Experimental testing of aluminium fumarate MOF for adsorption desalination

Abstract

Many researchers consider adsorption systems as a solution for global problems such as global warming and water scarcity. The experimental and numerical data available in literature are basically focusing on using conventional adsorbent materials such as silica gel and zeolites. Recently, metal-organic framework (MOF) materials have been proposed to substitute these conventional adsorbents. Nevertheless, the potential of MOFs has been only numerically investigated without any experimental data from a real system. To fill this research gap, this work presents for the first time the experimental testing of a MOF material, aluminium fumarate, and how it can enhance the performance of adsorption desalination systems. A parametric study to investigate the effect of different parameters such as chilled water, adsorption cooling water, condensation cooling water, desorption heating water temperatures and half cycle time on the performance of the adsorption system has been conducted. The suitability of the aluminium fumarate system for adsorption desalination was also assessed through analysing the quality of water produced from the system. Finally, the performance of the aluminium fumarate was also compared to conventional adsorbents such as silica gel. The superior performance of aluminium fumarate highlights the potential of the material in adsorption desalination application.