CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

The main objective of the literature review is to provide an appraisal of the

new state of the art in the field of solar refrigeration techniques. In this context,

literature on importance of solar cooling and sorption techniques involved in the

cooling systems are emphasized in this chapter. One of the most important

applications of refrigeration is the preservation of perishable food products, precious

and vital medicines, by storing them at low temperatures. In earlier days, the

technique of cooling was started with utilization of ice derived through natural

sources and processes, but the requirement of ice in large quantity and a suitable

method to protect the cooling ice from melting have pushed the technocrats to

develop an artificial technology for producing ice in large quantity. Thus the history

of artificial refrigeration began with the birth of laboratory-scale refrigerating

machine invented by the Scottish Professor William Cullen from University of

Edinburgh in 1755.

2.1 DEMANDS FOR COOLING

The development of various refrigeration technologies including vapour

compression refrigeration, vapour absorption refrigeration and steam-jet refrigeration

are developed by different research and development groups in the world at later

years. As per International Energy Agency, the global demand for refrigeration and

6
air conditioning system will be triple by 2050, due to population explosion, economic

development, rapid industrialisation and climate change (IEA, 2013).

The adsorption phenomenon was discovered over two centuries ago, studied

by Scheele in 1773 and Fontana in 1777 about uptake of gases by charcoal. In 1785,

charcoal was found to decolourise solutions by surface adsorption mechanism as

stated by Ruthven (1984). For many decades, classical vapour compression systems

were operated with chlorofluorocarbons such as CFC, HCFC or HFC. However,

owing to their character to deplete the ozone layers and cause global warming,

scientists were prompted to phase out the above refrigerants and this paved way for

the development of new technologies with environmental-friendly refrigerants.

Solar energy is an alternative source for refrigeration due to its availability and

adaptability. The peak load of cooling demand focus on solar based cooling system

using adsorption techniques is an alternative as far as conservative energy research is

concerned. Devices that have the capacity to utilize the solar energy (or other various

forms of low grade thermal energy) are of great demand. In the recent days,

adsorption based cooling techniques have been explored (theoretically and

experimentally) and projected as an alternative to work operated vapour refrigeration

systems. Fan et. al. (2007) quoted that, the solar refrigeration methods shows a

hopeful effort in attempting to conserve the production and efficiency level of old

cooling methods

2.2 SOLAR COOLING TECHNIQUES

The solar cooling techniques are to diminish the environmental ramification

and provide economic solution to the energy consumption issues raised by traditional

cooling methods. The use of sorption processes to produce refrigeration has been

7
extensively studied from the first half of the last century. Heat operated thermally-

driven sorption cooling cycles are existing from 1909. Miller and Walter (1929)

listed a number of systems that utilised silica-gel and sulphur dioxide as the solid

sorbent -refrigerant pairs. Later research in this area were sedate the concept of solar-

operated refrigerator was appeared about half a century back with the first model

using a liquid based sorption cycle as discussed by Sumathy and Zhongfu,(1999a).

The four core heat operated solar energy assisted cooling systems available are

absorption, ejector, desiccant and adsorption cooling systems.

2.3 SORPTION TECHNIQUES

Sorption technology is used in thermal cooling mechanisms wherein the

refrigerant outcome is achieved from the physical or chemical variations

(concentration difference) between the adsorbent and adsorbate. Thermal-operated

sorption cooling has been considered as an efficient economic energy saving

technique(s). Sorption cooling technology can generate useful cooling effect for the

beneficiary, based on non-conventional sources or waste heat recovery systems.

Perhaps these cooling systems are especially simple in operation and are dependable,

flexible and they are widely applied. Figure 2.1 shows the various types of sorption

cooling techniques. Heat operated absorption and adsorption systems with sorption

cooling models wherein the work operated mechanical compressor of the common

vapour compression cycle is substituted by a heat operated compressor and sorbent. In

the adsorption cooling system, the sorbent is in the solid phase and whereas liquid

phase in case of absorption systems. On heating the solid/liquid sorbent, desorbs the

refrigerant at the pressure of condenser. The vapour refrigerant is condensed to the

liquid state in the condenser, and then passed through throttling valve to enter

8
9
Figure 2.1 Sorption techniques used for refrigeration

9
the evaporator at low pressure.The cooled refrigerant in the evaporator engrosses heat

from the cooled space and evaporates. Thus it produces the required cooling.

Refrigeration using adsorption system can be used continuously, if multiple sorption

beds are used. Refrigeration using solid sorption systems requires large surface area to

transfer heat to the adsorbent materials that cost high.

