Applied Thermal Engineering 90 (2015) 54e63

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Research paper

Thermodynamic modelling and performance study of an engine waste

heat driven adsorption cooling for automotive air-conditioning
Syed Muztuza Ali, Anutosh Chakraborty*
School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Republic of Singapore

h i g h l i g h t s

Adsorption cooling for car air conditioning.

Thermodynamic frameworks with adsorption isotherms and kinetics.

Various adsorbents such as silica gel, zeolites (AQSOA-Z01, Z-02), CaCl2-in-silica gel are tested.

Cooling power for car cabin employing waste heat recovery.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Waste heat from engine can be utilized to drive an adsorption cooling system for air conditioning pur-
Received 22 April 2015 poses in the vehicle cabin, which not only improves the fuel economy but also reduces the carbon
Accepted 30 June 2015 footprint. It is also important to reduce the size of the adsorption bed to adopt the adsorption technology
Available online 8 July 2015
for air-conditioning applications in passenger cars, buses and trucks or even trains. In this article, we
present a two stage indirect exhaust heat recovery system of automotive engine employing an effective
Keywords:
lumped parameter model to simulate the dynamic behaviors of an adsorption chiller that ranges from
Adsorption chiller
the transient to the cyclic steady states. The thermodynamic framework of adsorption chiller is devel-
COP
Modelling and simulation
oped from the rigor of mass and energy balances of each component of the system and experimentally
Heat recovery conrmed isotherms and kinetics data of various adsorbenteadsorbate pairs. The performance factors
SCP are calculated in terms of COP (Coefcient of Performance) and SCP (Specic Cooling Power) for different
operating parameters such as cycle time, exhaust gas temperatures, cooling water temperatures and ow
rates. From the simulation results, it is found that the exhaust energy of a six cylinder 3000 cc private car
is able to produce nearly 3 kW of cooling power for the car cabin. It is also observed that the driving heat
source temperature does not remain constant throughout the cycle time unlike the conventional
adsorption chiller, and the hot water temperatures as driving source vary from 65 to 95  C. CaCl2-in-silica
gelewater system is found better in terms of COP and SCP as compared with other adsorbents e water
systems.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction the mechanical compressor, which imposes an extra 10% power

The requirements of private and public transports are being
raised very fast due to the population boom in the last four decades
of twentieth century. The number of vehicles registered worldwide
in 1960 was 98,305 whereas this number increased seven times
and reached to 707,764 in 2010 [1]. The conventional automotive
air conditioners (AC) of vehicles use the engine shaft power to run
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 65 6790 4222.
E-mail address: AChakraborty@ntu.edu.sg (A. Chakraborty).
load on engine and in turn increases the fuel consumption and
exhaust gas production [2]. Thus the growing number of cars with
AC-systems are consumed more fuels which not only contribute to
serious energy crisis but also cause ecological problems by emitting
CO2, SOX, NOX, lead etc. with the exhaust gas of engine [3e5]. The
specic fuel consumption of the vehicle can be minimized if the
exhaust gases could be utilized for the production of cooling en-
ergy. Thermally driven cooling devices such as ab/adsorption
cooling system employ waste heat to produce cooling effects at the
evaporator, which open a new avenue for the sustainable devel-
opment of environmentally friendly air-conditioning system. It

