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Energy Procedia 105 (2017) 2004 – 2009

The 8th International Conference on Applied Energy – ICAE2016

Modeling and simulation of mass recovery process in

adsorption system for cooling and desalination
Kyaw Thua,, Bidyut Baran Sahab,c, *, Sourav Mitrab, Kian Jon Chuad
a
Kyushu University Program for Leading Graduate School, Green Asia Education Center
Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Sciences, Kyushu University
Kasuga-koen 6-1, Kasuga-shi, Fukuoka 816-8580, Japan
b
International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research (WPI-I2CNER), Kyushu University
744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan
c
Mechanical Engineering Department, Kyushu University
744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan
d
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore
9 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore 117576, Singapore

Abstract

The intrinsic nature of adsorption cycles calls for heat and mass recovery schemes to improve the performance of the
system. Energy recovery schemes become highly crucial for adsorption chiller cum desalination plants due to the
unavoidable, frequent switching between the heating and cooling phases of the adsorber beds. A comprehensive
numerical model for the mass recovery scheme by pressure equalization is developed and the validation with the
experimental data is reported. The present model is able to capture the transient pressure response by the adsorbers
during the pressure equalization process. It is observed that the specific equalization time exists for optimum mass
recovery otherwise the reverse phenomenon occurs tarnishing the positive effect of the mass recovery scheme. Both
the experimental and simulation results show that optimum mass recovery time is about 15 to 20 s depending on the
heating/cooling temperature sources. The specific daily water production (SDWP) improvement can be as high as 5%
by the mass recovery scheme which requires no additional hardware and heat source.

Keywords: Mass recovery, pressure equalization, adsorption chiller, desalination

1. Introduction

Surface phenomena such as adsorption by porous materials perform sorption processes in batch-wise
manners in multi-bed schemes for the continuous production of the useful effects such as cooling power
or potable water [1–4]. Alternated heating and cooling of the adsorbent materials during the switching

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +81-92-802-6722; fax: +81-92-802-6722.

E-mail address: saha.baran.bidyut.213@m.kyushu-u.ac.jp.

1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 8th International Conference on Applied Energy.
doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.574
 Kyaw Thu et al. / Energy Procedia 105 (2017) 2004 – 2009 2005

period calls for energy recovery strategies such as heat recovery schemes and heat and mass recovery
schemes. Most heat recovery schemes involve the manipulation of the heat transfer media to the adsorber
beds such as water valve delay [5,6], water recirculation between the hot and cold adsorber beds and the
vapour valve delay. Mass recovery is achieved through the pressure swing adsorption process by
equalizing the pressures of the adsorber and desorber beds whilst heat and mass recovery schemes are
normally the combination of aforementioned schemes [7–9]. In such schemes, the pressure of the desorber
bed is reduced triggering further desorption while the desorbed vapor is taken up by the adsorber bed at an
increased pressure resulted from the pressure equalization process. This process is simple for the
implementation and in most cases it is achieved by just opening and closing the vapour valve connecting
the adsorber beds.
The efficacy of mass recovery scheme has been investigated both experimentally and numerically by
numerous researchers. Pan et al has reported thermodynamic analysis and performance simulation of
different kinds of mass recovery process for an adsorption refrigeration system [10]. However, the
numerical models to simulate the pressure equalization process are rather limited and in most cases the
equalized pressure is either assumed or simply the average pressure of the beds. Leong et al has modeled
the mass recovery process assuming the two adsorbers to be at equal pressure [11]. Wang et al assumed
the equalized pressure to be the averaged pressure of the evaporator and the condenser [12]. Chan et al has
recently reported improved model with pressure variations of the system components and mass flow. For
mass recovery process, it is stated that water vapor will flow from the high-pressured desorber to the low-
pressured adsorber with a mass flow rate of ‫ۦ‬mr without further stating the quantitative description [13].
Whereas, the performance of the 4-bed adsorption cycle with the heat and mass recovery scheme is
studied only experimentally while no attempt has been made on the numerical simulation for such cycles.
Moreover, almost none of the previous works reports the predicted or simulated temporal pressure profiles
of the adsorber beds during the mass recovery process.
In this paper, we develop detailed model to describe the pressure equalization process. Modified Darcy
formula for the compressible gas flow through a short pipe is employed for the vapor flow during the
pressure equalization process. The present model is able to capture the bi-directional vapour flow due to
the pressure variation resulted from the simultaneous preheating and precooling of the beds. The model is
adopted to the simulation of a 4-bed adsorption desalination cum cooling cycle for the first time. The
simulated temporal pressure and uptake profiles for the mass recovery process are reported unlike other
reports. The model is further verified with the experimental data.

