DEVELOPMENT OF A LOW CAPACITY ADSORPTION CHILLER

a)

Johann Geyera), Klaus Paarb)

Renet Kompetenzknoten Gssing Forschungsinstitut fr erneuerbare Energie GmbH,
Europastrae 1 A-7540 Gssing, Austria
b)
Europisches Zentrum fr erneuerbare Energie GmbH,
Europastrae 1 A-7540 Gssing, Austria

ABSTRACT
Rising comfort requirements will bring a further increase in applications of cooling devices for room cooling also in central Europe. Using the currently usual techniques (compression process) will result in a significant rise of the electric
power requirement in summer. The use of solar power or waste heat for cooling purposes can bring an important contribution to the defusing of this problem in future. Currently such systems (Ad- and absorption systems) are only available in
the higher capacity range. Within the framework of a research project an adsorption chiller with a capacity of approx.
10kW will be developed. The unit should be supplied by heat from solar- or district heating systems. For first basic principle investigations a laboratory unit (approx. 1 kW cooling capacity) with silica gel/water as working material pair was built
up. With this unit basic works were made to investigate the behaviours of different sorts of silica gel as well as investigations for possibilities to simplify various components and to identify useful control strategies. Based on these experiences a
prototype model (nominal cooling capacity: 7kW) was constructed. With the prototype model further test series are carried
out. Important targets are to reach a high efficiency through optimization measures at various components and the control
system. On the other hand measures are to verify to simplify the construction with regard to a low-cost manufacturing, as
well as to reach long periods with maintenance-free operation.

INTRODUCTION
Absorption and adsorption systems can help to decrease the
amount of electric power needed for cooling purposes substantially. As a substitute for that thermal energy is necessary.
This thermal energy can also be provided by solar systems.
If the right combination of substances are used (e.g. water/lithiumbromid or water/silica gel) the temperature level of
a solar system is high enough to run such a process. For this
process, normally there are no special forms of solar collectors
necessary.
One big advantage of this kind of employing solar energy is
that on sunny days, when a high amount of solar energy is
available, the cooling demand is also very high.
Today such systems are not often used because they have
also some disadvantages compared to vapour compression
cooling systems. One of these disadvantages is that ad- and
absorption systems (caused by thermodynamic laws) generally
have a lower energetic efficiency compared to electric driven
vapour compression cooling systems.
This means that the cold production with these systems
needs much more energy than vapour compression cooling
systems. In case of the use of solar energy (or also with waste
heat, which would otherwise be convey to the ambient) this
doesnt have to be a disadvantage. In this case the energy is
more or less gratuitous and available without any environmental impact. But the big amounts of energy flow involved in
the process cause that ab- and adsorption systems have considerably bigger dimensions and also a higher weight in relation to the cooling capacity. That causes much more demand
of space and even more important, much higher investment
costs.
The relatively high system costs are also a result of the low
production numbers (at present) of such systems.

These special boundary conditions have as a result that an

economic use of these systems is only possible under very
good conditions concerning the availability of cheap thermal
energy. The use of these systems is also impeded at present
because only systems with higher cooling capacity are available at the market. Right now, several research teams are dealing in an intensive way with the further development of these
techniques also for the low capacity range [1], [2], [3], [4].
Also in Gssing (within the framework of a research project) we are working on the development of an adsorption
chiller with low cooling capacity (approx. 10 kW). The unit
should be able to be supplied by heat from solar- or district
heating systems. The capacity range of this unit is planed to be
useful for residential buildings and small office buildings.

LAB-SCALE TEST SYSTEM

At the beginning of the research work intensive investigations were made about the system configuration and the possible working materials (Table 1).
Because of the ambition to employ these cooling systems in
private homes or in small office buildings it is very important
to think about the subjects of a high security level and maintenance free operation. Out of a large range of products suitable
for that thermodynamic process, the working pair water/silica
gel was chosen as a result of these reflections.
This working pair permits on one hand the use of thermal
energy at a relatively low temperature level as driving energy
and on the other hand there are no security problems or environmental effects to be expected.