2.4 PERFORMANCE PREDICTION OF VAdRS

Douss et. al. (1988) developed a numerical model for simple heat and mass

recovery cycles with zeolite NaX–water pair. Their numerical model predicted COP

of 1.38 and 1.56 respectively for the simple and mass-heat recovery cycles. The

authors also stated that condensation and evaporation pressures had the largest effect

on the COP values among adsorption bed temperatures and other auxiliary

component’s design parameters such as heat transfer coefficients.

Zheng et. al. (1995) developed a novel approach, maintaining a uniform

pressure in their model by demonstrating the transfer of mass and heat in the sorption

bed using a solar flat shaped plate ice making machine. Some assumptions are made

to derive the governing equations with COP and specific cooling capacity as main

performance parameters.

Hajji and Khalloufi (1995) developed both theoretical and experimental

model. The model is validated by experimental results and gives a good agreement.

The various parametric influences (adsorbent thickness, heat transfer coefficient) on

operating the system was analysed. Lower condensing temperature and higher cold

and hot adsorbent temperature difference yielded faster operation.

Teng et. al. (1997) have developed models of simple and heat recovery cycle

by including the effects of the several parameters used in Dubinin–Radushkerich

10
(D-R) and Dubinin- Astakhov (D-A) equations on cycle performance. Besides the

effect of maximum bed temperature, evaporator temperature and heat capacity of the

pairs were also analysed. They concluded that the COP values of activated carbon–

methanol pair can be increased by increasing the maximum bed temperature varied

between 90 to 140oC, and the evaporator temperature varied between 20 to 15oC and

reported maximum COP of 1.5 approximately.

An investigation made by Alam et. al. (2000), established two dimensional

heat transfer equations for both the heat transfer fluid and adsorbent sides. This study

presented the different physical dimensions of the equipment and operating

parameters of the system based on certain group of non- dimensional numbers in the

analyses. However their results were similar one obtained by Hajji and Khalloufi

(1995).

Performance of solar cooler was analysed by Li and Wang (2003). This paper

dealt with effects of the adsorbent finned tube heat transfer, solar energy collector,

coating of the collector tubes, number of glasses used in the collector, thermal

resistance of contact materials used, thermal conductivity of the solid-sorbent

materials, and packing solidity of the solid-sorbent on the overall performance of the

system.

Solar assisted sorption refrigerator utilising an evacuated tube for thermal

insulation was numerically studied by Li et. al.(2003) with zeolite–water pair. They

computed relationships between the diameter of evacuated tube collector and its

performance with respect to distance among two adjacent tube centres. The study

concluded for evacuated tube diameter of 70 mm, both the COP and cooling capacity

reached their highest possible values of 0.25 and 4377 kJ/ m2.

11
 Anyanwu (2004) conducted transient study and performance forecasting of

single solar sorption bed refrigerator with AC - methanol pair incorporated in a

tubular solar FPC. They observed developments on COP and condensate yield

ranging from 29 to 38% and 26 to 35% respectively. This was arrived based on tubes

spacing, packing density of the adsorbent and selection of the collector plate tube

material.

Anyanwu and Ogueke (2005) reviewed the core concepts and theories of solar

adsorption refrigerator; the thermodynamic design and process development for solar

adsorption using three different pairs such as activated carbon (AC) - ammonia, AC-

methanol and zeolite - water. It was concluded in their study AC-ammonia is

preferred for providing cooling effect below freezing point of ice (for preserving food

and medicine) and zeolite – water is preferred for air conditioning. They also

concluded that in all the above three cases, the systems were dependant heavily on

adsorber and condenser temperature and lightly on evaporator temperature. The best

COP’s(Solar) were about 0.19, 0.16 and 0.3 respectively for AC –ammonia, AC-

methanol and zeolite-water with FPC.

Hamdeh and Al-Muhtaseb (2010) designed prototype of a solar solid-sorption

refrigeration unit suitable for air-conditioning and refrigeration unit in remote areas.

This device used the AC-methanol pair. A minimum refrigerator temperature of 9oC

was obtained for an ambient temperature of 26oC. The gross cycle COP of 0.688 was

obtained.

Tashtoush et. al. (2011) utilised a multi-dimensional curve-fitting formula to

fit the experimental and theoretical data by correlating the COP value to one of the

three temperatures of generator, condenser, and evaporator. Many cylindrical tubes

12
were used in their study on solar radiation exposed sorption bed filled with AC-

ammonia pair.

Solmus et. al. (2012) investigated a numerical model for mass and heat

transfer of silica gel - water pair based on local volume averaging technique. A local

thermal non equilibrium one-dimensional model was developed to account both

external and internal resistance of mass transfer. The model simplify along with

assumptions on solid-sorbent particle size, permeability, ideal gas radiation behaviour

of vapour refrigerant and viscous dissipation. Neglected work done due to pressure

changes. The surface penetrability was deemed to be equal to the total penetrability.