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2015.06.078
1359-4311/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 S.M. Ali, A. Chakraborty / Applied Thermal Engineering 90 (2015) 54e63
should be noted here that about 35% of total energy supplied to a
petrol engine based private car remains unused and wasted as
exhaust gas [6,7]. Employing the unused exhaust heat, the
adsorption cooling for automotive car air-conditioning can be
developed where the refrigerant (water vapor) pressure is raised
from the evaporator pressure to the condenser pressure during the
desorption processes. Heat is thus pumped from the low temper-
ature region (car cabin) to the environment. Regardless of having
energy saving and environmentally friendly features, the adsorp-
tion cooling system is not being used as automotive air-conditioner
due to its low COP, low specic cooling power (SCP), complex
exhaust energy recovery system with the bulk size of adsorption
bed. Thus a modular design employing various adsor-
benteadsorbate pairs is required to develop and simulate to
determine the size of adsorption beds for the average cooling ca-
pacity of 3e4 kW under steady state operation. The energy dissi-
pated ranging from 3.5 to 29.2 kW during idling to driving, is
sufcient to power the adsorption cooling system.
It should be noted here that the performance of adsorption
cooling cycle (ADC) depends mainly on the adsorption isotherms,
kinetics and the isosteric heat of adsorption of adsor-
benterefrigerant pairs. A review of literature discloses that
numerous investigations have already been reported on various
adsorption system congurations, experimental investigations and
mathematical modelling of the steady state and transient behavior
of adsorption cycles [8e14], especially for automotive air condi-
tioning. For example, in 2004, Wang, R.Z. et al. designed an
adsorption air-conditioner for the driver's cabin of a diesel loco-
motive system with zeolite-water as working pair [15]. The effects
of sorption beds, evaporation and condensation temperatures on
cooling capacity and COP were experimentally measured for
various cycle and switching times. In another reference [2],
Metrans transportation centre investigated the feasibility of
required cooling for commercial tractor-trailer refrigeration and
transit bus air conditioning employing exhaust heat with adsorp-
tion refrigeration systems. Later, Lambert and Jones [16] carried out
a conceptual and embodiment design of an exhaust-powered
adsorption air conditioner with the analysis of the critical compo-
nents of adsorption and desorption beds. Various adsor-
benteadsorbate pairs such as silica gelewater, zeoliteewater, silica
gelemethanol, activated carbonemethanol, activated char-
coaleNH3 and zeoliteeCO2 were tested experimentally and theo-
retically for evaluating the performance factors of ADCs in terms of
adsorbate uptakes and kinetics. A literature review of sorption
based car air conditioning [8e14] is furnished in Table 1. From this
Table, one can observe the COP and the SCP of various adsor-
bentseadsorbates based adsorption chillers. For chiller design
purposes, the Freundlich, To
th, Dubinin-Astakhov, Dubinin-
Radushkevich equations are mainly used to determine the amount
of adsorbate uptakes for various pressures and temperatures
[10e14]. On the other hand, the adsorption kinetics is approxi-
mated by the Linear Driving Force (LDF) model [17].
The previous studies as shown in Table 1 presented the
modelling and simulation to predict the performances of the
adsorption cycles. It is found that the behaviors of the exhaust gas
heat recovery system were not modeled and simulated in most of
the previous studies. In this paper, we will discuss how the exhaust
gas temperatures inuence the performances of adsorption chiller
in terms of COP and SCP signicantly. This paper aims to evaluate
the exhaust gas heat recovery system employing the dynamic
model, which is able to estimate the temporal behaviors of all heat
transfer uids and various components of the adsorption cooling
system. The effects of cycle time, switching time, exhaust gas
temperature, cooling water temperature and mass ow rates of
exhaust gas, on COP and SCP are evaluated.
55
2. Description of adsorption cooling and heat recovery
system
The basic adsorption cooling for automotive air conditioning as
shown in Fig. 1 comprises ve main components, and these are two
sorption beds (adsorption bed and desorption bed), an evaporator, a
condenser and the heat recovery system. The ow of refrigerant from
the evaporator to the adsorption bed and also from the desorption bed
to the condenser is controlled by sequentially opening and closing of
valves V1, V2, V3 and V4 (Fig. 1). The circulation of hot and cooling
water between the sorption beds and the heat recovery units are
controlled by switching off and on of valves S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7 and
S8 alternatively. The chilled water receives heat from the vehicle cabin
and ows through the tube side of the evaporator. On the shell side of
the evaporator, the refrigerant receives heat due to the latent heat of
evaporation at the pressure of about 1 kPa, which generates low
temperature at the evaporator. The water vapor is then adsorbed onto
the porous surface of the adsorbent materials, which are housed in
copper-tube-n heat exchanger. In this study, silica gel/zeolite
(AQSOA-Z01 and AQSOA-Z02) e water pairs are chosen for thermal
compression at 60  C or even lower. Since adsorption is an exothermic
process and the water adsorption capacity of adsorbents reduces at
higher temperature, cooling water must ow through the adsorption
bed. During the desorption process, the hot water is circulated though
the copper tube of desorption bed to desorb refrigerant vapor from the
porous adsorbents of nned-tube-heat exchanger. The desorber is
connected to the condenser, where the desorbed refrigerant vapor is
condensed at room temperature. This means that the supply of cooling
water removes the condensation heat (Qcond). The resulting conden-
sate ows back to the evaporator via the expansion valve to complete
the cycle. On completion of the desorption/adsorption process, the
ows of hot and cooling water are redirected by switching valves so
that the desorber switches into an adsorption mode and the adsorber
changes into the desorption operation. During the intermediate pro-
cess or the switching phase, no adsorption/desorption occurs. The
cooling water that passes through the adsorption beds and the
condenser is circulated through the air cooled radiator of the car to
decrease its temperature up to the ambient temperature. The U-tube
or the metering valve maintains the pressure difference between the
evaporator and the condenser and the cooling effect is obtained dur-
ing the normal or adsorption/desorption periods.
It should be noted here that the adsorption cooling cycle needs
both adsorption and desorption processes simultaneously to ach-
ieve continuous cooling. The desorption process requires inow
heat energy to regenerate refrigerant vapor from the adsorbents
and the heat energy can be obtained from the exhaust gas of an
automotive engine. The internal combustion engine containing six
cylinders (3000 cc) possesses an average exhaust gas temperature
of 353  C [18], and part of the waste heat can be recovered and
utilized for the adsorption cooling purposes. In this study, water is
considered as working uid, therefore, the high temperature of
exhaust gas renders it impractical to directly transfer heat from
exhaust gas to the adsorption cooling system. To solve this problem,
a two-stage heat recovery system comprising two parallel-ow
shell and tube heat exchangers is designed and simulated. The
rst heat exchanger serves as an economizer and the second one as
a generator e which is directly connected to the adsorption cooling
system as shown in Fig. 1. These two heat exchangers are connected
by heat transfer oil with in a closed-loop. The heat transfer oil (Shell
Heat Transfer Oil S2) with cp of 2.67 kJ/kg-K and ash point of
220  C is chosen to serve as working uid [19]. The economizer is a
gas-to-liquid heat exchanger where the exhaust gas ows through
the tube side and oil through the shell side. The exhaust gas heats
up the intermediate uid oil. This heated oil then goes into the
generator where it circulates through the shell side and water
56 S.M. Ali, A. Chakraborty / Applied Thermal Engineering 90 (2015) 54e63