Table 1: Working pairs for adsorption systems

Working pairs
Sorbate

Adsorbent

Sulphur dioxide

Silica gel

Water

Silica gel

Ammonia

Silica gel

Methanol

Activated carbon

Ammonia

Activated carbon

Ammonia

Calcium chloride

Water

Zeolite (Metal-Alumo-Silicate)

Basic investigations have been done on a laboratory installation with a cooling capacity of approx. 1kW. As a working
substance pair silica gel/water is used. A scheme of the laboratory installation is shown in Figure 1, the experiment set-up
shows Figure 2.
The test facility is build up with only one adsorbent package (1). A standard finned tube heat exchanger is used for this
package. The adsorbent material (silica gel) is filled in the
spaces between the fins (Figure 4). Therewith a good heat
transfer should be reached to ensure heating and cooling of the
adsorbent package.
This package is placed in a cylindrical vacuum tank. The
connection to the evaporator (2) and condenser (3) is done
with vacuum-tight valves (a) (b).
The evaporator is also a cylindrical shaped vacuum tank. At
the bottom of this tank a spiral bended copper pipe is arranged
(Figure 3). This spiral pipe is completely covered with the
refrigerant (water). The medium to cool (cold water) flows
through this pipe and is cooled by the vaporising refrigerant.

The condenser is also made as a finned tube heat exchanger

in a cylindrical vacuum chamber.
During adsorption process water vapour is adsorbed by the
sorption material. During this operation connection to the
evaporator (a) is opened and the connection to the condenser
(b) is kept closed. At the same time the adsorbent package
must be cooled (5). Adsorption in the sorption material ensures that the pressure in the evaporator is kept on a low pressure level according to the evaporating temperature of water.
The refrigeration capacity can be determined by measuring th
flow of cold water and the related flow- and return pipe temperatures (6).
After reaching the saturation conditions in the adsorbent
package the desorption process is initiated by means of heat
input. This is effected by switching the valves (5). At the same
time the valve (a) is closed and the connection (b) to the condenser is opened. Water in the adsorbent package will be desorbed due to the heat input (and corresponding temperature
rise). The water vapour flows through the pipe to the condenser tank. Here the vapour is condensing on the surface of
the condenser heat exchanger. Then this liquid water is applied
with a u-pipe to the evaporator.
By the use of only one adsorbent package in this arrangement only a intermittent operation is possible. Therefore no
cooling energy is produced during the desorption and condensing process.

(5)

(4)

Figure 2: View of the lab- test system

(1)

(3)
(b)
(a)

(2)
(6)

(7)
GY0601_01

Figure 1: Scheme of the lab- system; (1) adsorbent block, (2)

evaporator, (3) condenser, (4) heat source, (5) cooling fluid,
(6) chilled water circuit, (7) expansion unit, (a) (b) cut-off
valve

Figure 3: Evaporator

The achieved efficiency (COP) in this test facility is not

very high. This is mainly caused by the high thermal masses of
the components in relation to the mass of used adsorbent material. Because of this relation relevant quantities of energy must
be spend to recool and reheat the different components in case
of alteration from adsorption to desorption. These quantities of
heat are additional inputs in the energy balance. Furthermore
most components are not optimised in dimension. Thereby
also higher loss of heat over the surface can be expected.
A typical temperature sequence during operation is shown
in Figure 7. After the beginning of desorption the gradual rise
of the temperature of the adsorption material (t-Ad/Des mittel)
can be seen clearly. During this time the evaporator is inactive
and the chilled water (t Verd VL, t Verd RL) is gradually
reheated because of losses through the heat insulation.
Termal characteristic of ad/desorption cycles
t Verd VL

Figure 4: Adsorbent block

t Verd RL

t Ad-/De VL

t Ad-/Des. mittel

t Ad-/Des. Gas

t Kond VL

80
75
70
65
60
55
Temperature [C]

With this lab- test arrangement principle analysis of the behaviour of different types of silica gel were made. The different types of silica gel available on the market show a highly
different behaviour of adsorption (ability and speed of adsorption). In Figure 5 and Figure 6 the different behaviour (refrigeration capacity and COP) for 3 various types of silica gel is
shown.