Adsorption bed thermo-physical properties like thermal conductivity, specific heat

and viscosity are considered to be independent of temperature. The thermal resistance

was neglected due to very small vacuum tube wall thickness. They established that, in

order to increase the performance of the sorption bed, it is essential to reduce the heat

transfer resistance.

2.5 SIMULATION STUDIES

A number of numerical and thermodynamic studies of the refrigeration system

were done with the objective of optimizing its performance. Hu et. al. (1994)

simulated and analyzed a discontinuous solar-operated AC-methanol refrigerator

using a simulation code developed in FORTRAN language and their finding was that

the efficiency of the sorption bed got increased with increase in solar insolation. They

predicted the existence of an optimum outside diameter for the sorption tube that

depended on the local climatological conditions.

Li and Wang (2003) came up with a constant pressure prototype of the mass

and heat transfer in the sorption bed for a solar flat plate freezer. Result of this study

revealed that, the dynamic response of the solar solid-sorption refrigerator had

13
4% accuracy. Their conclusion was that the prototype was a good optimization tool

for the solar assisted freezer.

Research work of Liu and Leong (2008) pertains to a two-dimensional

transient numerical model (zeolite- water) accounted for different types of solar

collectors compared under certain conditions. The highest solar thermal efficiency

was obtained from an ETC and while a parabolic collector had the second highest

with heat transfer limitations that developed for a simple sorption cooling cycle. The

investigators claimed that the condensation pressure is not constant as time progresses

for the isosteric process, due to heat transfer limitations. Contradictory to the author’s

statement, the simulation results showed that the pressure in the condenser does not

change significantly for the simple adsorption cycle. Both COP and SCP were

observed to increase as the mass flow rate within the condenser temperature increases.

El Fadar et. al. (2009) simulated on FORTRAN platform of a solar solid-

sorption refrigerator used AC-Ammonia in sorption-bed heated by a PTC combined

with a heat pipe. The experimental data compared with model that revealed a good

agreement. Further an optimum condition on aperture width and the external diameter

of the sorber was established. Advantages of less weight PTC is highlighted compared

to FPC and ETC.

A numerical study by Hassan et. al. (2011) on a solid-sorption cooling system

using AC-methanol pair accounted the differences of solar insolation and atmospheric

temperature during the day. They further studied the local thermal conductivity and

pressure variation of the reactor on transient. It revealed that an improvement in COP

to 0.211.

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 Zhang et. al. (2011) studied on the operating characteristic of silica gel–water

solar solid-sorption cooler using lumped parameter model with Matlab–SIMULINK.

In their study, chiller performance was affected by cycle time, tank volume and

temperature of hot water. An average cooling capacity was 6.04 kW and COP average

was 0.458.

Suleiman et.al. (2012) modelled and simulated FPC operated VAdRS analysed

the performance of solid-sorption refrigeration system using TRNSYS-16 software.

TRYNSYS with type 155 linked to model equation developed in Matlab,

communicated by FORTRAN routine through an interface. They obtained COP

cooling and COP solar of the order 0.68 and 0.024 respectively with cooling capacity

of 4814 kJ.

Baiju and Muraleedharan (2012) proposed a new approach for the

performance analysis of a single-stage solar solid-sorption cooling system using

AC-R134a as working pair. They say; “The ANN used in the performance calculation

was made in MATLAB background using neural network tool box. In this study the

temperature, pressure and solar intensity were used as a input layer. The back

propagation algorithm was developed by considering three different variants namely

scaled conjugate gradient, Pola-Ribiere conjugate gradient, Levenberg-Marquardt

(LM) and logistic sigmoid transfer function were used for finding performance

(COP, SCP, COPsolar and desorption temperature). After training, it was observed that

LM algorithm with 9 neurons is best suitable for modelling the solar adsorption

refrigeration system”.

15
2.6 EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS

Tchernev (1978) was the first to build a solar assisted adsorption cooling

machine to produce ice, using a zeolite–water system featuring maximum temperature

of generator ranging from 250 to 300oC.

Ileoje (1983) designed, developed and tested a solar powered adsorption

refrigerator of a flat plate double cover collector made of steel sheets. The working

media employed was calcium chloride – ammonia pair. Their design had achieved an

ice production of 0.41 kg/m2/day.

Pons and Guilleminot (1986) did an experimental study on a solar solid-

sorption ice making machine using 6 m2 solar harvesting area, and the machine could

yield ice 30-35 kg with solar insolation of 22,000 kJ/m2/day.

Kluppel and Gurgel (1987) constructed two models on solar operated

adsorption refrigeration system using silica gel–water pair. A solar COP of 0.055 was

obtained from this prototype with evaporator temperatures below 4oC and a COP of

0.077.

