Revisiting adsorption cooling cycle from mathematical modelling to system development

The urgency to look for promising sustainable alternatives to the conventional vapour compression technique for cooling applications has been strong. As the result, the gas-solid adsorption system has been considered as one of the alternatives to generate cooling effect. This paper reviews the development of this adsorption cooling technique in three different aspects: mathematical modelling, intrinsic, and extrinsic developments, in order to present an overview of this field from basic mathematical representations and designs to current research trends as well as innovative applications and configurations. Various adsorption equilibria, diffusion models, kinetics, and system modelling are reviewed. On the other hand, the roles of both the heat exchanger design parameters and the adsorbent materials are discussed followed by the different bed configurations and schemes. The impact of various operating parameters on the system performance is also covered.