50
45
40
35
30
25

Comparison of different silicagel

Type A

20

Type B

Type C

15

1200

10
310

t-Rckkhlung = 27 C

Cooling Capacity [W]

330

340

350

360

370

380

390

400

410

420

430

440

450

Figure 7: Typical ad- / desorption cycles (lab- test system)

800

600

400

200

0
10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

19

20

Cold water return line temperature [C]

Figure 5: Cooling capacity with different silica gel

Comparison of different silicagel
Type A

Type B

Type C

0,50
t-Rckkhlung = 27 C

0,45
0,40
0,35
0,30
COP [1]

320

Time [min]

1000

0,25
0,20
0,15
0,10
0,05
0,00
10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

Cold water return line temperature [C]

Figure 6: COP with different silica gel

With equal boundary conditions e.g. between type A and
type B regarding to the achievable refrigeration capacity and
achievable COP big differences can be shown (equal amount
of adsorption material). A high refrigeration capacity (per kg
adsorbent material) is necessary to be able to realize a system
construction with low weight and minimize the dimensions.

The changeover to the adsorption process occurs through

the corresponding valves. The adsorbent bed is chilled in this
case (here approx. 27C). The now dry adsorbent material can
adsorb steam and a corresponding evaporation of refrigerant
(water) occurs. This can be seen clearly also by the decrease of
the cold water temperature.
From the illustration it can be also seen clearly, that a corresponding time for the heating and desorption and/or the
cooling and adsorption is necessary. The duration of an entire
cycle is approx. 45 minutes. The cooling capacity is largest at
the beginning of the adsorption process since the adsorption
capacity of the dry adsorbent material has the highest level at
the beginning. With on going adsorption the material approaches more and more to his saturation level. Therefore also
the amounts of the adsorbed water per time unit sinks and as
an effect of that also the cooling capacity.
Due to this effect the average cooling capacity gets smaller
at larger cycle time. On the other hand it increases at shorter
cycle times. Shorter cycle times require, however, a greater
number of switching processes. With these switching processes (from adsorption to desorption and vice versa) the adsorbent package must be heated up first in each case or chilled
down until in fact the corresponding process can start. Heat
losses which affect the entire efficiency of the system have a
higher negative influence at shorter cycle times.
This influence of the cycle time on the average cooling capacity of the refrigerating unit can be used for the capacity
control. This kind of the capacity control has a favourable
characteristic because the efficiency rises in case of part load
condition operation.

PROTOTYPE TEST SYSTEM

Based on the results of the first experimental setup, a second one with a refrigeration capacity of 7 kW was planned and
constructed. The scheme of that system is shown in Figure 8.
(6)

(5)

(8)
(3)

(b)

(a)

(2)
(4)
(c) (1)

(d)

Figure 9: View of the prototype system

(7)

(3)
GY0601_02

Figure 8: Scheme of the prototype chiller; (1) evaporator, (2)

