Advanced adsorption cooling cum desalination cycle: A thermodynamic framework

Abstract

We have developed a thermodynamic framework to calculate adsorption cooling cum desalination cycle performances as a function of pore widths and pore volumes of highly porous adsorbents, which are formulated from the rigor of thermodynamic property surfaces of adsorbent-adsorbate system and the adsorption interaction potential between them. Employing the proposed formulations, the coefficient of performance (COP) and overall performance ratio (OPR) of adsorption cycle are computed for various pore widths of solid adsorbents. These results are compared with experimental data for verifying the proposed thermodynamic formulations. It is found from the present analysis that the COP and OPR of adsorption cooling cum desalination cycle is influenced by (i) the physical characteristics of adsorbents, (ii) characteristics energy and (iii) the surface-structural heterogeneity factor of adsorbent-water system. The present study confirms that there exists a special type of adsorbents having optimal physical characteristics that allows us to obtain the best performance. Copyright © 2011 by ASME.