STUDY OF VARIOUS ADSORBENT-REFRIGERANT PAIRS FOR THE APPLICATION OF SOLAR DRIVEN ADSORPTION COOLING IN TROPICAL CLIMATES

This article presents analytical investigation of the performance of solar powered adsorption cooling system of various adsorbent-refrigerant pairs that has been designed for Malaysia and similar tropical regions. Different adsorbent-refrigerant pairs that have been studied are silica gel-water, activated carbon fiber-ethanol and activated carbon-methanol. A computer simulation program has been developed for modeling and performance evaluation for the solar driven adsorption cooling cycle using the meteorological data of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia The simulation is based on the experimentally confirmed adsorption isotherms, kinetics and isosteric heat of the adsorption data for the respective adsorbent-refrigerant pairs. The optimum cooling capacity and coefficient of performance (COP) of the different adsorbent-refrigerant pairs are calculated and compared in terms of adsorption-desorption cycle time and regeneration temperature.