Experimental investigation on activated carbon–ethanol pair for solar powered adsorption cooling applications

Adsorption equilibrium uptake of ethanol onto a highly porous activated carbon based adsorbent, namely Maxsorb III, has been experimentally investigated using a thermo-gravimetric analyzer (TGA) unit over adsorption temperatures ranging from 20 to 60 °C. The Dubinin–Astakhov (D–A) equation has been used to correlate the experimental data. Isosteric heat of adsorption is also estimated by using the Clausius–Clapeyron equation. Employing a thermodynamically equilibrium model, the performance of the ideal adsorption cooling cycle has also been studied and compared to that of activated carbon fiber (ACF)–ethanol pair. Experimental results show that Maxsorb III can adsorb up to 1.2 kg of ethanol per kilogram of adsorbent. Theoretical calculations show that, the Maxsorb III–ethanol adsorption cycle can achieve a specific cooling effect of about 420 kJ kg−1 at an evaporator temperature of 7 °C along with a heat source of temperature 80 °C and thus the pair is recommended for solar cooling applications.