-ammonia working pairs, as far as present study is concerned. The methanol and ammonia showed a COP of 0.37 and 0.4, respectively. The average Tchill,out produced by methanol was around 15 °C while the temperature produced by ammonia was slightly higher around 19 °C. The cooling capacity P for methanol and ammonia showed a value of 0.65 kW and 0.50 kW, respectively. Activated carbon-water pair simulated to yield a higher COP of 0.58 with Q at 480 kJ mainly due to high heat of evaporation, which was able to produce average Tchill,out of 12 °C with cooling power of approximately 1 kW.