International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 10, October 2012)
Adsorption Refrigeration System for Cabin Cooling of Trucks
Harish Tiwari1, Dr. G. V. Parishwad2
1
Associate Professor, Mechanical Department, Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering, Nigdi, Pune - 411 044 India
2
Professor, Mechanical Department, Government College of Engineering, Pune - 411 005 India
Abstract - The work presented in this paper is design
development and experimentation of an adsorption
refrigeration system powered by exhaust heat with only two
control valves. The cooling capacity for a truck cabin is
estimated as 1 TR a scale of 3.5:1 is decided and a prototype
of 1 kW has been designed and developed and tested in
laboratory. A cooling effect of 1 to 1.2 kW has been obtained.
The COP of the system is in the range of 0 4 to 0.45. The
dimensions of the system are compact. It can be easily
accommodated on a Transport Truck. The total weight of the
system for a cooling capacity of 1 kW is 30 kg. The heating
time required to achieve the cooling effect is around 10
minutes.
Keywords - Prototype, Truck cabin cooling, Engine exhaust,
Adsorption cooling.
I. INTRODUCTION
For automobile air conditioning normally vapour
compression refrigeration cycle is used. The cycle run on
engine power and consumes around 10% of the total power
produced by the engine and thereby increases the fuel
consumption (Lambert and Jones, 2006). In case of truck
large amount of heat of input around 30% of the total heat
supplied is going away with exhaust gases at very high
temperature and around 25%to 30% is going away with
cooling water. This can be effectively used to develop a
heat generated cooling system.(Alam,2006)
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
The first refrigerator automobile air conditioning system
was vapour compression refrigeration system and was
introduced by Packer in 1939. In the last 70 years,
automobile air conditioning system has undergone gradual
and continual improvements in performance and efficiency
as a result of improvements in the individual components
(McLaughlin, 2005). Alternative systems powered by heat
which can be used in automobiles are solid adsorption
cooling systems, thermo acoustic refrigeration, active
magnetic regenerator system thermo electric devices and
vapour absorption refrigeration (VAR) systems (Zoontjens,
2005),(Johnson,2002).VAR systems were found to be more
suitable and efforts have been made to develop (VAR)
systems (Koehler, 1997), (Mclaughlin 2005), (Kim and
Park, 2007).
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The feasibility proved theoretically for automobiles but
very little could be done to demonstrate it practically for
mobile applications. At present no VAR system is available
in market for capacities up to 10 kW (Jacob, 2006).
A. Adsorption Systems
Solid vapour adsorption is similar to liquid vapour
absorption system, except that the refrigerant is adsorbed at
the surface of another solid known as adsorbent. A report,
presented by Metrons transportation centre suggests the
suitability of Adsorption systems for vehicles (Christry,
2001). In that report the performance of VCR system and
VAR system has been compared. Series of carried
experimental results suggest about the feasibility of
adsorption systems. NH3 - activated carbon has been
suggested as refrigerant - adsorbent pair. “Wang et al.
(2009) after comparing the performances of various
suitable systems has claimed that adsorption system is
more suitable for automobile cooling”.
“Saha et al (2003) in the presented work have
demonstrated dual mode silica gel water adsorption chillers
design along with various temperature ranges and obtained
optimum results for temperature range of 50 oC and 55 oC.
Comparison of COP has been presented for three stage
mode and single stage multiple modes. Simulation has been
presented and the COP is in the range of 0.2 and 0.45
respectively.” “Wang and Oliveira (2005) have presented
the achievements in solid sorption refrigeration prototypes,
obtained since the interest in sorption system was renewed
at the end of 1970s. The applications included ice making
and air conditioning.” “Wang (2005) in his work claimed to
obtain COP of 0.15 for solar application. In the review
work the details of performance of adsorption system for
different applications with COP has been presented in a
tabular form. The COP is in the range of 0.3 to 0.6.” “Kong
et al. (2005) have presented an experimental investigation