Nomenclature

[ minor loss coefficient (-) Ac cross sectional area (m2)

cp specific heat (J/kgK) D hydraulic diameter (m)
e absolute roughness (m) f friction factor (-)
h enthalpy (J/kgK) hfg latent heat (J/kg)
K total resistance coefficient (-) m mass (kg)
N number of adsorber beds (-) p pressure (Pa)
Q energy (W) q uptake (kg/kg)
Re Reynold’s number (-) T temperature (K)
t time (s) u internal energy (J/kgK)
V volume (m3) Y expansion factor (-)
U density (kg/m3) msg mass of silica gel (kg)
2006 Kyaw Thu et al. / Energy Procedia 105 (2017) 2004 – 2009

Subscripts

abe adsorbate cond condenser

cw cooling water d distillate
hw hot water HX heat exchanger
i in mads master adsorber
mdes master desorber o out
PE pressure equalization sads slave adsorber
sdes slave desorber v vapour

2. Numerical model

The numerical model and operation sequences of a 4-bed adsorption cycle for cooling and desalination
cycle can be found elsewhere in details [5,14]. The adsorber bed in a typical 4-bed adsorption cycle
undergoes six phases: (1) slave adsorption, (2) master adsorption, (3) preheating, (4) slave desorption, (5)
master desorption and (6) precooling. Heat and mass recovery by pressure equalization is applied in the
switching phase where the adsorber beds are isolated both from the condenser and the evaporator. In a 4-
bed adsorption cycle, the pressure equalization process is implemented between the adsorber beds
performing the precooling and preheating phases. General mass balance for the adsorber bed during the
pressure equalization process is given as,

d  mabe  mv 
m PE (1)
dt
Here mabe and mv are the mass of adsorbed phase and the mass of vapour in the void space. Eq. 1 can
be written as,

ª m  m dq º
wp wp « PE sg dt wU wT »
 ˜
wt wU « V wT wt » (2)
« »
¬ ¼
The energy balance of the adsorber bed in pressure equalization phase is written as,

wU wP
m PE hPE  m hw/ cwc p T , p  Ti ,hw/ cw  To ,hw/ cw   uabe msg dq  Vu T , p  ˜
wT dt wP wt
wt ª wU º (3)
mHX c p , HX  msg c p , sg  mabe c p ,abe T , p   V « U T , p  cv T , p   u T , p  »
¬ wT ¼
It is noted that the adsorber beds are being cooled or heated while undergoing mass recovery process..
Vapor flow rate from each adsorber chamber with different pressures is modeled using Modified Darcy
formula for the compressible gas flow through a short pipe as,

'p U
m PE 1.41576 Y Ac
K (4)
Here, Y is the expansion factor and K is the total resistance coefficient while Y is a function of the
 Kyaw Thu et al. / Energy Procedia 105 (2017) 2004 – 2009 2007

pressure difference and the total resistance coefficient and it is calculated using Tables given in [15]. It
should be noted that the reversed vapour flow due to pressure changes is accounted for in the presented
model. Furthermore, we don’t assume that all the vapour desorbed from one bed is adsorbed by the other.
Total resistance coefficient, K is written as

L
K f  ¦ [i
D i (5)
Here [ is the minor loss coefficient for different components and f is the friction factor given as,

