Electricity Generation Using a Hybridized Zeolite Adsorption Heat Pump and Heat Engine

Linus Kweku Labik,Baah Sefa-Ntiri,Eric Kwabena Kyeh Abavare,Craig Williams,Bright Kwakye-Awuah,Isaac Nkrumah

doi:10.5539/apr.v12n4p75

Abstract

The use of adsorption in Thermal Energy Storage has gained considerable research interest of late. Some applications have focused on the use of TES for transformation of low temperature heat in applications such as cooling and heating. Zeolite and water have been studied as suitable materials. Their characteristics as environmentally friendly materials and high affinity makes them conspicuous. The unique properties of zeolites to hold adsorbed water/heat with very minimal loss is also significant. With the aid of a dynamo, a Stirling engine as heat engine and the adsorption energy storage system serving as heat pump was used to generate electricity. The relationship between electricity generation and temperature was investigated. The obtained average temperature and pressure of the zeolite - water adsorption heat pump was also compared with the basic adsorption cycle.

Highlights

Energy is very crucial to the economic prosperity of a country as well as vital to their technological advancement
The construction of an AHP system coupled with a Heat Engine to develop a trigeneration heat-to-electricity system was completed using three vessels serving as the evaporator, adsorber and condenser connected by copper tubing and valves as the AHP system and Stirling engine connected with a dynamo
The micrographs obtained (Figure 4) showed the cubic morphology associated with Zeolite A (Mgbemere, Ekpe, & Lawal, 2017)

Summary

Introduction

Energy is very crucial to the economic prosperity of a country as well as vital to their technological advancement. Un- an overeliance on fossil fuels has the dire consequences of an unsustainable demand and environmental catastrophe. The unpredictability of supply, demand and price contribute to global political tensions (Dinçer & Rosen, 2011). 82.5% of Ghanaians as at 2016 had access to electricity not constant (Kumi, 2017). “Dumsor”, a Ghanaian term to describe the erratic supply of power, engulfed the country from 2012 to 2015. Power supply issues in Ghana is due to the heavy reliance on hydro and fossil fuel based thermal plants with a mix of 42.79 % to 57.21% (Kumi, 2017)

Methods

Results

Conclusion