Yet another work of Tchernev (1988) used same pair for demonstrating solar

refrigerator on sorption bed containing 50 kg/m2 of zeolite with 50 mm insulator.

A solar insolation of 6 kW-hr was achieved 900W-hr/m2 of cooling and COP of 0.15.

A valve less solar assisted AC-methanol adsorption ice-making machine

constructed by Medini et al. (1991) with collected area of about 0.8 m2. Their results

revealed that collector efficiency of 41% and COP of 0.40. A production rate of 4 kg

per day of ice with 0.15 COPsolar is also possible.

Hajji and Khalloufi (1995) investigated the adsorption kinetics of many

adsorbent-adsorbate pair under constant-pressure conditions. The thermal fluid has

16
strongest effect on sorption kinetics and on the refrigerating capacity of adsorption

systems are correlated in terms of solid sorbent thickness and hear transfer coefficient.

Regarding the COP of the vapour adsorption cooling systems by Grenier et. al.

1988 achieved the highest value of 0.10-0.12 using zeolite - water, Boubakri et. al.

1992, Pons and Grenier 1987, used AC- methanol pair operation and highlighted the

production of ice as a consequence of methanol evaporating at temperature less than

0oC. Water was suggested as environment friendly refrigerant. However vacuum

technology is insisted as water or methanol operating at less than atmospheric

pressure.

A solar adsorption refrigerator constructed by Siegfried and Detlef (1998)

used zeolite -water. This model was used to identify the generator temperatures that

are attained in the generator. The generator adsorbs water vapour from evaporator and

cooled to 0oC. The evacuated tube solar collector that filled with zeolite was then

heated till 180oC with a bulb (Osram HGi - T400 / DH) in the absence of sunlight.

The spectrum was similar to that of solar radiation and irradiation was about

0.3 kW/m2. A collector area of 3 m2 performed at 150oC heating resulted a cooling

capacity 250 kJ/kg of adsorbent and of 125 lit volume. Centred on experimental data

obtained, a simulation of the prototype was done on a characterized 0.125 m cooling

chamber in which solar collector of 3 m2 and parabolic reflectors are used to focus the

whole incident radiation. Results generated showed that a solar isolation of

0.3 kW/ m2 was enough to attain the 170oC generation temperature. Their study

yielded a refrigerating energy of 350 kJ/kg of zeolite and a COP of 0.08.

Sumathy and Zhongfu (1999b) worked on a solar energy operated ice making

machine with a pair of activated carbon -methanol. A simple FPC of harvesting area

17
of 0.92 m2 was used to yield 4 to 5 kg of ice per day with an evaporator temperature

-6oC. The COP of the machine was found in the range to be 0.10 to 0.12.

Boubakri et. al. (2000) investigated the solid sorption ice making machine and

also validated the experimental results. The adsorbent - refrigerant pair used was

AC–methanol. The collector(1 m2 area, 9 cm thick, tilt 20°) used consists of two

stainless steel shells activated carbon of 20 kg held in a grid, and ice produced per day

was 11.5 kg/m2, and resulted 0.19 COP value.

Leite and Daguenet (2000) investigated to characterise a solar solid -sorption

ice making machine at João Pessoa, Brazil. The pair was AC-methanol. One square

meter collector area required 20 kg of activated carbon to produce ice

7 to 10 kg/m2/day.

Wang et. al. (2000) established an integrated system of solar operated water

heater and solid sorption ice making machine. They conducted experiments using a

improved prototype system. It was found that the system can produce 60 kg of hot

water at 90°C and ice of 5 kg/m2 collector area.

Vasiliev et .al. (2001) tested a solid short cycle adsorption heat pump with

1.2 m2 surface area resulted in producing less than 10 kW. The heat pump had two

sorber heat recovery cycles of short period (0.2 hr) with AC fibre as a solid sorbent

and ammonia as a refrigerant. Both solar energy and gas flame were used as sources.

The experimental results showed that a COP of 0.75.

Zhang and Wang (2002) proposed a continuous adsorption system for heating

and cooling. During the daytime, the system works on the heating mode, producing

30 kg of hot water at about 48oC with the COP heating of 0.34. At night, however,

18
the cooling mode switches on with a refrigerating capacity of 0.13 MJ/m2 of the solar

exposed area but with a COP cooling of 0.18.

Li et. al. (2002) constructed a FPC solid-sorption refrigeration ice making

machine with AC–methanol as pair. Their experiments resulted in i) range of COP solar

0.12 to 0.14 ii) COP of 0.45, and iii) ice of 5-6 kg/m2 of collector area.

Wang et. al. (2002) designed an improved solar adsorption hybrid system. The

adsorbent bed of activated carbon and methanol was used. Their experimental results

showed a COP of 0.11.