­ 64
° Re for Re  2300
°°
f ® 1.325 e (6)
2
for 5000 d Re d 108 & 106 d d 102
°ª § e 5.74 · º D
° «ln ¨  0.9 ¸ »
°¯ ¬ © 3.7 D Re ¹ ¼
The energy supplied to the adsorber bed during regeneration phases i.e., slave and master desorption
phases are calculated using inlet and outlet temperatures of the heat source as,

Q sdes / mdes m hwc p ,hw Tsdes / mdes  To ,mdes / i ,mdes  To , sdes / o ,mdes  (7)
Similarly, the energy rejected by the slave and master adsorption processes are estimated as,

Q sads / mads m cwc p ,cw Tsads / mads  To ,mads / i ,mads  To , sads / o ,mads  (8)
The performance of the system is assessed using the specific daily water production (SDWP), and the
performance ratio (PR) and are given as,

tcycle
m cond c p ,cond To ,cond  Ti ,cond 
SDWP 86400 ³
0
N bed msg tcycle h fg Tcond , pcond 
dt (9)

exp erimental
    
simulation

tcycle tcycle
md h fg Tcond , pcond 
 Q
PR ³0  Qsdes  Qmdes  tcycle dt ³0  Qsdes  Qcondmdes  tcycle dt (10)

3. Results and discussion

The temporal uptake profiles of the 4-bed adsorption cycle with pressure equalization scheme are
shown in Fig. 1. The effect of the pressure equalization on the uptake by the adsorbent can be observed
for both adsorber and the desorbers. The inscribed figures in Fig. 1 show the change in the uptake as well
as the reversed sorption processes due to longer mass recovery time. Fig. 2 illustrates the pressure profiles
of the adsorbers where the equalized pressure is slightly lower than the average pressure.
2008 Kyaw Thu et al. / Energy Procedia 105 (2017) 2004 – 2009

Fig. 1. Temporal uptake of the AD cycle Fig. 2. Temporal pressure of the 4-bed AD cycle

Fig. 3a shows the SDWP of the system for assorted mass recovery times at different heat source
temperatures. It is observed that the SDWP increases with the increase in the PE time until 20 s whilst
longer than 20 s results in the reduction in SDWP due to the reversed sorption processes. Furthermore, the
simulated results agree well with the experimental data. Fig. 3b depicts the performance ratio (PR). As a
general trend, PR increases with the decrease in the hot water temperature while the mass recovery
scheme gives slight improvement in PR i.e., around 3%.

Fig. 3. (a) SDWP at different mass recovery times; (b) PR at different mass recovery times

4. Conclusions

The mass recovery model for the pressure equalization scheme has developed and validated with the
experimental data. The present model overcomes the shortcomings of the existing model addressing the
physical nature of the pressure equalization process in adsorber beds as well as the bi-directional vapour
flow for long pressure equalization times. We validated the model with the experimental data. The
quantitative efficacy of the mass recovery scheme depends on a number of physical parameters such as
the nature and amount of the adsorbents, the dimensions and configuration of the connecting ducts and
construction design of the adsorber beds yet reported data in the literature maybe validated provided such
information are available. However, the present model represents the physical nature and serves as a
baseline to adjudge the efficacy of the mass recovery scheme in adsorption cycles.

5. Acknowledgement
 Kyaw Thu et al. / Energy Procedia 105 (2017) 2004 – 2009 2009

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Kyushu University Program for Leading Graduate School,
Green Asia Education Center, Japan and the National Research Foundation (NRF), Singapore, under the
research grant (R-265-000-466-281) for their financial supports.

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Biography
Bidyut Baran Saha is a professor and principal investigator at the International Institute for
Carbon-Neutral Energy Research, Kyushu University. His research interests are thermally
powered sorption systems, and energy efficiency assessment. He has published over 300
peer-reviewed papers, 15 patents and edited four books serving as the Editor-in-Chief of
Evergreen.