Performance evaluation of a zeolite-water adsorption chiller with entropy analysis of thermodynamic insight

This paper presents an environment-friendly adsorption chiller using Zeolite FAM Z01-water pair as opposed to the conventional silica gel and water pair. The adsorbent, zeolite, is thinly coated onto the surfaces of fin-tube heat exchanger for faster rates of heat and mass transfer. Another feature of the adsorption chiller is the use of a lever-countered weighted valve which can be open or closed by the pressure difference between the reactors and the condenser or evaporator. Experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance of zeolite-based chiller in terms of total heat input, cooling capacity, and coefficient of performance (COP) with respect to heat source temperature and adsorption/desorption cycle time where an optimal operational zone can be determined: (i) hot water inlet temperatures range from 65. °C to 85. °C, (ii) adsorption/desorption cycle times of 200-300. s at optimum cooling and COP, Entropy analyses have been conducted to understand the irreversibility contributed by both the desorption and adsorption beds at assorted hot water inlet temperatures and cycle time.