Novel method using Dubinin-Astakhov theory in sorption reactor design for refrigeration and heat pump applications

This paper presents new methodology that is based on a single given adsorbent-refrigerant pair characteristic (such as activated carbon 208C) leading to the characterization of the same adsorbent (activated carbon 208C) with various refrigerants such as Water, Methanol, Ethanol, R723 (azeotropic mixture of 60% Ammonia and 40% Dimethyl Ether), Dimethyl Ether (DME) and Carbon Dioxide (R744). Overall, the results obtained with both Methanol and Carbon Dioxide (R744) show that the new method predicts the refrigerant uptake with a marginal difference (less than 5%) compared to standard method that heavily depends on experimental data. For example with methanol, the standard method produces a maximum uptake (xo) of 0.3676 kg methanol/kg carbon while the new method predicts 0.3740 kg methanol/kg carbon; with CO2 both standard and new methods predict 0.3242 kg CO2/kg carbon and 0.3190 kg CO2/kg carbon respectively. The results exploitation of this method led to rapid prediction of key performance indicators of adsorption system utilizing compacted activated carbon 208C-R723 refrigerant pair for ice making, air conditioning and heat pump applications