Experimental investigation on composite adsorbent – Water pair for a solar-powered adsorption cooling system

In this study, a solar-powered adsorption cooling system (ACS) using vehicle radiators as an adsorbent bed was built and the system performance was studied experimentally in the Guangzhou climate. 6 single-glazed flat plate solar collectors with the total area of 12 m² were utilized to collect solar energy. Zeolite 13X/CaCl₂ composite adsorbent – water was used as the adsorbent – adsorbate working pair. The composite adsorbent was coated on the fins of the vehicle radiators using an electrostatic coating method. The results show that an adsorbent coating layer with a thickness of 0.5 mm was evenly distributed, and strongly adhered. The effect of the duration of the pre-heating phase and solar collector area on the cooling performance of the ACS was investigated. A pre-heating phase of 2 h was proposed and a minimum area of solar collectors of 6 m² was recommended for a 1–2 kW scale ACS. A specific cooling power (SCP) of 208.2 W/kg of the ACS and an energy efficiency ratio (EER) of 4.5 driven by solar energy were achieved with a pre-heating phase of 2 h, and a maximum solar intensity of 880 W/m².