Experimental investigation on a fluidized-bed adsorber/desorber for the adsorption refrigeration system

This paper proposed and designed a fluidized-bed adsorber/desorber which can be used in the adsorption refrigeration system in place of the conventional fixed-bed one. An experimental setup was built to investigate the performance of the fluidized-bed absorber/desorber and compare with that of the fixed-bed one using the working pair of activated carbon and R134a. The experimental results with 2 kg activated carbon show that the heat and mass transfer can be greatly enhanced either in adsorption or desorption in the proposed fluidized-bed adsorber/desorber The experimental results with 3 kg activated carbon show the similar enhancement, but the enhancement with 4 kg activated carbon was weakened either in adsorption or desorption due to the incomplete fluidization of the activated carbon. By way of the new approach, the poor heat and mass transfer in the conventional fixed-bed absorber/desorber can be overcome and the SCP of the adsorption refrigerator can be expected to be greatly improved accordingly.

► We designed a fluidized-bed adsorber/desorber used for the adsorption refrigerator.
► We built a setup to investigate its performance and compare it with the fixed-bed one.
► Heat and mass transfer of R134a and different mass activated carbon was investigated.
► The results show that the heat and mass transfer can be greatly enhanced.
► Either in adsorption or desorption the heat and mass transfer can be greatly enhanced.