A new management strategy based on the reallocation of ads-/desorption times: Experimental operation of a full-scale 3 beds adsorption chiller

In this paper, a wide experimental characterization campaign aimed at measuring the performance of an innovative 3-beds adsorptive chiller prototype is reported. The prototype was designed to employ a new management strategy, based on different durations of adsorption and desorption isobaric steps of a basic temperature driven adsorptive cooling cycle and aimed at achieving high cooling power density. The performance were measured, in terms of Average Cooling Power (ACP), cooling COP and Volumetric Cooling Power (VCP), using a test bench suitable for the characterization of thermally driven cooling/heating machines, under typical boundary conditions of air conditioning applications. A sensitive analysis was carried out to assess the effect of several parameters (e.g. the temperature lift TM − TL, driving temperature TH and cycle time). on the operation of the chiller. The results of the experimental activity depict a complete performance map for the tested chiller and demonstrate the potential of the new cycle management strategy. At nominal boundary conditions (i.e. TH ∼ 90 °C, TL ∼ 18 °C and TM ∼ 25 °C), the cooling machine was able to deliver an ACP of 4.4 kW and an overall VCP of 9.4 kW/m3, with a COP of 0.35 while the VCP referred to the volume of the only adsorber was ∼275 kW/m3.