Performance Study of Novel Adsorption Foams for Desiccant Cooling Applications

Solid desiccant cooling systems are an interesting and innovative example of energy efficient devices to produce air cooling for indoor climate control. However, low heat and mass transfer performance across the adsorbent bed in the systems remain the key issue, limiting the extensive applications of the desiccant cooling systems.This proposed research aims at developing novel adsorption foams, having high heat and mass transfer, for desiccant cooling systems. Layers of hydrophilic nano-sized zeolites A, X and AlPO-18 will be coated on aluminum foams as desiccant wheel for the cooling systems. The adsorption/desorption kinetics of water on the foams will be studied at different operating conditions by varying the inlet temperature and humidity, flow rate, foam porosity, etc. The adsorption isotherms of the foams will be determined. With the optimized design of the adsorption foams, the coefficient of performance of the cooling system will be determined. A theoretical model that incorporates mass and heat transport and chemical kinetics will be developed to understand better the adsorption process for process optimization.