Adsorption cooling system employing granular activated carbon–R134a pair for renewable energy applications

An adsorption cooling system has been designed and built employing granular activated carbon (GAC)–R134a as adsorbent–refrigerant pair. The performance of the system has been determined using a cycle simulation computer program written in Fortran. The performance of the system has been determined varying driving heat source inlet temperatures and delivered evaporator temperatures. The maximum driving heat source temperature is kept below 100 °C to utilize solar thermal energy or waste heat sources. The results showed good agreement between the theoretical and experimental data. The maximum theoretical coefficient of performance (COP) is obtained as 0.35. The experimental specific cooling energy (SCE) is reached up to 70 kJ kg−1 whereas the maximum theoretical SCE of the system is 83 kJ kg−1. The pressurized-bed adsorption cooling system can effectively utilize low grade waste heat of temperature below 100 °C.

► An AC–R134a adsorption cooling system has been designed and built.
► The proposed chiller can effectively utilize low-temperature waste heat.
► The performance of the chiller has been evaluated.
► The experimental specific cooling energy (SCE) is reached up to 70 kJ kg−1.