Performance analysis of an adsorption refrigerator using

activated carbon in a compound adsorbent

Z.S. Lu, R.Z. Wang
*
, L.W. Wang, C.J. Chen
Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
Received 22 July 2005; accepted 13 September 2005
Available online 2 November 2005
Abstract
To improve the performance of the adsorption refrigeration of CaCl
2
ammonia adsorption system, activated carbon has been distrib-
uted uniformly in the mass of CaCl
2
, thereby helping to enhance mass transfer and uplift the cooling power density. A multifunctional
heat pipe adsorption refrigerator, in which activated carbon-CaCl
2
is used as compound adsorbent and ammonia as refrigerant, is
designed. Water and acetone are used as working liquids for the heat pipe. This paper presents a study on the adsorption refrigeration
performances of this adsorption refrigerator under two dierent working conditions, ice-maker for shing boat driven by the waste heat
from exhaust gases, and solar ice-maker driven by solar water heating. The obtained average SCP (specic cooling power) and the COP
(coecient of performance) of the refrigerator were measured to be 770.4 W/kg and 0.39 at about 20 C of evaporating temperature for
the former working condition, and they were 161.2 W/kg and 0.12 at about 15 C of evaporating temperature for the later working
condition.
2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Activated carbon; Carbon/carbon composites; Mixing; Adsorption; Adsorption properties; Thermodynamic properties
1. Introduction
Adsorption refrigeration systems have the advantages of
being environmentally benign, having zero ozone depletion
potential (ODP) as well as zero global warming potential
(GWP) due to the use of natural refrigerants such as
ammonia, water, methanol, etc. It is also attractive for
the ecient use of solar energy and low-grade waste heat.
Less vibration, simple control, low initial investment and
expenditure, and less noise are the advantages of adsorp-
tion systems over the existing vapor compression and
absorption systems [1].
Adsorption working pairs for adsorption refrigeration
includes physical adsorption working pairs, chemical
adsorption working pairs and compound adsorption work-
ing pairs. The typical physical adsorption working pairs are
mainly silica gelwater [2,3], zeolitewater [4,5], activated
carbonammonia [6,7], activated carbonmethanol [8]. In
addition, activated carbon-R134a has been also considered
as the physical adsorption working pair [9,10]; A typical
chemical adsorption working pair is CaCl
2
ammonia
which has a large adsorption capacity although subject to
the critical problems of expansion and agglomeration
[11]. Compound adsorbents have the advantages of both
porous medium and chemical adsorbents. One typical
example is the mixture of activated carbon and CaCl
2
,
the well-arranged mixture of which is a good adsorbent
on ammonia, yielding long lasting and stable operational
performances. This paper presents the performances of
an adsorption ice-maker which employs the activated car-
bon and CaCl
2
as compound adsorbent and ammonia as
adsorbate. The results show that the consolidated com-
pound adsorbent can greatly improve the refrigeration per-
formance, due to the fact that its composition and physical
structure contribute to enhancing signicantly heat and
mass transfer.
0008-6223/$ - see front matter 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.carbon.2005.09.016
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 21 6293 3838; fax: +86 21 6293 2601.
E-mail address: [email protected] (R.Z. Wang).
www.elsevier.com/locate/carbon
Carbon 44 (2006) 747752
In this paper, compound adsorbent of activated carbon
and CaCl
2
are used to improve adsorption performance.
Also, in order to enhance heat transfer in the adsorbent
beds, and perform an ecient heat recovery between the
two adsorbers, heat pipes are used in the present system.
2. Compound adsorbent by mixing activated
carbon and CaCl
2
In comparison with the activated carbon and CaCl
2
adsorbents, the compound adsorbent, obtained by mixing
activated carbon and CaCl
2
, has a high volume adsorption
capacity while avoiding the problems of agglomeration and
performance attenuation. The high adsorption perfor-
mance stems from the presence of activated carbon with
its important network of pores cavities which contribute
to enhance signicantly the mass transfer. The research
group of Shanghai Jiao Tong University has studied the
compound adsorbent adsorption properties with various
mass ratios of activated carbon and CaCl
2
[12]. The result
shows that the best mass ratio of activated carbon and
CaCl
2
is 1:4, as shown in Fig. 1. When the compound
adsorbent is consolidated, the adsorption performance var-
ies with the consolidated compound adsorbent density. At
the optimal density, a signicantly improved adsorption
performance is reached. The consolidated adsorbent is
shown in Fig. 2. Here, CaCl
2
powder, coconut shell acti-
vated carbon (1428 mesh) and a small quantity of high-
quality cement are mixed and compacted together in a
consolidated adsorbent in that mixture, the cement acts
as binder. The mass fractions of CaCl
2
, activated carbon
and cement in the consolidated compound, are in the pro-
portion of 16:4:1, respectively.
