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 200–300s 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.