Studies on the feasibility of adsorption cooling technologies–A review

Abstract

In the current scenario, for all human beings and industry needs in the world, cooling processes such as refrigeration as well as air conditioning are essential and major requisites. On the other hand, the conventional vapour compression systems require high electrical energy input and employ refrigerants with negative environmental impacts like ozone layer depletion and global warming caused by the emission of harmful gases such as carbon dioxide, Hydro fluorocarbons and Chlorofluorocarbons with the usage of conventional refrigerants. The solar energy being a renewable source is one of the key solutions to pollution problems and can be used to drive the adsorption cooling machines. With the heat source temperature of even 50° C which is obtained from the low grade energy like solar energy or waste heat energy is feasible to drive the adsorption refrigeration system to reduce the operating cost. In the present work, a literature review was undertaken to find out the performance of single and multi bed adsorption cooling system using the suitable adsorbent-adsorbate pair reported in the literature review which can be operated successfully to produce the cooling effect using low grade heat energy.