of the performance of a micro combined, cooling heating
and power system driven by a gas engine. In the described
system a COP of 0.3 for refrigeration at 13 oC has been
obtained successfully. The suggested system can supply
electricity of 12 kW and heat load of 28 kW and cooling
load of 9 kW simultaneously.”
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 10, October 2012)
“Maggio et al. (2006) presents the results of a predictive
two dimensional mathematical model of an adsorption
cooling machine consisting of a double consolidated
adsorbent bed with internal heat recovery. Internal heat
recovery enhances the COP”. It is suggested that the
adsorbent thickness should be limited to 2 to 3 mm for
optimum results.
“Lambert and Jones (2006) has presented a detailed
study of vapour adsorption refrigeration system specifically
for automobile air conditioning. Adsorption cooling has
been compared with other heat generated cooling
technologies and it is claimed that adsorption system is the
best alternative in terms of size and mass.” In the second
part of his work he has demonstrated air conditioner for a
car successfully. The detailed design of the critical
components has also been presented. It has been claimed
that the overall weight of the system is ~3.5 percent to the
total vehicle mass, which is at par with the mass of current
systems. Similar work has been done to demonstrate a
cooling system for a car developing 2 kW cooling power
with COP 0.22, bed thickness ( δad ) of 4 mm and an eight
way valve has been suggested in this work (Tamainot et al.,
2008 ). “Wang et al (2006) has presented a design of an
adsorption air conditioner for locomotive driver cabin,
powered by 350 oC – 450oC exhaust gases. The cooling
power and COP is 5 KW and 0.25 respectively”. The cycle
time of 1060 s with exhaust temperature of 450 oC cooling
air temp of 40oC and chilled water temp. of 10 oC is
achieved. The specific cooling power of 164 W/kg to 200
W/kg has been obtained. “Huguess, and Beyene (2008) has
presented an approach for the heat recovery from the
automotive engine to improve COP”. Some innovative
methods like use of fuzzy controller, heat pipe, additives in
adsorber bed, suction pump with adsorber have been
demonstrated in some papers to enhance the performance
of adsorption systems (Farzaneh, and Tootoonchi, 2008
),(Fadar et al., 2009),(Tassou et al., 2009),(Hirot et al.,
2008).
B. Synopsis of Adsorption Systems
The above review is of some selected recent paper. The
other referred work is also in the same direction .It is clear
that the vapour adsorption system has a strong potential to
be used as an alternative cooling system. The presented
design suffered from low heat available, low live mass of
adsorbing material, leakage problems, inefficient heat
transfer, poor thermal conductivity of adsorber bed ,
settling of adsorbed particles, which cause the absorbent to
loose contact with the heat exchanger, and low specific
cooling power.
These problems can be solved by implementing the
suggested improvements mentioned in the review. The
surface area volume ratio is higher for activated carbon and
the latent heat of ammonia is the maximum after water, so
this pair is suggested as suitable adsorbent and refrigerant
pair.
III. PROPOSED SYSTEM AND WORKING PRINCIPLE
The exhaust of an I.C. engine test rig is used to supply
the necessary heat to the adsorber. The schematic diagram
of the system is shown in Figure 1. The set up consists of
two adsorber, two condensers and one evaporator. The
condensers are connected to the evaporator through control
valves.
Two adsorber beds are proposed one in heating mode
and another in cooling mode. One of the adsorber is
charged with refrigerant ammonia. Two condensers, one
evaporator .two control valves and one evaporator are
connected as shown in Fig. 2.The condensers and
evaporator is fitted with a fan for forced air circulation.
Where,
1and 2 are adsorbers,3and 4 condensers,5 evaporator,8
fan, 9 and 10 heat input and output,11 and 12 cooling inlet
and outlet, 6 and 7 control valves
The Engine exhaust gases enter the adsorber filled with
ammonia to heat the adsorber bed at constant mass.
Adsorber rejects the refrigerant with the adsorption of heat
as the adsorptivity is a function of rise in temperature. The
refrigerant gets compressed because of heating at constant
mass. The compressed refrigerant passes to condenser
through control valve. The refrigerant which is in gaseous
state is condensed in the condenser at high pressure
depending on the atmospheric temperature.