Table 1
Summary of adsorbenterefrigerant pairs for waste heat driven adsorption cooling applications in automobiles.

Adsorbent- refrigerant pair System description System performances

Zeolite 13 water [8] 2-bed adsorption chiller (adsorption cooling system
driven by the waste heat of a diesel engine)

Experimentation with a test rig

Driving heat source temperature is 200  C i.e. high
grade waste heat.

Adsorption bed temperature is 80  C
Zeolite water [9] Adsorption chiller for heavy duty vehicles

Lumped modelling with Freundlich isotherms and
linear driving force kinetics model.

Exhaust gas temperature for desorption is 250  C.
modied zeolite 13X-water [10] Truck air conditioning driven by waste heat.

Single-stage lumped modelling employing Dubinin
Astakhov isotherm equation.

A simple test rig for the explanation of adsorption and
desorption under the heat source temperature of
350  C.
zeolite/water [11] Locomotive driver cabin adsorption air-conditioner

Desorption temperature ranges from 200 to 250  C.

Adsorption temperature ranges from 85 to 110  C.
Evaporating temperature ranges from 3 to 5  C.

Experimental investigation
Waterezeolite (AQSOA-FAM) Adsorption system driven by engine waste heat for
adsorptionedesorption system [12] truck cabin AC

Lumped modelling and simulation

Experimental investigation (laboratory scale)

Low desorption temperature (up to 120  C),
evaporator temperature varies from 5 to 20  C and
adsorption temperature varies from 20 to 45  C.
Zeolite (type CaX)ewater/ammonia/
More water adsorption than other zeolites.
Methanol [13]
Consolidated mixture of zeolites and activated
graphite to increase thermal conductivity and
contact conductance to the metallic heat exchanger.

Mechanical design of adsorber.
Chemviron activated carbon e
Sorption generator for car air-conditioning
ammonia [14]
Engine coolant is used to provide heat source at 90  C
with the nominal ow rate of 0.4 kg/s.

Heat recovery between two sorption beds.

COP is 0.38 with the evaporator temperature of 10  C
and low SCP, which is 25.7 W/kg.

Required 100 kg zeolite for 3 kW cooling capacity.

Bed size is too big.

Specic cooling power ranges from 40 W/kg to
125 W/kg.

Required 24 kg zeolite, i.e. the size of bed is quite
bulky.

Longer cycle time (ranging from 20 min to 120 min)

COP varies from 0.2 to 0.5.

Average cooling capacity improves up to 200 W/kg.

Required 15 kg zeolite for 3 kW cooling effects.

COP is about 0.2e0.3

Cooling capacity 4 kW

Required power is 1.5% of waste energy
Average cooling capacity of 1.2 kW.
Cabin temperature goes up to 15  C.

Required cooling power for idling, city cruise,
highway cruise and engine off are simulated.

Maximum COP is 0.63.

Minimum heat source temperature is 75  C.

Average COP is 0.4.

Specic cooling power ranges from 0.65 kW/kg to
0.8 kW/kg.