3. Description of the system
The heat pipe-type adsorption refrigeration system, used
for the experimental researches, is shown in Fig. 3. It com-
prises two adsorbers, each of them is heated by a boiler and
cooled by a water heat exchanger via the gravity heat pipe
working liquid (water or acetone). The switching of the
valves, make the adsorber plays alternately the role of con-
denser or evaporator for the gravity heat pipe.
The main idea of the above design is to solve the corro-
sion problems. Indeed, when the adsorption refrigerator is
used as ice-maker for shing boat powered by the waste
heat of the exhaust gases, serious corrosion problems
may occur if the steel adsorber is heated by the exhaust
gases and cooled by seawater directly.
In the laboratory experiment, electric heating was used
to simulate both the exhaust gas heating and the solar heat-
ing. A thermostat was used to control the cooling water
temperature, thus various working conditions with dier-
ent cooling water temperature could be simulated. The
consolidated compound adsorbent was used as the adsor-
bent, while ammonia was used as the refrigerant. During
the experiments, water was used as heat pipe working uid
when the system was powered by waste heat, whereas ace-
tone was for the same when the system was driven by solar
energy.
The heat pipe-type adsorption system is composed
mainly of a liquid pumping boiler, a heating boiler, two
coolers, two adsorbers, a condenser, and an evaporator.
In each adsorber, there are 1.88 kg of calcium chloride con-
tained in the compound adsorbent lled in between the ns
of 19 nned tubes. The operation of the system comprises
mainly ve working processes: The rst working process
consists in the pumping of heat pipe working liquid into
adsorber (PHPL). The heating of the heat pipe (HHP),
which leads to the desorption of ammonia from the desorb-
ing adsorber, constitutes the second working process. As to
the third, it is concerned with the cooling of the heat pipe
(CHP), and causes adsorption in the adsorbing adsorber.
The fourth one is the mass recovery process (MR). It con-
sists in balancing the pressure of ammonia prevailing in the
two adsorbers, thereby contributing to enhance adsorption
as well as desorption. Finally, the fth process is repre-
sented by the heat pipe heat recovery (HPHR), during
which heat is recovered from the high temperature adsor-
ber (end of desorption, about to begin the adsorption) to
Fig. 1. Granular compound adsorbent after adsorption (mass ratio of
activated carbon and CaCl
2
is 1:4).
Fig. 2. Consolidated compound adsorbent.
748 Z.S. Lu et al. / Carbon 44 (2006) 747752
heat the low temperature adsorber (end of adsorption,
about to begin the desorption). This is realized with a
looped heat pipe conguration.
In PHPL process, the hot adsorber is connected to the
cooler. As result, the pressure prevailing therein is lower
than that in the boiler. So, the heat pipe liquid can easily
be pumped from the liquid pumping boiler into the adsor-
ber. During the CHP process, the hot adsorber serves as
the evaporating side of heat pipe, while the cooler serves
as its condensing. The heat pipe liquid evaporates in the
hot adsorber, absorbing the heat from it, and then enters
the cooler via vapor pipeline, wherein it condenses. The
condensed liquid then returns to the adsorber via liquid
pipeline.
In HHP process, the other adsorber is connected to the
boiler. The heating boiler serves as the evaporating side of
heat pipe and the adsorber serves as its condensing side.
The heat pipe liquid is heated to evaporation by the heating
boiler. The generated vapor then enters the adsorber via
the vapor pipeline, and is condensed into liquid when it
touches the cold surface inside the nned tubes in adsorber
to provide desorption heat. At last, the condensed heat
pipe liquid returns to the heating boiler via liquid pipeline
to be heated again.
In MR process, the valve between the hot adsorber and
the cold adsorber is opened, and the ammonia vapor in the
hot adsorber quickly enters the cold one, because the pres-
sure in the hot adsorber is much higher compared to that in
the cold adsorber. This process helps to get more desorp-
tion from the hot adsorber and more adsorption in the cold
adsorber.