Yeung and Sumathy (2003) published a paper on the functioning of a solar-

operated hybrid adsorption ice-making machine with AC fibre - methanol as pair.

Their study indicated that by incorporating more adsorbers instead of the conventional

single adsorber, the system performance could be improved. They employed an ETC

collector with an uncovered area of 2 m2. Consequently 6 kg of ice was produced per

day with a COP of 0.56.

Anyanwu and Ezekwe (2003) constructed an AC-methanol solid sorption solar

refrigerator. According to them, the experimental set-up and results were as follows:

“In this flat plate type collector-generator-adsorber used a clear plane glass sheet of

exposed effective area of 1.2 m2. The steel condenser tube with a square plan view

was immersed in a pool of stagnant water contained in reinforced cement concrete

tank. The evaporator was a spirally coiled copper tube immersed in stagnant water.

Adsorbent cooling, during the adsorption process is both by natural convection of air

flow over the collector plate and tubes. The night sky radiation was facilitated by

removing the collector box end cover plates. During the study the ambient

temperatures varied for adsorbate generation and adsorption process over 18.5–34°C.

19
The refrigerator yielded evaporator temperatures was ranging over 1.0–8.5°C from

water initially in the temperature range 24–28°C. Accordingly, the maximum daily

useful cooling produced was 266.8 kJ/m2 of collector area”.

A solar refrigerator system was constructed and tested in Switzerland by

Buchter et al. (2004) using silica-gel–water. Free convective air cooled condenser

was used to convert water into 40 kg of ice in an evaporator using, 2 m2 twin glazed

FPC. This device obtained a solar COP of 0.16.

Khattab (2004) came up with a solar-operated solid sorption refrigeration

experimental module with AC- methanol as pair. The test results revealed the fact

that, daily ice production was ranging from 6.9 to 9.4 kg/m2 and COPsolar of 0.136 and

0.159 for cold and hot conditions respectively.

Lemmini and Errougani (2005) tested by constructing a solar-operated solid-

sorption refrigerator with AC35-methanol pair. The device consisted of a FPC, an

evaporator and a condenser. Their experimental findings revealed that the refrigerator

can cool air even during unclear and rainy climates. A solar COP of 0.05 to 0.08 for

an insolation range 12 to 27 MJ/m2 for an ambient condition of 14 to 18oC and while

the evaporator ranged between -5 and 8oC

Wang and Oliveira (2006) developed and tested a chiller with the ambition of

modifying a substitute for grain cooling cabin refrigeration system. They describe

their system as follows. “The chiller consisted of four subsystems such as a solar

water heating unit with 49.4 m2 solar collecting area, a silica gel–water adsorption

chiller, a cooling tower and a fan coil unit. In order to achieve continuous

refrigeration, two adsorption units are operated out-of-phase with mass recovery cycle

in the adsorption chiller. Test results showed that, under climatic conditions of daily

20
solar radiation of about 16–21 MJ/m2, the chiller can furnish 14 – 22°C chilled air

with an average cooling output ranging from 3.2 – 4.4 kW and solar cooling COP was

about 0.13”.

Lemmini and Errougania (2007) developed and conducted test run on a solar

solid sorption refrigerator using AC-methanol pair, in the Mediterranean climate of

Morocco. This system produces cooling effect even on low solar insolation climates.

During the maximum insolation period evaporator was maintained below -11°C. A

daily average atmospheric temperature about 20°C resulted in COPsolar of 0.05 to 0.08

with insolation of 12 - 28 MJ/m2.

Lambert (2007) designed and evaluated the efficiency of a solar operated

adsorption heat pump using AC-ammonia for residential cooling and SCP of

264 W/kg are predicted. For their new design and these values are respectively higher

than that of maximum 1.2 and 220 W/kg reported in the literature. The ice basin

provided 24 hour cooling. The compound parabolic concentrator with automatic tilt

adjustment and the evacuated plate were tested at the required temperature of 170 oC.

2.7 ADSORBENT-ADSORBATE SELECTION

The selection and combination of operating pairs play an important role on the

performance of VAdRS. The relevant pair’s thermo-physical characteristics are

discussed.

2.7.1 Adsorbent

Adsorbents commonly available are activated carbon, silica gel, zeolite, and

Calcium Chloride. Activated carbon is a non-graphite form of carbon could be

manufactured from hydrocarbons (eg: lignite, wood, paddy husk, coconut shells etc.)

in the limited oxidation. Activated carbon exists in several forms as powder

21
(15 to 25 µm size), granulated and fibre. Activated carbon produced from coconut

shell is considered superior to those found from other sources mainly because of

minor macro- pores structure which render it more effective for the adsorption

(Ruthven, 1994).