Required 6.5 kg of adsorbents for 3 kW cooling
capacity.

through the tube side. Heat is transferred from oil to water. Hot
water from the generator is nally circulated through the desorp-
tion beds to provide the desorption energy to the ADC. The exhaust
heat recovery system with a 3 kW adsorption cooling system could
be installed behind the back seat of a car as shown schematically in
Fig. 2.
3. Thermodynamic model of adsorption cooling
heat of evaporation that goes to adsorption bed, the second term is
the enthalpy of liquid condensate generating from the condenser
and the last term denotes the cooling capacity of evaporator, which
rises from the cooling of chilled water. Hence the terms, dqbedads
=dt
and dqbed
des
=dt indicate the adsorption rate and the desorption rate.
The chilled water outlet temperature at various length of the tube is
calculated by

A good number of papers regarding the modelling and simula- evp

Vtube dT i
   UA  
tion of adsorption chiller have been published [20e25]. However, evp
rcP chill;w _ p chill;w T i1 T i
mc T evp T i :
hardly a few papers describe the adsorption chiller modelling with Nevp dt Nevp
heat and mass recovery from the waste heat source [10,11]. For (2)
simplicity, we have considered here the lumped modelling. In this i
paper the mathematical modelling is described according to the The boundary condition of the chilled water tube is T (i 1,
working principles of adsorption chiller. t) Tchill, in. It should be noted here that the pool boiling is
For continuous cooling operation, rstly a low-pressure refrig- considered here for mathematical modelling and the amount of
erant (hence water) is evaporated at the evaporator due to external refrigerant change in the evaporator as a function of time is
cooling load (or chill water or cooling coil) and is adsorbed into the expressed by dMref =dt M ads fdqbed des
=dtdqbed
ads
=dtg. After
solid adsorbent located in the adsorber. The energy balance becomes evaporation, the evaporated refrigerant enters in to the adsorption
bed, and the process of adsorption results in the liberation of heat at
the adsorber and provides a useful heat energy output. As a result,
dqbed UAevp X
Nevp

evp dT evp dqbed

Mcp eff hfg M sg ads hf M sg des Tevp Ti ; the evaporated refrigerant is associated onto the solid adsorbent by
dt dt dt Nevp i1 the ow of cooling uid at ambient conditions during adsorption
(1) period. Secondly the heat energy is applied to the bed, and the
desorbed refrigerant is dissociated from the solid adsorbent during
evp
where Mcp eff
is the sum of all components heat capacities in the desorption period. During normal operation or adsorp-
evaporator. The rst term on the right hand side denes the latent tionedesorption periods, the heat energy is exchanged between
 S.M. Ali, A. Chakraborty / Applied Thermal Engineering 90 (2015) 54e63 57

1. Exhaust Energy Source 6. Evaporator

2. Economizer 7. Condenser
3. Generator 8. Metering Valve
4. Adsorption Bed 9. Air cooled radiator
5. Desorption Bed Refrigerant Control Valve: V1, V2, V3, V4:
Cooling Water/Hot Water Switching Valve : S1, S2, S3, S4
Fig. 1. The scheme for the basic principles of adsorption cooling system employing waste heat.

cooling/heating uid and the adsorption bed. The energy balance dq 15Dso eRT  *
a E