condenser, (3) adsorbent bed, (4) expansion unit, (5) heat
source, (6) cooling fluid, (7) chilled water circuit, (8) heat
recovery circuit, (a) (b) (c) (d) non return valve
Opposite to the first lab- model, this system is equipped
with two adsorbent beds. Both units work alternatively as
adsorber and desorber. Therefore the evaporator is able to
work constantly and the production of chilled water is more
continuous.
Automatic non return valves (flap traps) connect the adsorber units with the evaporator and condenser. In case of
working in adsorption mode, the pressure decreases because of
the water intake of the adsorbent. Because of that the flap trap
between the evaporator and the adsorber unit opens and the
refrigerant can be adsorbed. Caused by the higher pressure in
the condenser, in that case the flap trap between condenser and
adsorption unit is closed. In desorption mode the pressure in
the adsorption unit increases. Therefore the flap trap between
evaporator and adsorption unit closes and the one between
adsorption unit and condenser opens. The refrigerant steam
flows to the condenser unit and condenses on the cold surface
of the condenser heat exchanger.
The available pressure differences which cause the flap
traps to open and close are very low which has to be considered at the construction of the flap trap.
By the use of automatic flap traps no additional control
measures or actors inside the refrigerating unit are required.
The construction is only controlled by reversing valves in the
hydraulic system (heating source, recooling).

Compared to the first experimental lab- model all tank in

this construction are rectangular. Thereby it is possible to
minimize the clearance volume between the heat exchangers
and tank sides. The heat exchangers are also used to reinforce
the tank walls because the whole construction works at vacuum conditions. Therefore the tank wall thickness can be reduced which leads to a lower thermal mass compared to an
inherent stable construction.

Figure 10: Measurement and control system panel

The prototype is equipped with an extensive data acquisition system to record all relevant pressures, temperatures and
flow rates. Furthermore the whole adsorption chiller is controlled by this computer system. The program simulates all

necessary controllers and works as control system for the

whole system. The advantage of this strategy is that a simple
modification of the different control parameters can be done
without making modifications on the hardware.
temperatures of evaporator, ad/desorbers and condenser
t ad/de1 flow

t ad/de2 flow

t cond flow

t evap flow

90

80

temperature [C]

70

60

50

40

30

20

10
1,4

1,6

1,8

2,0

2,2

2,4

2,6

2,8

3,0

3,2

3,4

3,6

3,8

worked as an adsorber must be heated up before the real desorption process can start. The quantity of these losses depends essentially on the amount of thermal masses of the respective components.
Not only the sorbent material itself but also the heat exchanger pipes and fins inside the sorbent bed as well as the
casing have to be heated or cooled. Therefore the aim of an
optimisation must be to work with as little amount of sorbent
material as possible as well as to reduce the thermal masses of
all components (e.g. less wall thickness).
To decrease this losses an internal heat exchange can be realised. At the beginning of a new cycle a direct connection
between the heating and cooling circuit of both sorbent beds is
established Figure 8 (8)). The thermal energy of the hot unit
can thereby be used for a preheating of the other cold unit.
Both units are connected to the heating and cooling circuit
respectively not until both units reach the same temperature
level.

4,0

time [h]

Internal heat exchange

Figure 11: Typical temperature variation of ad- / desorption

cycles (prototype system)

power ad/de1

power evap

power cond

45.000

40.000

power ad/de1
av power ad/de1

power evap
av power evap

power cond
av power cond

11.000
10.000
9.000
8.000

power [W]

7.000
6.000
5.000
4.000
3.000
2.000
1.000
0
1,4

1,6

1,8

2,0

2,2

2,4

2,6

2,8

3,0

3,2

30.000

25.000

20.000

15.000

10.000

5.000

0
2,65

2,70

2,75

2,80

2,85

2,90

2,95

3,00

3,05

3,10

3,15

3,20

3,25

3,30

3,35

3,40

time [h]

Figure 13: internal heat exchange

Power of evaporator, ad/desorbers and condenser

power ad/de2
av power ad/de2

35.000

power [W]

Figure 11 shows a typical temperature variation of the prototype system with app. 80C heat source temperature, app.
29C recooling temperature and app. 16C chilled water temperature. The time period of one cycle is app. 42 minutes. The
maximal cooling capacity can be achieved at the beginning of
each cycle. At that time the chilled water temperature decreases to the lowest level. The recooling temperatures (temperature level of condenser and adsorber) are higher at the
beginning of each cycle. This is because of the high adsorption
rate of the adsorber (dry at the beginning of each cycle).

