Performance of a modified zeolite 13X-water adsorptive cooling module powered by exhaust waste heat

A modified adsorption cooling module with a working pair of 13X zeolite-water used for engineering truck air-conditioning driven by engine waste heat is presented in this paper. The cooling powers at different evaporating temperatures for the module were first tested, and the cycle operating characteristics of the module at different cooling powers were then analyzed and discussed. The performance of the cooling module is found to have a strong coupling with exterior ambient parameters such as the heat source temperature (Ths), ambient temperature (Ta), air velocity (v) and air relative humidity (φ). Experiments were carried out systematically and analyzed in detail to study the effects of the ambient parameters on the module performance. Our results indicate that the demonstrated cooling module has a good performance, and the minimum evaporating temperatures corresponding to the cooling powers of 2.0 W and 10.5 W are 0.7 °C and 16.2 °C, respectively, under the conditions of Ths at 325 °C, Ta at 18 °C, φ at 70%, and natural convection. Based on the presented module, a preliminary multiple module adsorption air conditioning system for engineering truck driver’s cab was also proposed in this work.