Silica-gel is inert, non-hazardous and with stable dimension. It exists in

amorphous form (SiO2). Sodium silicate and sulphuric acid undergo reaction followed

ageing and pickling to produce. It contains large adsorption capacities widely used for

dehumidification process (Wang et. al. 2009).

Zeolite is a natural or a synthetic aluminium silicate which forms a regular

crystal lattice. It is polar in nature. hydrothermal synthesis is used to produce zeolite

from sodium alumina silicate with certain cationic substance ion change. It is mostly

used for dehydrating and split-up of hydrocarbon mixtures (Wang et. al. 2009).

2.7.2 Adsorbate

It is apparent to eliminate environmentally-malignant refrigerants those dictate

to choose right choice for wider use of cooling. The following are some known as

environmental-friendly refrigerants; ammonia, water, methanol, ethanol, sulphur

dioxide and other refrigerant like R134a, R141b, R152a and R600a.

Ammonia (NH3) is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen and exists as gas at

STP condition. It is toxic, odour and erodes some materials (El Fadar et. al. (2009),

Critoph (1994)).

In reference to Hassan and Mohammed (2011);

i) Methanol (CH3OH) is also known as methyl alcohol or wood alcohol. It is

light, volatile, colour less, flammable, toxic liquid with a distinct odour.

Natural anaerobic metabolism produces it. Oxidisation of methanol yields

carbon dioxide and water in presence of sunlight.

22
 ii) Ethanol (C2H5OH) named as ethyl alcohol is highly flammable toxic

chemical compound and has no taste and colour but with odour distinct.

iii) Water is abundant in nature. It can take many forms. The gas state is

known as vapour or steam and liquid phase is generally called as water.

Thermo-physical properties of commonly used adsorption pairs are given in Table 2.1

Table 2.1 Thermo-physical properties of adsorption pair(s) †

AC- AC- Zeolite-

Parameter AC-134a AC-152a
NH3 methanol water

Operating pressure +ve Vacuum Vacuum Vacuum Vacuum

Generating
80 - 200 80 - 100 80 – 100 60 – 80 250 – 300
temperature oC
Adsorption
capacity/ mass 0.29 0.45 0.36 0.60 0.25
ratio
Refrigerant
-34 65 -48 -25 100
boiling point oC
Refrigerant
1368 1102 217 290 2258
latent heat kJ/kg
Adsorption heat 1800- 1800- 1830- 1720- 3200 –
kJ/kg 2000 2000 2300 2140 4200
Cooling density
2000 140 - 500 57000 63000 90 – 150
W/kg
†
Source: Hassan and Mohammed (2011)

2.8 PARAMETRIC INFLUENCE ON ADSORPTION BED

Adsorption is the process of an organic or inorganic vapour called as adsorbate

attraction towards solid surface known as adsorbent. As adsorption is a surface

phenomenon, it is obvious that larger the exposure area of the adsorbent will be the

better adsorption of adsorbate. Adsorption is influenced predominantly by physical

properties and nature of adsorbent, in addition to chemical properties of adsorbate in

association with adsorbent. The physical parameters influencing adsorption are

porosity, pore size and granular size of adsorbent (Ruthven, 1984).

23
2.8.1 Porosity

The adsorbent porosity is a measure of free space (voids) inside the adsorbent

granule and is given as the ratio of voids volume to the total volume. The rate of heat

transfer from the refrigerant concentration is influenced by adsorbent porosity. As the

adsorbent porosity increases the adsorption capacity also increases with respective

time and the adsorbent becomes saturated, hence the adsorption rate decreases with

time. Consequently, the cycle time period diminishes and otherwise the cycle

performance deteriorates. The process gets reversed when the adsorbent thermal

conductivity decreases as adsorbent porosity increases and therefore the adsorption

kinetics (adsorption rate) also decreases.

2.8.2 Pore size

The pore size is linked to adsorbent porosity. When the pores size reduces the

adsorbent porosity increases. This results in increase of the adsorption specific surface

area of the granule. In fact, the smaller the pore diameter gets higher adsorption

isosteric energy get higher and subsequently the regeneration temperature increases.

One of selecting criteria of the suitable working pairs is the compatibility between the

pore size and refrigerant vapour molecules average diameter. If the pore size is too

small to accommodate the vapour, the adsorption kinetics is significantly reduced.

2.8.3 Granular size

The granules size affects both of heat and mass transfer of the sorption bed.

Decreasing the adsorbent granular size reduces the contact thermal resistance among

the granules and heat exchange surface. The heat transfer is uninterrupted through the

adsorbent bed of small granules size in contrast to that of large granules. This is due

to the reduction of voids between granules. There are two types of mass transfer

24
resistances in sorption bed: i) the mass transfer within the solid sorbent granules

(intra-particles) and ii) the mass transfer through the pores between the granules

(inter-particles). The intra-particle mass transfers of small granules are higher than

that of large granules. This is because, the total surface area of the bulk granules are

higher than the smaller size. The adsorbent bed of large granules size (larger voids)

have higher permeability level and therefore better inter-particle heat transfer

performance, that is most critical to refrigerants having very low evaporative pressure.