for the heat transfer uid is given by q q ; (5)
dt R2p

V bed dT j
   UAbed   where Dso denes a pre-exponential factor of the efcient water
rcP fluid _ p fluid T j1 T j
mc k
T bed T j ; diffusivity in the adsorbent, Ea represents the activation energy, R is
Nbed dt Nbed
the universal gas constant and Rp is the average radius of the
(3) adsorbent grains. Hence the adsorption uptake at equilibrium
condition is expressed as a function of pressure (P) and tempera-
where j indicates the temperature of hot/cooling uid element that
ture (T). The experimentally measured data of silica gels [26] and
ranges from 1 to Nbed, the subscript uid indicates the hot/cooling
AQSOA-Z01 and Z02 with water [27] are tted with the isotherm
uid and Nbed denes the total number of uid elements in the
equation as proposed by Chakraborty and Sun [28].
tube. The boundary condition for uid ow becomes
T j j 1; t Tfcool;in for adsorption and T j j 1; t Tfhot;in during h  . i
desorption of bed. In the adsorption and desorption beds, the a exp m Qst*  hfg RT P=Ps m
temperatures of adsorbent, adsorbate, and heat exchanging mate- q* qm n h  . i o ; (6)
rials of ns and tubes are approximated by a representative tem- 1 a exp m Qst*  hfg RT  1 P=Ps m
perature, which can be solved by an energy balance in the bed
control volume. Ignoring the heat losses with the surrounding, the where q* is the adsorbed adsorbate at equilibrium conditions, qm
energy balance of bed during its interaction with the evaporator denotes the monolayer capacity, Qst* the maximum isosteric en-
(k ads)/condenser (k des) can be expressed as thalpies of adsorption at Henry's region, a is the pre-exponential
constant, and m is the Heterogeneity factors. These values are fur-
nished in Table 2.
Nbed 
X 
dTkbed dqbed UAbed After desorption, the desorbed refrigerant is delivered to the
McP bed
eff M ads k DH  k
Tkbed  T j (4)
dt dt Nbed j1 condenser as latent heat and this amount of heat is pumped to the
environment by the ow of external cooling uid. In the modelling,
The adsorption/desorption rate is calculated from the knowl- we assume that the condenser tube bank surface is able to hold a
edge of adsorption equilibrium and kinetics and is given by the certain maximum amount of condensate. Beyond this the
conventional linear driving force (LDF) equation [17]. condensate would ow into the evaporator via a U-tube. This
58 S.M. Ali, A. Chakraborty / Applied Thermal Engineering 90 (2015) 54e63

Adsorption Bed
Condenser
Engine Block
Radiator

Evaporator

Cooling Water Pipes

Desorption Bed
Generator

Exhaust gas Pipe

Economizer

Fig. 2. The basic concept of adsorption chiller with heat recovery system in a car.

ensures that the condenser and the desorber are always maintained where Mcp cond
eff is the sum of all mass capacities of the condenser. The
at the saturated pressure of the refrigerant. The energy balance of rst term on the right hand side denes the latent heat of condensa-
the condenser is expressed as tion, the second term is the enthalpy of liquid condensate and the last
term denotes the sensible cooling of the condenser. The energy bal-
ance equation of the cooling water control volume is written as

cond dT cond dqbed dqbed
Mcp eff M ads des hfg M sg des hf cond
Vtube dT l
  
dt dt dt rcP cooling;w _ p cooling;w T l1  T l
mc
X
Ncond   Ncond dt
UAcond
Tl  T cond ; (7) UAcond  cond 
Ncond
l1
T  Tl : (8)
Ncond
The boundary condition of the cooling water in tube inlet is
Table 2 Tl(l 1, t) Tcooling, in.
Values adopted for adsorption chiller simulation used in the present model. The roles of the beds (containing the adsorbent) are refreshed by
Parameters of adsorption isotherms
switching which is performed by reversing the direction of the
cooling and the heating uids to the designated sorption beds and
Adsorbenteadsorbate pairs qm m Qst* (kJ/kg) a
similarly, the evaporator and condenser are also switched to the
Silica gelewater 0.4 1.4 4000 9  107 respective adsorber and desorber. It is noted that during switching
CaCl2-in-silica gelewater 0.63 1.0 4600 9  107 interval, no mass transfers occur between the hot bed and the
AQSOA-Z01ewater 0.21 5 3020 9  107
condenser or the cold bed and the evaporator.
AQSOA-Z02ewater 0.3 2.56 3420 7  106

Other values used in the simulation

Kinetics Data Evaporator 3.1. Heat recovery from waste heat

Dso 2.54  104 (m2/s) evp
Mcp eff 0.86 kJ/K
Ea 42 (kJ/mol) (UA)evp 1.05 kW/K Thermal energy is extracted from the exhaust gas of engine via
Rp 1.7  104 (m) Nevp 20 natural conduction with a heat transfer uid with in a heat
Adsorption/Desorption Beds evp
Vtube 1.5  103 m3 exchanger. The heat transfer uid is then pumped from the
K1q=qm
DH hfg K1q=q * _ p chill;w 1.05 kW/K
mc
o Qst  hfg regenerator to the adsorption beds. The energy balance at the
m x=x

Mcp bed Condenser economizer (Fig. 1) is written as

eff 20.15 kJ/K
_ p bed
mc fluid 1.672 kW/K Mcp cond 2.316 kJ/K
eff
dT EC    
ex;gas ex;gas
Nbed 30 (UA)cond 3.82 kW/K
mcP EC _ P ex;gas Tin
mc Tout _ P oil Tout
mc oil oil
Tin ;
UAbed
ads 2.55 kW/K Ncond 20 dt
UAbed
des 2.70 kW/K cond 2.2  103 m3
Vtube (9)
V bed
2  103 m3 _ p cooling;w 1.25 kW/K
mc
 S.M. Ali, A. Chakraborty / Applied Thermal Engineering 90 (2015) 54e63 59

and for simplication, the outlet temperature of oil from the 0.5 Silica gel - Water
economizer is calculated by Tads
AQSOA-Z01 - Water
0.45 AQSOA-Z02 - Water
( )
  UAEC 0.4 CaCl2-in-silica gel - Water
oil
Tout T EC
oil
Tin  TEC exp ; (10) a b
_ P oil
mc 0.35 Tads