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 10, October 2012)
On one side of control valve the pressure is high and on
the other side of control valve the pressure is low. The
control valve outlet is connected to the other adsorber in
cooling mode through evaporator and other condenser. The
control valve (number 6 in figure) is opened very gradually
so that pressure in the adsober (number 1) remains
constant. The liquid refrigerant starts getting converted to
vapour at low pressure and refrigerating effect is produced.
The vapour at low pressure enters the adsorber (number 2)
through condenser (number 4).
The adsorber absobs the refrigerant, ammonia. The
adsober is in cooling mode and is cooled by water. Cooling
of adsorber is essential to maintain the adsorptivity of the
adsorber. The pressure in the adsober gradually increases.
The cooling effect at the condenser is continued till there is
a pressure difference in adsorber on and adsober 2. Once
the the adsorber is filled with ammonia. The heating is
stopped and adsorber one is cooled with water and the
cycle is repeated by heating adsober 2.
IV. DESIGN OF PROPOSED SYSTEM
The main system components are adsorbers, condenser,
and evaporator and control valves. These are basically heat
exchangers and are designed by using heat transfer
equations and thermal correlations. The cooling load for a
transport truck is obtained considering the following points.
The cooling load required for a medium size truck has
been calculated as around 3, so a cooling system of 1 TR
should be sufficient to maintain the desired conditions. The
useful heat available in the engine exhaust of transport
truck is calculated and is more than 50 kW, for a small size
truck considered for reference. Whereas the required heat
to operate the cooling system with minimum COP of 0.2 is
17.5 kW. So the exhaust potential to drive the system is
justified.
It is decided to first develop a prototype to study the
effect of different variables and optimization of the system
parameters. A scale of 3.5: 1 is decided and a prototype of
1 kW capacity is designed and developed in the
Laboratory. The adsorber and refrigerant are selected as
activated carbon granules and Ammonia. Considering the
temperature of exhaust gases and high latent heat of
Ammonia this combination is found to be suitable. The
adsorbers, condenser, evaporator and the control valves are
the main components of the system. The adsorber has been
designed and developed to enhance the heat transfer. The
other components are readily available like the evaporator
and condenser for automobiles and the control valves used
in ammonia refrigeration systems.
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A. Design of Adsorber
In adsorption refrigeration system adsorber is the most
important component Adsorber works like generator as
well as absorber both of an absorption system. It is a shell
and tube double pipe heat exchanger as shown in Figure 2.
There are three concentric tubes of stainless steel. The
adsorbing material is filled between the gap of inner tube
and the middle tube. The adsorbing material is activated
charcoal and the refrigerant is ammonia. End covers are
fitted at the ends of these tubes to hold the adsoerbing
material. The exhaust gases flow through the inner tube and
the annular space between the outer tube and the middle
tube. The adsorbing material is heated from both side i e
from inside and outside. Fins are provided from outside of
the middle tube and to the inner tube from inside to
enhance heat transfer from exhaust gases to the adsorbing
material. 10 % aluminum chips by weight are added to the
adsorbing material to enhance the conduction in the
adsorber bed. The adsorbing material is closely packed in
the space. The adsorptivity of activated carbon at 60 oC is
30% and that at 160 oC is around 0 %. The system is
designed for heating and cooling time of 450 s.
Adsorber temperatures are decided as T ad,max = 160 oC
and Tad,min = 60 oC. Designed refrigerating effect (R.E.) =
1 kW, latent heat of evaporation of ammonia (L) at
evaporator pressure is 1035 kJ/kg. Amount of ammonia is
obtained by dividing the R.E. by latent heat as 0.45 kg.
Mass of adsorber, mad is obtained as 1.65kg. Density of
adsorbing material (ad) is 680 kg/m3 adsorbent thickness =
10 mm. Volume of adsorber, is calculated, Vad = 0.005 m3..
Heat required to heat or cool adsorber between 60 oC and
165 oC is the summation of sensible heat and latent heat of
refrigerant at evaporator pressure. It is given by “equation
(1)” and “equation (2)”.
Qsensible, heating = [(mad  Cpad ΔTad) +
(mst  Cpst ΔTst)] ÷ Δt (1)
Qlatent heating = [mad (X2 - X1) x (H2 - H1)] ÷ Δt (2)
Qadsorber = Qasensible,heating + Qlatent heating (3)
From “equation (3)”, The heat required to heat or cool
the adsorber (Qad,heating) is calculated. Qad,heating = 2 kW for
getting a cooling effect of 1 kW.
The heat transfer area is calculated from the following
equation.
Q = U x A x Tad (4)
The overall heat transfer coefficient, Uo depeds upon the
inside and outside heat transfer coefficients and the
conductance through steel tubes and adsorbing material.
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 10, October 2012)
It is calculated using overall heat transfer through a
compound cylinder. The area required for heat transfer to
supply the heat of 2 kW to the adsorber is calculated as Aad
= 0.6 m2. The area available for heat transfer in this case is
0.45 m2. Fins are provided on the middle shell and inside
the central tube increases the area to around 0.8 m2. This
area should be sufficient for heat transfer. The final
dimensions and main features of the adsorber of the system
are given in Table I.
The theoretical COP is calculated as 0.5. The pressure
drop in the adsorber heat exchanger is given by following
equation [5];
P = [f Gs2 (Nb +1)Ds] ÷ (2 x  x De ) (5)
f = e (0.57-0.19lnRe) (6)
Pressure drop is obtained as 0.42 Pa, the design is safe,
as allowable pressure drop is 4 kPa [11, 12].
B. Condenser
Condenser will be exposed to atmospheric air striking
with truck velocity. Temperature difference is assumed to
be 7 0C. Qc = 2 kW. The standard condenser used in
automobiles has been used for the experimentation. A fan
is fitted to the condenser for condensing the refrigerant in
the condenser. Condensers are two in number and are
connected to each adsorber.
The outlet of the condenser is connected to control
valves. (Photo condenser)
C. Evaporator
The evaporator is a cross flow box type compact heat
exchanger. It is exposed to the cabin to be cooled. In the
experimental set up the evaporator is provided with a fan.
The designed cooling temperature is 30 0C. The evaporator
is connected to both the condensers through control valves.
It has been designed to have a temperature difference of
around 15 0C. The evaporator of this system has to work in
both directions as the refrigerant will be coming as inlet
from one side as well as from other side also depending
upon heating and cooling mode of the adsorbers. It is fitted
with a fan for forced air circulation.
V. DEVELOPMENT OF A PROTOTYPE
A small prototype for a cooling capacity of 200 W has
been designed and built as shown in the Fig. 3. Two
adsorber developed and connected to condenser coil. An
evaporator coil was placed between the two condenser
through control valve. Two pressure gauges were fitted to
the adsorber and tested as first stage of developments.
TABLE I
MAIN FEATURE OF THE ADSORPTION REFRIGERATION
SYSTEM
Refrigerant used Ammonia
Adsorbing material Activated charcoal 4 mm
(coconut shell) granule size