In HPHR process, the hot adsorber and the cold adsor-
ber are connected. The hot adsorber serves as the evaporat-
ing side of heat pipe while the cold adsorber serves as its
condensing side. The heat pipe liquid evaporates in the
hot adsorber, then enters the cold adsorber, condensing
there and transferring heat from the hot adsorber to the
cold adsorber. Afterwards, the heat pipe liquid returns to
hot adsorber again. Thus, a looped heat pipe heat recovery
circuit is performed.
In Fig. 3, the cooler is a coil tube heat exchanger, in
which seawater is circulated in the copper tube and the
vapor of heat pipe working liquid is condensed onto it.
Thus, due to the heat pipe arrangement, the problem of
corrosion caused by seawater used in steel made adsorber
is avoided. The heat exchanger of the evaporator is just a
jacket heat exchanger.
4. Experiments
The adsorption quantity is measured by a magnetostric-
tion level sensor, with relative measuring error of less than
0.05%. It is inserted inside the evaporator. The diameter of
evaporator is 117 mm.
The average SCP is calculated by the formula (1):
SCP
1000
m

h
fg
q
l
V
l
t
1
Fig. 3. Structure of the refrigeration system. (a) schematic diagram, (b) photo of the system. 1. Liquid pumping boiler; 2. tap-hole; 3. electric heater; 4.
heating boiler; 5. evaporator; 6. vapour pipeline; 7. liquid pipeline; 8. magnetostriction level sensor; 9. adsorbers; 10. condenser; 11. ammonia inlet; 12.
safety valve; 13. vapour pipeline; 14. liquid pipeline; 15. coolers; 16. aspirating hole and heat pipe liquid inlet; 17. cooling water pipeline; 18. water meter;
19. cooling water pump; 20. pressure sensor; 21. temperature sensor; 22. safety valve.
Z.S. Lu et al. / Carbon 44 (2006) 747752 749
where SCP is in (W/kg), m is the mass of CaCl
2
in com-
pound adsorbent for each adsorber (1.88 kg), h
fg
is the la-
tent heat of vaporization at evaporation temperature of
ammonia (kJ/kg), q
l
is the density of ammonia liquid at
the evaporation temperature (kg/m
3
), V
l
is the volume of
the ammonia liquid evaporated during the adsorption
phase (m
3
), and t is the corresponding adsorption time
(s). It is seen that the SCP value is an integrated cooling ef-
fect divided by the adsorption time and the adsorbent
mass.
The coecient of cooling performance (COP) is calcu-
lated by the formula (2):
COP
h
fg
V
l
q
l
R
w
h
dt
2
where COP is the coecient of performance, w
h
is heating
power (kW).
4.1. Adsorption ice-maker powered by waste heat from
exhausting gases of shing boats
As shown in our previously publication before mass and
heat recoveries can improve the adsorption refrigeration
performance signicantly [13]. So, the adsorption refriger-
ation performance of the multifunctional heat pipe-type
refrigerator with mass and heat recoveries is studied, and
the results are compared with those obtained without any
heat or mass recovery. The average SCP comparison
results are shown in Fig. 4. The working condition was
set as follows: The cycle time was 70 min (half cycle time
of 35 min). The heating power was 3.6 kW. Water was
selected as the heat pipe working liquid. The evaporating
temperature was about 20 C. Fig. 4 shows that the aver-
age SCP is improved signicantly by mass and heat recov-
ery. When the cycle time is 40 min, the average SCP of the
cycle without any heat or mass recovery, with mass recov-
ery only, and with heat and mass recoveries are 514.3 W/
kg, 797.5 W/kg and 1026.2 W/kg, respectively. The mass
and heat recovery processes have achieved a SCP increase
of 28.7% and 70.8%, respectively, in comparison with cycle
with no recovery process.
The normal shing period, in China, is from January to
June and from September to November, and the corre-
sponding seawater temperature ranges from 15 C to
30 C. So the refrigeration performance variation with
cooling water temperature has been studied. The selected
working conditions was water as heat pipe working liquid,
70 min of cycle time, 40 s of mass recovery time, 2 min of
heat recovery time and approximately 20 C of evaporat-
ing temperature. The performance of adsorption refrigera-
tion is shown in Table 1.
