Performance investigation of nanostructured composite surfaces for use in adsorption cooling systems with a mass recovery cycle

Abstract

With an increase of the heat transfer coefficient and condensation rate in a condenser, a lower pressure can be achieved in a desorber, which leads to a dryer adsorber for the next adsorption phase and a better cooling performance in an adsorption cooling system. This study aims to experimentally investigate the condensation rate of different nanostructured surfaces and improve the cooling performance of an adsorption cooling system by coating a superhydrophobic–zeolite 13X adsorbent composite surface in the condenser. An experiment was designed and built to investigate the condensation rate of various nanostructured surfaces on a copper plate. The results show that a water collection rate (condensation rate) of the superhydrophobic–zeolite 13X adsorbent composite surface of 49.3 g/m2 min is achieved, which shows an enhancement of about 50% compared to that of the copper surface. A mathematic model is developed to estimate the cooling performance of the adsorption cooling system utilizing the composite surface and a mass recovery cycle. The simulation results show that a specific cooling power (SCP) of 231.4 W/kg and a coefficient of performance (COP) of 0.317 are determined, which shows an improvement of 25.0% and 7.8%, respectively, compared to that of the system without coating the nanostructured composite surface.