Adsorption cold storage has lately attracted attention for its large storage capacity and zero cold energy loss during the storing process. Thermodynamic and experimental studies on the cold storage capacity and the cold discharging process, in which the adsorber is either air cooled or adiabatic, have been presented. An adsorption cold storage system with zeolite-water working pair has been developed, and some operating results are summarized. This system is used for providing air conditioning for the driver s cab of an internal combustion locomotive. Unlike a normal adsorption air conditioner, the system starts running with the adsorption process, during which the cold energy stored is discharged, and ends running with the generation process. The adsorbent temperature decreases during the cold storing period between two runs. The refrigeration power output for the whole running cycle is about 4.1kW. It appears that such a system is quite energetically efficient and is comparatively suitable for providing discontinuous refrigeration capacity when powered by low grade thermal energy, such as industrial exhausted heat or solar energy.

A new composite adsorbent SiO2·xH2O·yCaCl2 which is composed of macro-porous silica gel and calcium chloride is introduced. In order to analyze its adsorption theory, adsorption and desorption isotherms, BET surface areas, pore volumes and average pore diameters of macro-porous silica gel and four composite adsorbent samples with different CaCl2 content are measured using SEM and Asap2010 apparatus. From the adsorption isotherms, desorption isotherms and lag loops, it can be deduced that the main pore structure in macro-porous silica gel and the new composite adsorbent have two shapes: taper with one top open and taper or hyperbolic taper with both ends open. Based on the analysis of pore diameter distribution and lag loop, a sketch map showing calcium chloride filled in pore of macro-porous silica gel is presented. The adsorption isotherms at 25℃ are measured. Experimental results show that the new composite adsorbent can adsorb more water than common adsorbents (macro-porous silica gel, micro-porous silica gel and synthetic zeolite 13X). In the light of the results of pore structure, adsorption isotherms and lyolysis phenomenon are analyzed.

A combined cycle capable of heating and adsorption refrigeration is proposed, and the experimental prototype has been installed. The system consists of a heater, a water bath, an activated carbon-methanol adsorption bed and an ice box. This system has been tested with electric heating, and has been found that with 61 MJ heating, the 120kg water in the bath can be heated from 22℃ to 92℃, of while 9kg ice at 21.5℃ is made. The calculated COPsystem is 0.0591 and COPcycle is 0.41. After reconstruction to a real hybrid household water heater-refrigerator, when 55 MJ heating is added to 120kg of 21℃ water, and the condensing temperature is controlled at about 30℃, the result is the 4kg water contained inside the methanol refrigerant evaporator was iced to 22℃, the cooling capacity of the ice and the refrigerant in the evaporator will maintain the 100 liter cold box for about three days below 5℃. The experiments show the potential of the application of the solar powered hybrid water heater and refrigerator. Theoretical simulation has been done, which is in good agreement with experimental results. This research shows that the hybrid solar water heating and ice-making is reasonable, and the combined cycle of heating and cooling is meaningful for real applications of adsorption systems.

A heat regenerative adsorption refrigerator using spiral plate heat exchangers as adsorbers and an adsorption heat pump for air conditioning using plate ®n heat exchangers or plate ®n shell and tube type heat exchangers as adsorbers have been developed and researched. Experimental research results are shown. The activated carbon±methanol adsorption pair is used for the two kinds of adsorption systems. With a heat source temperature of 100℃, the refrigerator achieved a refrigeration power density of more than 2.6kg ice per day per kg activated carbon with a coecient of performance (COP) of 0.13, and the heat pump achieved 150W/kg activated carbon for air conditioning with a COP of about 0.4.

An adsorption cooling system was developed and tested and various operation procedures have been tried. The experimental results show that the heat recovery operation between two adsorption beds will increase the COP by about 25% if compared with one adsorber basic cycle system It was also proved that mass recovery is very effective for heat recovery adsorption cooling operation, which may help to obtain a COP increase of more than 10%. Theoretical analyses on the COP have been completed for various heat and mass recovery cycles, such as basic intermittent adsorption cycle, continuous two-adsorber heat recovery cycle, mass recovery. The theoretical results are in good agreement with experimental values. Based upon the developed theoretical model, it is possible to predict the COP for various operation procedures of a real adsorption cooling system.