Construction of an innovative adsorbent bed configuration in the adsorption chiller part 2. experimental research of coated bed samples

Abstract

Enhancement of heat transfer conditions in the adsorption bed volume is one of the crucial tasks of improving adsorption chiller energy efficiency. The promising method is a modification of the heat exchanger boundary layer with thermally conductive glue. It ensures removing gaseous spaces, which strongly limit heat transfer from water to sorbent bed and in the opposite direction. Previously defined guidelines to build novel coated construction of adsorption beds published in Part 1 of this paper were applied to prepare coated bed samples and conduct experimental research. The thermal properties of the sorbent samples were examined with the laser flash method. Silica gel was used as a sorbent and two different kinds of epoxy resins were applied. Moreover, the scanning electron microscope (SEM) was employed to study the specific surface of the coated samples. The carried out analyses allowed to validate the selection criterion of coated bed components and indicate the sample with the best thermal properties. The maximum thermal conductivity of the coated layer was 0.533 W/(m·K) and it was obtained for a sample of silica gel with granulation of 710–800 μm with ER2 epoxy.