Mass of adsorbing material 1.8 kg

in each adsorber

Mass of refrigerant 0.6 kg

Weight of each adsorber 10.5 kg

Length and Diameter of 1.1 m and 110 mm.

adsorber

Weight of condenser with 2.4 kg

fan

Weight of evaporator 2.4 kg

Overall weight of the 30 kg

system

Fig. 2 Condenser Number of control valves 2

Control valve size 10 mm

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 10, October 2012)
VII. CONCLUSIONS
The engine power required to run an air conditioning
system can be saved by using waste heat powered cooling
system. After literature review in the field of alternative
cooling systems powered by heat, adsorption air cooling
systems with activated carbon and NH3 as adsorbent
refrigerant pair is selected and used in the present system.
In the present system solid material is used as adsorber
which makes the system suitable for mobile applications.
The design COP of the system is around 0.5 for a cooling
capacity of 1 kW. The overall weight of the system for
cooling capacity of 1 TR is estimated as 30 kg. The system
is quite compact and can be installed in a truck. The
reduced number of valves makes the system more reliable
and leakage free. The innovative heat exchanger as
adsorber reduces the heating and cooling time. The mass of
Fig3 Prototype of Adsorption system ammonia in the system is 600 gms.
Acknowledgments
VI. EXPERIMENTAL RESULS
This work has been supported by Pimpri chinchwad
The experiments have been carried out on the prototype College of Engineering (PCCOE) Nigdi Pune 44,
using a blower stove as a heat source. One of the adsorber Maharashtra India and Board of College and University
was heated and another cooled simultaneously. The results Development, (BCUD) University of Pune, Pune- 411 007,
are tabulated in Table II. Maharashtra, India. The authors are thankful to PCCOE
TABLE II and BCUD and concerned authorities.
EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Nomenclature
Fuel
Heat A Area of heat transfer (m2)
consumptio RE Cp Specific heat at constant pressure (kJ/kg
S. Heating supplied
n-ion COP
N time(s) K)
(W)
(kJ) CV Calorific value of fuel (kJ/kg)
(gm)
D Diameter of shell (m)

1. 600 24 141 1080 .117 d Diameter of tube (mm)

G Mass density (kg/m2 s)

2. 630 25 137 1125 .112
h Heat transfer coefficient ( W/m2K )

3. 645 27 134 1215 .104 H Enthalpy of refrigerant (kJ/kg)

k Thermal conductivity (W/m K)

4. 660 29 130 1305 .097
L Length of tubes (m)

mr Mass flow rate of refrigerant ( kg/s)

5. 720 31 125 1395 .094
Nb Number of baffle plates
n Number of tubes
PR Pitch ratio
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Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 10, October 2012)
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