Adsorption refrigeration technology - An overview of theory and its solar energy applications

Adsorption refrigeration technology has established enhanced significance in last three decades, due to its noiseless, non-corrosive and environment friendly operation by the utilization of low grade heat sources, especially solar energy. A plethora of adsorption cooling systems had been developed but still these cooling systems are not ready to compete with the traditional vapor compression cooling systems. This paper aims to provide fundamental knowledge on the adsorption systems and presents a comprehensive literature review of the past efforts in the field of their solar energy utilization. This paper also presents a brief of various related researches conducted in India. A survey of developments in the market trends is also presented in this paper. It shows that a number of attempts have been made by various companies to enhance the performance of adsorption refrigeration systems and maintain their presence in market but limitations regarding their technical and economic aspects seem difficult to overcome. Nevertheless, adsorption cooling systems driven by solar energy not only lowers down the daily electricity consumption but also reduces the global warming potential due to its environment friendly nature.