Uptake (kg/kg)
Tads
0.3
where U is the overall heat transfer coefcient and it depends on (i) a' b'
0.25
the ow rates of exhaust gas and oil, (ii) the size of the economizer Tads
and (iii) the convective heat transfer coefcients both at the gas and 0.2 Tdes
d c
c' Tdes
oil sides. When t 0, the value of Tinoil is considered at room tem-
0.15 d'
perature. The energy balance at the hot water generator (Fig. 1) is
0.1 e f
dT hw
  oil 
   0.05
mcP hw
eff
_ p oil Tin
mc oil
 Tout _ p water Tout
 mc hw hw
 Tin : h g Tdes
dt 0
(11) 0 Pevp 2 4 Pcond 6 8
For simplicity, the hot water outlet temperature is given by Pressure (kPa)
( )
  UAhw
Fig. 3. Ideal adsorption cooling in a P-T-q diagram for various adsorbentewater pairs.
hw hw hw hw Here (i) aed indicates the adsorption cooling cycle for SWS-1Lewater system, (ii) a'ed'
Tout T Tin T exp (12)
_ P hw
mc is for AQSOA-Z02 zeoliteewater system, (iii) eeh denes the cooling cycle for AQSOA-
Z01 zeoliteewater system, and (iv) the dark dotted square lines () is for type RD
silica gelewater system.

3.2. Performance parameters One can also understand from Fig. 3 that the difference between the
uptake and offtake Dqf qbedads
 qbed
des
g of SWS-1L water is higher
The cycle average cooling capacity Qchill, heating capacity Qheat- than all other systems presented herein as CaCl2 is impregnated in
ing
, specic cooling capacity (SCP) and COP are, respectively calcu- to the meso-pores of silica gel and CaCl2 absorbs more water vapor
lated as [32]. This means that the less amount SWS-1L adsorbents are
  needed for the production of same cooling capacity at the evapo-
Z
tcycle chill;w
Tin chill;w
 Tout dt rator as compared with other silica gels and AQSOA zeolites.
_ P chill;w
Q chill mc (13) Employing SWS-1L, the adsorption reactor can be made compact
tcycle
0 and its size can be reduced. However SWS-1L adsorbents that are
housed in copper-n-tube heat exchanger cause corrosion.
  Fig. 4 presents the outlet temperatures of exhaust gases, oil and
Z
tcycle hw  T hw dt
Tin out hot water against time. Due to the very high heat transfer from
_ P hw
Q heating mc (14)
tcycle exhaust gas to oil and also the higher temperature difference be-
0 tween them, the exhaust gas outlet temperature is low at the
beginning. But with the increase in time, receiving heat from

  
_ p
mc Z
tcycle chill;w
Tin chill;w
 Tout dt exhaust gas, the oil temperature increases. It reaches the ultimate
SCP
chill;w
(15) temperature 200  C after the normal desorption time of 420 s.
Mabs tcycle During switching period, the hot water from generator ows
0
through the cold adsorption bed instead of hot desorption bed, so
the heat transfer from exhaust gas to oil increases and exhaust gas
Q chill outlet temperature decreases again and a temperature uctuation
COP (16)
Q heating

400
Exhaust Gas Outlet
4. Results and discussion 350

In order to meet the cooling requirement of a private car cabin, a 300

Oil Outlet from Economizer
3 kW adsorption cooling system has been designed and simulated.
Temperature (oC)

250
On the basis of cooling capacity, the exhaust gas heat recovery
system has been designed in such a way that 9 kW heat can be 200
transferred from the exhaust gas to the oil and nally the same
amount of heat can be delivered to water to regenerate the 150
Hot Water Inlet to the Sorption Bed
adsorbate vapor from the desorption bed. The designed parameters
100
of all heat transfer components and operating parameters for
simulation purposes are listed in Table 2. Using the adsorption 50
isotherm data of silica gelewater [29], AQSOA zeolitesewater [30]
and CaCl2-in-silica gel (SWS-1L)ewater [31], the conceptual ideal 0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
adsorption cooling cycle that ranges (i) from the adsorption tem-
Time (s)
perature (Tads) to desorption temperature (Tdes), and also (ii) from
the evaporator pressure (Pevp) to condenser pressure (Pcond) are Fig. 4. The temperatures of outlet exhaust gases, oil and hot water against time from
plotted on P-T-q co-ordinate system and they are shown in Fig. 3. transient to cyclic steady state.
60 S.M. Ali, A. Chakraborty / Applied Thermal Engineering 90 (2015) 54e63

