Two bed silica gel-water adsorption chillers: an effectual lumped parameter model

This article develops an improved lump-parameter design model to investigate the water-circulation heat recovery scheme as applied to the two-bed silica gel–water adsorption chillers. We demonstrate that performance predictions stemming from this improved lump-parameter formalism compare favorably with experimental results at various conditions, particularly at the industrial rated conditions. We find that the present lump-parameter formalism adequately elucidates the water-circulation heat recovery scheme as does the distributed-parameter formalism. In the studied working condition of a two-bed silica gel–water adsorption chiller, the differences in cooling capacities and coefficients of performance (or COP) by using the two different formalisms are typically less than 10%. This gives rise to a useful and rapid design tool for the industry.