2.9 ADVANCEMENTS IN ADSORPTION REFRIGERATION SYSTEMS

Adsorption refrigeration system evidenced a remarkable growth since 2000

that from a simple adsorption cycle to a complex continuous mass recovery cycle. All

these developments are construed to improve the performance of the adsorption cycle

leading to many distinct cycles, such as cascaded multi-effect cycle, continuous mass

recovery cycle, hybrid cooling and heating cycles. Altogether the system performance

has been studied in variety of ways using new adsorption pairs as well as under

variable environmental and operating conditions.

Novel solid sorbent that currently researched widely are activated carbon

(AC), silica-gel and zeolite in both granular and fibrous forms. Refrigerants such as

hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, R134a, R507a, methanol and water are being

investigated extensively to understand the effect of refrigerants on cooling cycle. The

well-known pairs that have been used commercially are zeolite 13x-water and

activated carbon–methanol for the temperature above and below 0°C respectively.

2.10 REMARKS ON LITERATURE SURVEY

It is observed from the existing comprehensive literature survey that activated

carbon and zeolite are widely used as adsorbent. Thus far, activated carbon has the

25
highest affinity towards methanol, ethanol, CO2, H2, N2, R134a, R507a and so on

makes it unique to be the best adsorbent. Activated carbon systems can be operated

even below sub-zero temperatures with minimum heat input. It is congruent to note

that evaporator and condenser temperatures are significant parameters in all

simulation studies. These studies mostly carried on platforms such as FORTRAN,

MATLAB, Simulink, TRYNSYS, ANN though these platforms are complex and

require special skills. Experimental studies have been carried out by number of

researchers and the adsorption system proved to be a promising system for making

ice. Many hybrid adsorption models were fabricated and analysed. New refrigerant

that replace the CFC refrigerants were also tested with experimental models.

A compendium of literature review is enumerated in Table 2.2.

2.11 PROBLEM DEFINITION

The growing power demand and depleting fossil fuel is forcing the future

generation to utilize alternate energy sources such as solar, wind and waste heat. This

trend leads us to research one of such system namely solar adsorption refrigeration

system. This system can be a better alternate to conventional electrically operated

refrigeration system, since it consume resources that are widely available (green or

waste energy) to produce a useful work. Earlier researches on adsorption systems are

found focussing on operating temperatures and minimizing the collector area. This

research work emphasis extensively on maximizing the performance of the system by

neglecting all other constraints such as minimizing collector area and cost of the

system. It is well known that from Clayperon diagram (P-T-M) operating limits of

concentration ratios affect the performance of the system significantly for different

adsorption pairs.

26
In this direction the researcher is compelled to;

i) Study the effect of operating limits of mass concentration ratios.

ii) Develop a user-friendly simulation tool to design and analyse the solar

adsorption refrigerator. Visual basic .Net platform used.

iii) Introduce an alternative to R134a in the experimental setup for

validating its viability. A new refrigerant R152a is studied with.

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 Table 2.2 Summary of literature survey

Collector Area Solar Tevap Ice mass

Reference Year Origin Solar COP Application
type (m2) Irradiation (oC) produced
Activated Carbon – Methanol ( Simulation Studies )
Lemmini and 0.114 20
1990 Morocco FPC -2 Refrigerator
Meunier MJ/m2
FPC 29 11.5 kg/m2
Boubakri et al. 2000 France 1 0.19 Ice maker
w/condenser MJ/(m2.day)
Flat plate 0.124–
Leite and Daguenet 2000 Brazil 1 20–23 MJ/m2 -2 Ice maker 7–10 kg/(m2.day)
w/tubes 0.155(net)
Rotational
Zhang and Wang 2002 China 0.4 (x2) 21.6 MJ/day 5 0.18 Hybrid
flat plate
Li and Wang 2002 China Flat plate 1.5 0.193 Ice maker 12.43 kg

Dai et al. 2003 China Flat plate 5 8 0.12 Ventilation

27
Boubakri 2006 France Flat plate 1 - 10 0.14 Ice maker 5.2 kg/day
MJ/(m2.day)
Flat plate
Chekirou et al. 2007 Algeria - 26 MJ/m2 -5 0.184 - -
w/tubes
Ogueke and Flat plate
2008 Nigeria 1.2 - - 0.023 (net) Water cooler -
Anyanwu w/tubes
González et al. 2009 Spain CPC 0.55 0.117–0.087 Ice maker 0.06–0.4 kg/m2
Flat plate 900 W/m2
Hassan et al. 2011 Canada 1 - 0.211
w/tubes (max)
Suleiman et al 2012 Nigeria Flat plate 2 0 0.024 Hybrid -
Saudi
Hassan 2013 Flat plate 2 24.18 MJ/m2 –5 0.618 (cycle) Ice maker 27.82 kg/day
Arabia
Qasem and Saudi Flat plate 24.84
2013 1 -4 0.24 Ice maker 13 kg/day
El–Shaarawi Arabia w/tubes MJ/(m2.day)

