Experimental investigation of an adsorption refrigeration prototype with the working pair of composite adsorbent-ammonia

• A 4-valve adsorption refrigeration prototype is developed and tested.
• Reliability is improved by the design of adsorber and heating/cooling circuit.
• The optimal cycle time and mass recovery time are 50 min and 120 s, respectively.
• COP and SCP of typical conditions are 0.197and 205.2 W kg−1, respectively.

A 4-valve adsorption refrigeration prototype, which utilizes the composite adsorbent of calcium chloride/activated carbon and the refrigerant of ammonia, is developed and tested. System reliability is significantly improved because the integrated adsorbers are adopted, the closed circulation for heating and cooling processes is designed, and the system operation is optimized. Experiments showed that the prototype can start quickly, and the operation of the system is very stable. The influences of mass recovery time, cycle time, heating temperature, evaporating temperature and cooling water temperature on system performance have been studied. Experimental results indicate that for the −5 °C evaporating temperature, 130 °C heating temperature, 25 °C cooling water temperature, the optimized cycle time is 50 min with a mass recovery time of 120 s. The optimal coefficient of performance (COP), specific cooling power (SCP) and cooling capacity of this prototype are 0.197, 205.2 W kg−1 and 1.64 kW, respectively.