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Renewable Energy 16 (1999) 704-707

EXPERIMENTS WITH SOLAR-POWERED ADSORPTION ICE-MAKER

K. SUMATHY and LI ZHONGFU

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the description and operation of a solar-powered ice-maker with the solid adsorption
pair of activated carbon and methanol. A domestic type of charcoal is chosen as the adsorbent, and a simple
flat-plate collector with an exposed area of 0.92 m* is employed to produce ice of about 4-Skg/day. The
above system could achieve solar refrigeration COP of about 0. I-O. 12.
0 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

KEYWORDS

Solar energy; solid adsorption; activated carbon; methanol; ice-maker.

INTRODUCTION

Refrigeration is an attractive application of solar energy, because, the supply of sunshine and the need for
refrigeration reach maximum levels in the same season. One of the very effective form of solar refrigeration
is the production of ice, because ice accumulates much latent heat in it, so that the volume of ice maker can
be small In 1981, Pons and Grenier (1986) worked on a solid adsorption pair of zeoiite and water, to
produce the refrigerating effect and the coefficient of performance was about 0.1. Lately, they had
successhtlly experimented with the adsorption pair of activated carbon and methanol. Sakoda and Suzuki
( 1986), had presented the advantages and limitations of the simultaneous transport of heat and adsorbate in
closed type adsorption cooling system, utilizing solar heat. This paper focus on a solar-powered ice-maker
with solid adsorption pair of activated carbon + methanol. A simple flat-plate collector having an exposed
area of 0.92 m* is employed to produce ice of about 4-5 kg/day.

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

Fig. 1 shows the schematic of the solar refrigerating system. The system consists of a flat-plate collector, a
fin-type condenser/heat-exchanger and an evaporator which acts as a refrigerator. The collector is supplied
with activated carbon(A.C.) which is adsorbed with methanol, initially. During the day-time the activated
carbon along with methanol gets heated up, in the collector. Methanol evaporates from the activated

0960-1481/99/ssee front matter 0 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: SO960-1481(98)00256-O
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carbon and then cooled by the condenser. The liquid methanol is stored in the evaporator, which is said
to be the regenerating course of the activated carbon.

collector

condenser

WSpolWOI
water
insulation

a) Day-time (heat/desorption) b) Night-time (evaporation/adsorption)

Fig. I. Schematic diagram of the solar-powered solid adsorption ice-maker

During the night-time, the collector is cooled and the temperature of the activated carbon reaches minimum.
In this period, methanol begins to evaporate by absorbing heat from the liquid (water) and gets adsorbed by
the activated carbon. Since adsorption is a process of releasing heat, the collector must be cooled efficiently
at night. As mentioned above. the ice-maker operates in an intermittent way to produce the refrigerating
effect

SELECTION OF THE DOMESTIC ACTIVATED CARBON

Activated carbon have significant volume of micro-pores of convenient size. To choose the best activated
carbon, laboratory experiments were conducted for the locally available three different activated carbons.
namely CHK-3, CIK-2,ZX-15 (manufactured by Xiao Yi Activated Carbon Industry, China). To determine
the maximum quantity of adsorbate, Dubinin-Radushkevitch equation (Gregg and Sing, 1969) was used.

lnW = lnWc - D[TxIn(P/P,,$ (I)

where Wu is the maximum quantity of adsorbate which would be adsorbed by the total volume of the
activated carbon micropore system; W is the amount of adsorbate adsorbed by activated carbon to the
corresponding adsorbing temperature. T and pressure, P; PO denotes the saturation pressure of methanol
at temperature, T; and D is the structural constant of the adsorbent(Gregg and Sing, 1969). Based on the
experiments, CHK-3 was chosen as the solid adsorbent for the above ice-maker.

ANALYSIS OF THE ADSORPTION CYCLE

The principle of the solid-adsorption ice-maker is explained using Clapeyron diagram (InP Vs -I/T)
Figure 2 shows the idealized process undergone by A.C. + methanol in achieving the refrigeration effect
(producing ice). Let the cycle begin at a point (point A in Fig.2) where the adsorbent is at a low
temperature TA and at low pressure P, (evaporating pressure). A-B represents the heating of A.C. along
with methanol. The collector is connected with the condenser and the progressive heating of the adsorbant
from B to D causes some adsorbate to be desorbed and its vapour to be condensed. When the adsorbent
reaches its maximum temperature TO, desorption ceases. Then the liquid methanol is transferred into the
evaporator and the and collector is closed and cooled. The decrease in temperature from D to F induces
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the decrease in pressure from P, to Pe. Then the collector is connected with the evaporator and adsorption
and evaporation occur while the adsorbent is cooled from F to A. During this cooling period heat is
withdrawn both to decrease the temperature of the adsorbent and to withdraw adsorption heat.