3,4

3,6

3,8

4,0

time [h]

Figure 12: actual and average power

Figure 12 shows the actual and average capacity of the different parts of the system (same conditions as figure 11). The
horizontal lines represent the average capacity of one cycle. At
the beginning of each cycle the capacity of each part (evaporator, condenser, ad/desorbers) is high and decreases continuously with time. Therefore the cycle time is a possibility to
regulate the cooling capacity of the system.
As already described at the chapter lab-scale test system
each change between adsorption and desorption process leads
to heat losses. The unit which was desorbed has directly after
the change a high temperature. To work as an adsorber it must
be cooled down first. In contrast the other unit which has

Figure 13 shows the capacities of evaporator, condenser

and ad/desorber (in desorption mode) during one cycle. The
first peak of desorption power represents the internal heat
exchange. The power of the internal heat exchange decreases
rapidly to zero if the temperature level of both ad/desorbers
are equal. Then the internal exchange procedure is stopped (in
this case after 4 minutes). The enclosed area represents the
energy which can be saved by the use of an internal heat exchange. Therefore the experiments show that a clear reduction
of the losses at cycle change can be achieved by the use of an
internal heat exchange.
For the test operation during the winter time heat from a
district heating network is used to run the prototype. In summer a 50 m solar panel system provide the energy for the
adsorption chiller. The solar system is also controlled by the
control program mentioned above.

Figure 14: Solar panels

The experimental setup will be used for further extensive

investigations. One aim is the development and optimisation
of an efficient control system. As displayed above an alteration of cycle time affects the cooling capacity as well as the
efficiency of the system. Therefore another goal is to discover
the optimum value for each working condition. Another important thing is the optimisation of the internal heat exchange
when the adsorber units change from adsorption to desorption
process.
The results of the experiments shall also lead to further optimisation of the construction. The next step will contain a
simplification of the design (smaller dimensions, optimized
structure) as well as a reduction of separable connections (to
reduce the risk of leakage).

CONCLUSIONS
A low capacity adsorption chiller was constructed and built
up. First fundamental investigations were done at a small
laboratory system. With this system different adsorbent materials could be examined with regard to their suitability. The
different silica gel sorts available at the market show partial a
very different behaviour with regard to the adsorption ability
and the adsorption rate per time.
With reference to the experiences from the operation of this
plant a prototype model of an adsorption chiller (with nominal
cooling capacity 7kW) with the silica gel / water as working
pair was developed and taken in operation. The system is
designed to be driven with heat from thermal solar systems or
district heating systems. The control sequence of the refrigerating process occurs exclusively through suitable control of
the hydraulic system of the heating water and/or cooling water. The switchover within the chiller occurs automatically
through check valves. For reaching a maximally high efficiency a system for the internal heat recovery was installed.
With that the heat losses during the changeover from adsorption- to desorption operation can be reduced clearly.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The work for this project is supported by the Federal Ministry for traffic, innovation and technology of Austria within the
framework of the program line Haus der Zukunft (House of
the future).

NOMENCLATURE
Symbol

Quantity

Unit

COP

Coefficient of Performance

REFERENCES
[1]

Liu Y.L. et al.: Experimental study on a continuous

adsorption water chiller with novel design; Int. Journal
of Refrigeration, 28 (2005) 218-230

[2]

Nunez T. et al.: Sorptionsreaktor zur solaren Heizung

und Khlung; Erneuerbare Energie EE, 2005/02

[3]

Khn A. et al.: Dynamisches Verhalten einer 10 kW

Absorptionsklteanlage; DKV-Tagungsbericht 2005
Wrzburg, Band II.1

[4]

Restuccia G. et al.: Selective water sorbent for solid

sorption chiller: experimental results and modelling;
Int. Journal of Refrigeration, 27 (2004) 284-293