Feasibility study on the application of a heat-pipe type adsorption chiller.

A parametric study on a heat-pipe type adsorption chiller with SWS-1L (mesoporous silica gel impregnated with CaCl) and water pair was conducted using a numerical method in this research. A heat pipe that is in direct contact with the adsorbent is applied to the adsorption chiller to improve the heat transfer capacity of the adsorption bed. A feasibility study was performed on the heat-pipe type adsorption bed with a single layer. The Coefficient of performance (COP) and the Specific cooling power (SCP) were 0.231 and 844.8 W/kg, respectively. These values are lower than the system performance values of the existing fin-tube type adsorption bed. However, when the number of bed layers was increased to seven, the COP and SCP of the heat-pipe type adsorption bed were 0.520 and 752.4 W/kg, respectively. These values are 5.25 % and 39.8 % higher than the COP and SCP, respectively, of the fin-tube type adsorption bed. These findings indicate that the heat-pipe type adsorption bed can potentially address the disadvantage caused by the system size of the adsorption chiller. A parametric study was also conducted for six design parameters, namely, number of layers, heat pipe pitch, heat pipe radius, fin width, fin spacing, and hot water temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]