0.45 1 transfer from the heated oil, the water outlet temperature increases
0.9
at the beginning of the adsorption-desorption operation period.
0.4
COP During switching periods, the hot water is supplied to the cold
0.35 0.8 adsorption bed; the hot water temperature suddenly drops from 90
0.7 to 50  C. As time progresses, the adsorption bed receives heat from
0.3
the hot water and its temperature increases.

SCP(kW/kg)
0.6
0.25 Fig. 5 shows the effects of cycle times on adsorption cooling
COP

0.5
performances in terms of specic cooling capacity (SCP) and COP. At
0.2
0.4 the very short cycle times, say a few tens of seconds, the COP is
0.15 expected to be low due to incomplete vapor uptake onto the ad-
0.3
0.1
sorbents and the large amount of sensible heat of the heating
SCP 0.2
source as compared to latent heat transfer. In contrast, a very large
0.05 Sg Z02 Z01
0.1 cycle time (a few hours) for the cycle would saturate the adsorbed
Sg_CaCl2 Expt. Z01 Expt. Sg
0 0 vapor onto the adsorbents and SCP would decrease. The rate of
150 250 350 450 550 650 750 850 950 adsorption and desorption decreases for the longer cycle time. So
Cycle Time (s) the cooling effect decreases but the heat of desorption increases.
Hence both the COP and SCP drop at the longer cycle time. The
Fig. 5. The effects of cycle time on cooling capacity and COP for various types of
adsorbenteadsorbate pairs.
experimentally measured data of COP and SCP for silica gelewater
and AQSOA-Z01ewater are added for comparisons. Fig. 5 repre-
sents a narrow region of the ADC operation (cycle time intervals)
is obtained. It can be observed from the temporal evolution (Fig. 4) where the COP shows a monotonic increase (i.e., before the optima
that the oil outlet temperature increases with time from 30  C as it is reached). It is found from Fig. 5 that (i) for AQSOA-Z01-water
receives heat from the exhaust gas and is circulated through the system, the maximum COP and SCP are 0.32 and 0.35 kW/kg at
economizer and generator where it delivers the heat to water. Fig. 4 350 s, (ii) for AQSOA-Z02-water system, the maximum COP and SCP
shows the transient thermal behavior of hot water. Due to heat are 0.38 and 0.42 kW/kg at 720 s, (iii) for silica gel-water system,

Fig. 6. The effects of heat source temperatures on specic cooling capacity and COP.
 S.M. Ali, A. Chakraborty / Applied Thermal Engineering 90 (2015) 54e63 61

Table 3
Performances of adsorption chiller for various adsorbents-water systems.

Adsorbent Adsorbate Pair Driving heat source temperature ( C) Optimum SCP Amount adsorbent for 3 kW cooling capacity (kg) Optimum COP

Silica gel Water 85 0.37 15 0.32

CaCl2 in Silica gel Water 80 0.51 8 0.39
AQSOA Z01 Water 70 0.32 18 0.36
AQSOA Z02 Water 90 0.52 13 0.36