28
 Table 2.2 Summary of literature survey (Continued)

Collector Area Solar Tevap Ice mass

Reference Year Origin Solar COP Application
type (m2) Irradiation (oC) produced
Activated Carbon – Methanol (Experimental Studies )
Pons and
1986 France Flat plate 6 16–19 MJ/day -5 0.10–0.12 (net) Ice maker 6 kg/(m2day)
Guilleminot
19–22
Pons and Grenier 1987 France - - - 0.1–0.12 (net) - -
MJ/(m2.day)
Medini et al. 1991 Tunisia - 0.8 - 0.067 Ice maker 4 kg/day
19.5
Boubakri et al. 1992 Morocco - 4 - 1 0.12 (net) Ice maker kg/day
MJ/(m2.day)
Trin. 26.8
Headley et al. 1994 CPC 2 -6 0.02 (net) Ice maker 1 kg
Tobago MJ/(m2.day)
17–19
Sumathy and Li 1999a China Flat plate 0.92 -6 0.1–0.12 Ice maker 4–5 kg/day
MJ/(m2.day)
Evacuated 22–24.6
Wang et al. 2000 China 2 -2 0.14 (syst) Hybrid 10 kg/day
tube MJ/day
Evacuated 61 MJ/day
Wang et al. 2002 China 3 - 1.5 0.04–0.05 (syst) Hybrid 9 kg
tube (w/lamp)
17.4
Li et al. 2002 China Flat plate 1 - 0.115 Hybrid 5.5 kg/m2
MJ/(m2.day)
28–30 MJ/day
Li et al. 2002 China Flat plate 1.5 - 0.13–0.14 Ice maker 7–10 kg
(w/lamp)
Burkina, 22–25
Buchter et al. 2003 Flat plate 2 - 0.09–0.13 Ice maker -
Faso MJ/(m2.day)
Anyanwu and Flat plate
2003 Nigeria 1.2 - 1 to 8.5 0.036–0.057 Water cooler -
Ezekwe w/tubes
Glass Shell + 17–20 0.136–
Khattab 2004 Egypt - - Ice maker 6.9–9.4 kg/(m2day)
reflector MJ/(m2.day) 0.159(net)

29
 Table 2.2 Summary of literature survey (Continued)

Collector Area Solar Tevap

Reference Year Origin Solar COP Application Ice produced
type (m2) Irradiation (oC)
16–18
Li et al. 2004 China Flat plate 0.94 - 0.11–0.12 Ice maker 4 kg/(m2.day)
MJ/(m2.day)
Lemmini and
2005 Morocco Flat plate - 12–27 MJ/m2 - 5 to 8 0.05–0.08 Refrigerator -
Errougani
0.083–
Luo et al. 2005 China Flat plate 1.2 15–23 MJ/m2 - Ice maker 3.2–6.5 kg/m2
0.127(net)
Lemmini and
2007 Morocco Flat plate 0.72 12–28 MJ/m2 - 11 0.05–0.08 Refrigerator -
Errougani
González and 19.5
2007 Spain CPC 0.55 - 1.1 0.096 Ice maker -
Rodríguez MJ/(m2.day)
Hamdeh and
2010 Jordan Flat plate - - 9 0.688 Refrigeration -
Al-Muhtaseb
Flat plate
Santori et al. 2014 Italy 1.2 28.7 MJ/day - 12.4 0.08 (net) Ice maker 5 kg/day
w/tubes
Zeolite – Water ( Simulation Studies )
Hybrid/
Zhang and Wang 2002 China CPC 2 - 5 0.33 -
Comb.
Evacuated
Li et al. 2003 China - - - 0.25–0.3 Refrigerator -
tube
Zeolite – Water ( Experimental Studies )

Tchernev 1982 USA Flat plate 1 21.6 MJ/m2 - 0.15 Refrigerator –

17.8–25.3
Grenier et al. 1988 France Flat plate 20 - 2.5 to 1 0.10 (net) Refrigerator 7 kg/m2
MJ/m2
Siegfried and
1998 Germany ETC 3 300 W/m2 0 0.08 Refrigerator -
Detlef
Omisanya et al. 2012 Nigeria CPC 1 14.7 MJ/m2 11 0.8–1.5 (cycle) Water cooler -

30