The total energy input (Qr) to the system is given by,

QT = QA-B + QB-o (2)

QA_B =(Cp, + CprnW~)U~-T~) (3)

QB_D = kp8+q,(v)] +(T,-TB) ‘(WA -‘%&es c4)

where QA_ais the heating of the A.C. + methanol from state point A to state B; Qn_nis the progressive
heating of the A.C. and desorption of the methanol; Cra, Cnm are the specific heat of the A.C and methanol

respectively; WA and Wn are the initial and the final mass of methanol adsorbed by the A.C; Hdes is the
latent heat of desorption

The cooling_effect (for ice production) is given by,

Qc = (WA- -T,)]
W,)[L-C,J%, (5)

where L is the latent heat of evaporation of the methanol

Therefore. the system efficiency is given by,

COPth = % (6)

T("C)
0 10 20 50 40 60 118 70 80 80

Tc TA TD

Fig. 2. Clapeyron diagram ( InP vs -I/T ) of ideal solid-adsorption cycle.


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RJZXJLTS AND DISCUSSION

The correlation of the coefficient of petformance(COP~) with condensing temperature (Tc), evaporating
temperature (T,) and adsorption temperature (TA) was obtained by simulation, neglecting the efficiency of
the solar collector. Figures 3 and 4 show how the condensingtemperature and the adsorption temperature
effect the COP*, respectively. For any given desorption temperature(To), evaporating temperature(T,) and
adsorption temperature(TA), the COPa decreases with the increase in condensing temperature. This is
because, with the increase in condensingtemperature, the pressure of the system increasesand the quantity
of methanol desorbed from the activated carbon decreases, which lessens the COP* Similar effect is
observedfor the adsorption temperature(T*) against COP&.

COP*

- Tr=35 “C
- T~=35 “C’
_--. Tr=.lOT
, ---. T&=45x
Tee=-IO’C T~=35 “C

80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 80 90 loo 110 120 130 140 150

Dssofp(ion lemfmmhm ( To).??


C bm Mdm ( To),T

Fig 3. The effect of condensing Fig. 4. The effect of adsorption


temperature ( Tr ) on COP& temperature ( TA ) on COP*

An ice maker with the adsorption pair of activated carbon and metbanol was installed, with the flat-plate
collector area of 0.92 m2. With the daily total solar insolation was 17-19MJ/m2, production of ice was about
4-5 kg and the solar refrigeration COP was found to be 0.10-O. 12.

CONCLUSION

Solar-powered refrigeration has a good advantage when compared to other applications. The greater the
sunshine.the more the ice could be made by the ice-maker, and ice requirement could be large at the same
time. The adsorption pair of activated carbon and methanol is suitable for solar powered refrigeration.
compared to water/Ammoina pair. Ammonium/sodium Tbiocyanate and CaCl + NH3 etc. The only
limitation is the desorbing temperature of activated carbon can not exceed I50 “C, because the methanol
would decompose and the adsorption power of activated carbon decreases sharply beyond the above
mentioned temperature. Because of its performances and its simplicity (no concentration. no valve and no
rectifying column), this experimental prototype with AC-Metbanol pair is one of the most efficient solar
ice-makers. For a collector area of 0.92 m2, it is possibleto produce 4-5 kg of ice on a clear sunny day.

REFERENCES

Gregg, J. and K. S. W. Sing (1969). In: A&option, sur$we areu undporosify (U.S., ed.), Chap.4,
pp. 195-23 I. Academic Press Inc., New York.
Pons. M. and J. J. Guilleminot (1986). Design of an experimental solar-powered solid-adsorption ice maker
Jd of so&r energy engimm. t68, 332-337.
S&da, A. and M. Suzuki (1986). SimuItan~ tMuportstion ofbeatandadsorbsteinclosedtype
adsorption cooling system utilig solar heat. Journal ofsob energy e?@xeriag, 1@8.239-245.

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