Experimental study on a novel microwave-assisted adsorption heat pump

• Microwave regenerated adsorbent bed of AHP was experimentally studied.
• Influence operation times of microwave heating on the performance of AHP were researched.
• High COP and VCP values were achieved with microwave regeneration.
• COP for the microwave heated cycle was found 1.14 for 35 min.

A microwave-regenerated adsorption heat pump system was manufactured and experimentally examined. The influence of the operation time of a microwave oven on the performance of the adsorption heat pump was investigated in this study. The performance criteria, i.e., coefficient of performance, specific cooling power and volumetric cooling power, were calculated for the designed and tested adsorption heat pump system. The coefficient of performance and volumetric cooling power values indicated that the microwave-regenerated adsorption heat pump system is promising for commercial applications. However, the specific cooling power value indicated that the system still needs further improvement. The coefficient of performance of the designed system was found to be 1.14 for 35 min of operation time of the microwave oven. The primary energy ratio (PER) values revealed that microwave-driven adsorption heat pumps can effectively compete with thermally driven AHPs.