Table 1 shows that the average SCP and COP increase
as the temperature of cooling water decreases. Even at
the highest temperature of cooling water, that is at 30 C,
the average SCP and COP are still as high as 528 W/kg
and 0.26, respectively.
4.2. Adsorption ice-maker powered by solar energy
In the second experiment, the refrigeration performance
of solar ice-maker with dierent heating power, simulated
by dierent electric heating power, was studied. Acetone is
a good choice for the reason of faster heating process and
the working condition was: 40 s of mass recovery, 24 min
of cycle time, approximately 30 C of cooling water temper-
ature, and approximately 15 C of evaporating tempera-
ture. The adsorber temperature represented versus time
is shown in Fig. 5. As it can be seen, the desorption tem-
perature increases with heating power. Likewise, the perfor-
mance of adsorption refrigeration performance represented
in Table 2 shows the average SCP as an increasing function
of heating power. The ascending dependency between the
systemperformance and the heating power can be explained
by the fact that high desorption temperature leads to a good
0
500
1000
1500
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
t /min
A
v
e
r
a
g
e

S
C
P
/
(
W
/
k
g
)
with heat and mass recovery
without heat and mass recovery
with mass recovery
Fig. 4. Average SCP variations in half cycle time with mass and heat
recovery operations.
Table 1
Adsorption refrigerator performance variation with dierent cooling water temperature
Cooling water temp. (C) Desorption temp. (C) Evaporation temp. (C) Heating power (kW) Average SCP (W/kg) COP
16 110.1 19.1 3.64 865.8 0.43
20 114.7 21.3 3.64 770.4 0.39
25 114.0 18.1 3.64 676.8 0.34
30 113.7 19.4 3.64 528.0 0.26
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
0 6 12 18 24
t /min
T
/

C
2.42kW
1.69kW
2.05kW
Fig. 5. Adsorption bed temperature versus time.
750 Z.S. Lu et al. / Carbon 44 (2006) 747752
desorption, which is conducive to improving the adsorption
refrigeration performance. The maximum average SCP is
161.2 W/kg, with the corresponding average COP of 0.12.
The performances could be further improved if the desorp-
tion temperature is increased, in which case high tempera-
ture solar heating will be required. It should be pointed
that the measured COP is the refrigeration eect divided
by the total heat input, which is not the solar COP, the solar
COP would be about 40% that of the measured COP due to
the solar heating eciency.
5. Results and discussion
Refrigeration performances are inuenced by heat and
mass recovery operations. The average SCP obtained for
the cycle without any heat or mass recovery process, with
mass recovery only, and with heat and mass recoveries
are 514.3 W/kg, 797.5 W/kg and 1026.2 W/kg, respectively,
at the condition of 40 min of cycle time and about 20 C
of evaporating temperature, about 114 C of desorption
temperature and about 30 C of condensing temperature.
In normal shing period, refrigeration performances of
ice-maker on shing boats varies with dierent tempera-
tures of seawater. The average SCP and COP increase as
the temperature of cooling water decreases. At the highest
temperature of cooling water of 30 C, the lowest average
of SCP and COP are still as high as 528 W/kg and 0.26,
respectively.
For the solar ice-maker refrigeration modes, the average
SCP increases with heating power and the highest average
SCP is 161.2 W/kg, and the corresponding COP is 0.12
when powered by 80 C hot water. The values could still
be improved if high temperature solar collector was used.
In summary, we have designed a high eective adsorp-
tion ice-maker. This work has adopted two new concepts,
mixture of activated carbon and CaCl
2
as adsorbent and
heat pipe for heat transfer, which are really very eective
to improve the performance of adsorption refrigeration
systems. The achieved average SCP and COP are far higher
than those obtained in other experimental systems. A com-
parison between the study reported in this paper and other
studies is shown in Table 3.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by National Science Fund for
Distinguished Young Scholars of China under the contract
No. 50225621, Shanghai Shuguang Training Program for
the Talents under the contract No. 02GG03, the State
Key Fundamental Research Program under the contract
No. G2000026309. The authors thank Mr. Z.Z. Xia, Mr.
Y.X. Xu for helping to install the experimental setup.
The contributions from Mr. Daou is also appreciated.
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