Experimental investigation of two-bed adsorption thermophysical battery with mass recovery technology

Abstract

This paper developed a novel semi-continuous two-bed Adsorption Thermophysical Battery (ATB), utilizing silica gel RD/water as the adsorption pair. The Absorber Bed Unit (ABU) was designed and manufactured using finned tubes, while the condenser and evaporator are incorporated under a single Evaporator-Condenser Unit (ECU). The study investigated the impact of mass recovery, hot and cooled water temperature, and the chilled, cooled, and hot water flow rate on the system performance. The results of the study revealed that the ATBwith mass recovery demonstrated a higher Coefficient of Performance (COP) and Refrigeration Capacity (RC) in comparison to the system without mass recovery. The average COP for the cycles with and without mass recovery were 0.228 and 0.2, respectively. The present study determined that the most favorable duration for mass recovery was 60 s. A substantial reduction in the COP can be observed as the hot and cooled water temperature increases. Also, the COP of the ATB was found to be directly related to the flow rates of chilled and cooled water but not to the flow rates of hot water. In addition, the COP of the two-bed ATB with mass recovery was improved by 14 % compared with the single-bed ATB. Finally, the adsorption uptake rose by 24 % when the cooled temperature was decreased from 313 K to 303 K.