DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF A NEW ADSORPTION CHILLER BASED ON 3 HYBRID ADSORBERS

Exploitation of alternative energy sources and energy saving have become key issues in today's world, in several sectors, including industrial, transportation and power generation, determining strict regulations and ever-growing energy efficiency requirement to be satisfied. In such a context, reduction of energy consumption for air conditioning/refrigeration applications as well as the substitution of systems employing CFCs and HCFCs are primary objective. Among several technologies, sorption heat transformation machines represent a viable and beneficial alternative to traditional cooling systems, for their low electricity consumption, and low-grade heat needed for operation. Studies regarding the application of both absorption [1] and adsorption chillers [2] driven by waste heat are available in literature, but the utilization of adsorption-based HVAC systems possess some additional advantages, such as no corrosion problems, no shock and vibrations-related problems and the use of zero GWP refrigerants [3]. In this paper, an innovative adsorptive chiller based on 3 hybrid adsorbers is presented as well as results of a testing campaign performed, at ITAE, under real operating conditions.