Heat and Mass Transfer Characteristics of a Zeolite 13X/CaCl2 Composite Adsorbent in Adsorption Cooling Systems

Author(s):  
K. C. Chan ◽  
Christopher Y. H. Chao ◽  
M. Bahrami

The performance of the adsorption cooling system using the zeolite 13X/CaCl2 composite adsorbent was studied using a numerical simulation. The novel zeolite 13X/CaCl2 composite adsorbent with superior adsorption properties was developed in previous studies [11]. It has high equilibrium water uptake of 0.404 g/g between 25°C and 100°C under 870Pa. The system specific cooling power (SCP) and coefficient of performance (COP) were successfully predicted for different operation parameters. The simulated COP with the composite adsorbent is 0.76, which is 81% higher than a system using pure zeolite 13X under desorption temperature of 75°C. The SCP is also increased by 34% to 18.4 W/kg. The actual COP can be up to 0.56 compared to 0.2 for zeolite 13X-water systems, an increase of 180%. It is predicted that an adsorption cooling system using the composite adsorbent could be powered by a low grade thermal energy source, like solar energy or waste heat, using the temperature range of 75°C to 100°C. The performance of the adsorber with different design parameters was also studied in the present numerical simulation. Adsorbents with smaller porosity can have higher thermal conductivity and may result in better system performance. The zeolite bed thickness should be limited to 10mm to reduce the thermal response time of the adsorber. Addition of high thermal conductivity materials, for example carbon nanotube, can also improve the performance of the adsorber. Multi-adsorber tube connected in parallel can be employed to provide large heat transfer surface and maintain a large SCP and COP. The desorption temperature also showed a large effect on the system performance.

Author(s):  
K. C. Chan ◽  
Christopher Y. H. Chao

Adsorption cooling systems utilize the principle of adsorption to generate cooling effect. Composite adsorbents synthesized from zeolite 13X and CaCl2 have previously been shown to have a high adsorption capacity and high adsorption rate with lower desorption temperature where the adsorption capacity and adsorption rate are 420% and 122% of zeolite 13X under the same condition respectively. This results in more compact design and a lower temperature waste-heat source can be used. The system performance is, however, limited by the low thermal conductivity of the 13X/CaCl2 composite adsorbent which is common for many adsorbents. Due to the low thermal conductivity of the adsorbent, poor heat transfer and slow temperature change in the adsorbent bed lead to longer time for the adsorbent to achieve the adsorption/desorption temperature. This directly reduces the adsorption/desorption rate of the adsorbate on the adsorbent, such as water on zeolite, and results in lower system coefficient of performance (COP) and specific cooling power (SCP). It was proposed that embedding carbon nanotube (CNT) into the 13X/CaCl2 composite absorbents can increase the thermal conductivity of the adsorbent bed to improve the system performance. Thus, the properties of the multi-wall CNT (MWCNT) embedded zeolite 13X/CaCl2 composite adsorbents were investigated to find out the optimized composition for the cooling system. The material properties of the MWCNT embedded zeolite 13X/CaCl2 composite adsorbent were measured. The thermal conductivities of the MWCNT embedded 13X/CaCl2 composite adsorbents were predicted by developing a new theoretical model modified based on area contact model. The performance of the adsorption cooling system using zeolite 13X and MWCNT embedded composite adsorbent were studied numerically. It is found that the COP and SCP are improved by 3.6 and 26 times respectively. This results in a much more compact and energy efficient cooling system.


Author(s):  
Ru Yang ◽  
Geng-Yi Lin

A large solar hot water system can be utilized to provide driving energy for heating system, heat-driven cooling system, as well as to provide hot water. This research addresses the effects of the storage tank design parameters on the performance of a large-scale solar hot water system with a horizontal storage tank. Most literatures only considered the stratification performance of the thermal storage tank itself instead of considering the overall system performance. Also, there is lack of experimental research data available for the design purpose. Therefore, this study employs a numerical simulation technique to study the design parameters effect of a horizontal thermal storage tank on the performance of a large-scale solar hot water system. In this study, the ANSYS-CFX program is employed to calculate the flow and temperature distributions inside horizontal thermal storage tank. Then the inlets and outlets of the tank are combined with the TRNSYS program to simulate the entire system performance under the weather of three representative cities of Taiwan, (Taipei, Taichung and, Kaohsiung). The results of the present study indicate that the vertical stratification baffles in the tank have important effects on system performance improvement. Quantitative increase of solar fraction of the total load is obtained. The comparison with the system with vertical storage tank is provided. The results of the present study can provide important reference for the large solar hot water system design in improving system efficiency.