the maximum COP and SCP are calculated as 0.35 and 0.36 kW/kg at desorption effect signicantly which causes a reduction in COP. The
450 s, and (iv) for CaCl2-in silica gel-water, the maximum COP and SCP increases with the increase of exhaust gas ow rate and re-
SCP are 0.32 and 0.35 kW/kg at 350 s. mains almost constant after reaching its maximum as the amount
Fig. 6 describes the effects of exhaust gas temperature on COP of refrigerant per adsorption cycle is nearly the same even at higher
and SCP for (a) AQSOA-Z01, (b) AQSOA-Z02 (c) silica gel and (d) exhaust gas ow rates. As a result the SCP remains constant or
CaCl2-in silica gel with water based adsorption cooling system for increases and COP drops.
the same heat sink temperature of 31  C. The effects of cycle Fig. 8 explains the effects of the cooling water temperatures on
average hot water and oil temperatures are also included here for the ADC performance in terms of COP and SCP. It shows that the
comparison purposes. The average temperature of heating source increase in the cooling water inlet temperature to the adsorption
(exhaust gas, oil and hot water) is calculated by reactor decreases both the COP and the SCP due to the decrease of
Rt
T hs 0cycle Ths dt=tcycle , where Ths is the source temperature and is water vapor uptakes at higher adsorption temperature i.e., the
valid for calculating exhaust gas, oil and hot water temperatures. It amount of refrigerant decreases per adsorption-desorption cycle.
shows that COP is low for very high and very low exhaust gas As a result both the values of cooling capacity and COP are reduced.
temperature. Because the low exhaust gas inlet temperature causes
insufcient desorption effect but very high exhaust gas provides
5. Conclusions
higher sensible heat for the xed amount of refrigerant per
adsorption cycle. Some interesting ndings are obtained in Fig. 6.
The present study models mathematically and simulates an
Fig. 6(a) shows that the maximum SCP is obtained for AQSOA-Z01
adsorption cooling system that symbiotically combines (i) the
zeoliteewater based adsorption chiller at the hot water tempera-
exhaust heat generated from the automotive engine through an
ture of 65  C. For AQSOA-Z02ewater chiller system, the maximum
economizer and generator, and (ii) the re-cooling of adsorption
SCP is found above 90  C of hot water [Fig. 6(b)]. Fig. 6(c) shows the
beds and condenser by air cooled radiator. The dynamic responses
performance of silica gelewater adsorption chiller where the
of the heat recovery system have been investigated by simulating
maximum COP is obtained at the hot water temperature of 85  C.
the presented mathematical modelling of ADC. The process average
For CaCl2-in-silica gelewater system, the best SCP is obtained at
heating source temperatures are considered for calculating the
85  C. However the COP varies from 0.3 to 0.4 for the presented
performances. For application example, an adsorption cooling
adsorbent and water pairs. These information are important to
system has been designed for average private car cabin cooling load
design the best adsorption reactor for a suitable heating source
of 3 kW. The models of the heat recovery system and the adsorption
temperature. The performances of adsorption chiller for various
cooling system have been combined to investigate the performance
adsorbents-water systems are furnished in Table 3.
of the overall system in terms of COP and SCP for different operating
At higher speed of the vehicle, the exhaust gas ow rate is
parameters namely the cooling water temperature, cycle time, the
higher i.e. the exhaust gas temperature is also very high. Fig. 7
exhaust gas temperatures and ow rates. Four different adsor-
depicts the cooling capacity and COP against exhaust gas ow
benteadsorbate pairs are deemed, and the main ndings of this
rates for AQSOA zeolitesewater and silica gelsewater based
study are as follows:
adsorption chiller. It shows that the COP decreases for the very low
exhaust gas ow rate because it cannot produce sufcient

Heat obtained from the exhaust gas of a six cylinder 3000 cc
desorption effect. The COP reaches its maximum value when the
petrol engine based private car can produce enough cooling for
exhaust gas ow rate is 0.02 kg/s (Zeolite type AQSOA-Z01ewater).
its cabin without increasing fuel consumption.
Further increase in exhaust gas ow rate does not increase the

0.4 0.8 0.46 1

COP
0.43
0.35 0.7 0.9
0.4
0.6 0.8
0.3 0.37
0.34 0.7
0.5
SCP(kW/kg)

COP
0.25 SCP 0.31
0.6
SCP(kW/kg)
COP

0.4 0.28
COP

0.2 0.5
0.3 0.25
0.22 0.4
0.15
0.2 0.19
SCP
0.3
0.1 0.1 0.16
Sg Z01 Z02 Sg_CaCl2 0.2
0.13 Sg Z01 Z02 Sg_CaCl2
0.05 0 0.1 0.1
0.0075 0.01125 0.015 0.01875 0.0225 0.02625 0.03 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40
Exhaust Gas Flow Rate(kg/s) Cooling Water Temperature (oC)

Fig. 7. The effects of exhaust gas ow rates on specic cooling capacity and COP. Fig. 8. The effects of heat sink temperatures on cooling capacity and COP.
62 S.M. Ali, A. Chakraborty / Applied Thermal Engineering 90 (2015) 54e63

Hot water inlet temperature to the desorption bed is not con- f Liquid phase
stant rather it varies in a range depending on the design of heat g Gaseous phase
exchangers of the heat recovery system. in Inlet

Desorption bed temperature during desorption period varies out outlet
linearly. hw Hot water

It is found that the maximum COP and SCP are found when the cool Cooling uid
adsorption reactors are fabricated with CaCl2-in-silica gel as heating Heating uid
adsorbents, and 8 kg adsorbents are required for the production
of 3 kW cooling.

From the present analysis, we can conclude that CaCl2-in-silica References

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