Theoretical study on the effect of operating parameters on the performance of adsorption refrigerator

Abstract

This work include a theoretical analysis of an adsorption refrigerator, the adsorption refrigerator consist of unit generator in the form of shell and tube heat exchanger, the generator can be heated either by hot water from solar collector, or from waste heat. The adsprtion pair used was active carbon-methanol. A complete thermodynamics analysis was achieved on the unit, while the thermo physical properties of methanol were calculated using Dubinin and Astakhov equation. Many key parameters were examined to find the effect off the unit starting, evaporator, condensing and peak temperatures on the cycle COP. The results show that for a certain ambient temperature there is an optimum generator temperature at which COP reaches a maximum. as the ambient temperature increases the condensing temperature increases also, thus leads to reduce cycle COP, and finally heavy materials used in building the adsorption cycle leads to increase the consumed heat that used to heat up the generator.