Author(s):  
K. C. Chan ◽  
C. Y. Tso ◽  
Christopher Y. H. Chao

In this study, simulation was conducted to investigate the effect of mass recovery, heat recovery, pre-heating and pre-cooling time on the system performance of a double-bed adsorption cooling system. Pressures of different system components were considered in the simulation. The adsorbent-adsorbate pair used was silica-gel and water. The heating and cooling temperatures were selected to be 85°C and 27°C respectively. Both the adsorption and desorption phase times were set at 15 minutes. The coefficient of performance (COP) and specific cooling power (SCP) were used to quantify the performance of the system. From the simulation, the basic cycle provided COP and SCP of 0.20 and 40.9W/kg respectively. By conducting heat recovery for 120 seconds, the system COP was largely increased by 99% to 0.40 compared to the basic cycle. The SCP was also increased to 42.3W/kg. Mass recovery, however, did not have too much effect on the system performance. The COP and SCP only increased by 4.5% and 3.9% respectively when conducting mass recovery for 4.7 seconds. For conducting heat and mass recovery, the COP and SCP were increased to 0.36 and 44.68W/kg, respectively. Pre-heating and pre-cooling can also be beneficial in improving both COP and SCP. The COP and SCP were increased by 14.5% and 10.1% respectively, to 0.23 and 45.0W/kg by conducting pre-heating and pre-cooling for 50.3 seconds. The combinations of these processes were also studied. It is suggested heat and mass recovery then pre-heating and pre-cooling should be conducted to improve COP and SCP. The improvements showed 31.2% for COP, increasing to 0.27, and 11.9% for SCP, increasing to 45.7W/kg.


Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marzia Khanam ◽  
Skander Jribi ◽  
Takahiko Miyazaki ◽  
Bidyut Saha ◽  
Shigeru Koyama

2016 ◽  
Vol 861 ◽  
pp. 401-408
Author(s):  
Lucie Horká ◽  
Jan Weyr

This study is aimed at parametric analysis of floor cooling. Impact of several design parameters such as air temperature, temperature of cooling water, distance of cooling pipes, thickness and thermal conductivity of top layer on total heat transfer of cooling floor is studied. The issue is solved by steady-state 2D numerical simulation of heat transfer to the floor construction. These parametric simulations are performed in software CalA. Impact of variable input parameters on total heat transfer is observed. Results of parametric analysis are displayed in a nomogram. This nomogram is useful for faster designing of floor cooling.


2018 ◽  
Vol 131 ◽  
pp. 649-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
L.Q. Zhu ◽  
C.Y. Tso ◽  
K.C. Chan ◽  
C.L. Wu ◽  
Christopher Y.H. Chao ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
V Baiju ◽  
A Asif Sha ◽  
NK Mohammed Sajid ◽  
K Muhammedali Shafeeque

This paper presents the transient model of a two-bed adsorption cooling system performed in the SIMULINK platform. The inlet chilled water temperature in the evaporator, temperature of cooling water and hot water temperature of the adsorbent bed and its effect on systems coefficient of performance, refrigeration effect and specific cooling power have been studied and presented. It is observed that the systems coefficient of performance is 0.57 when the inlet hot water temperature about 80 °C. In this study, the optimum cooling power and systems coefficient of performance are also determined in terms of the phase time, shifting duration and hot water inflow temperature. The results indicates that the cooling water and hot water inlet temperatures significantly affects the coefficient of performance, specific cooling power and cooling power of the system. The effect of mass flow rate on the cooler efficiency is also presented. A two bed adsorption system of capacity 13.5 kW having an evaporator and condenser temperatures of 6°C and 28°C, respectively, are considered for the present investigation. The adsorbent mass considered is 45 kg with a shifting duration of 20 sec. The result of this study gives the basis for performance optimization of a practical continuous operating vapour adsorption cooler.


2017 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 695-702 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed A. Askalany ◽  
Stefan K. Henninger ◽  
Mohamed Ghazy ◽  
Bidyut B. Saha

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document