Adsorption refrigeration research in Shanghai Jiao Tong University

The research work on adsorption refrigeration in Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) started in 1993, various adsorption refrigeration cycles have been investigated, such as continuous heat recovery cycle, mass recovery cycle, thermal wave cycle, convective thermal wave cycle, cascade multi effect cycle, hybrid heating and cooling cycle etc. Several prototype adsorption refrigeration systems have been developed and tested, typical examples are continuous heat regenerative adsorption ice maker using spiral plate adsorbers, adsorption heat pump using novel heat exchanger as adsorbers, solar powered adsorption ice maker, solar powered hybrid system of water heater and adsorption refrigerator, waste heat driven air conditioning system for automobiles. Reasonable experimental results have been obtained, it was found that with a heat source temperature of 100°C, the refrigerator can obtain specific refrigeration power for 5.2 kg-ice/day per kg activated carbon in one adsorber, the heat pump can reach a specific cooling power for more than 150 W/kg-adsorbent with a COP close to 0.5, the adsorption solar ice maker yields 5-7 kg-ice per day per square meter solar collector, the hybrid solar water heater and ice maker is capable of heating 60 kg water up to about 90°C and meanwhile yields ice making about 5 kg per day with a 2 m2 solar collector. The adsorption mechanisms of adsorption refrigeration pairs and also the thermo-physical properties have been also studied in SJTU, which are very helpful for adsorption refrigeration researches. This paper shows the various aspects researched in SJTU.