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SOLAR ADSORPTION REFRIGERATION USING METHANOL/ACTIVATED

CHARCOAL

Conference Paper · March 2012

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 SOLAR ADSORPTION REFRIGERATION USING
METHANOL/ACTIVATED CHARCOAL
C. Rius-Alonso1, L. Olivares de Lachica2, E. Cardenas-Anaya2, M. Marin-
Becerril2, J. Poblado-Barrales2, X. Rebollo-Arana2, Y. Gonzalez-Quezada1
1
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (MEXICO)
2
Instituto Godwin-México (MEXICO)
riusal@hotmail.com

Abstract
The solar energy is a renewable resource, clean and environmentally friendly. Instead of using
electricity, oil or gas to drive the adsorption of refrigeration machines, solar thermal energy (solid
adsorption, activated charcoal/methanol) is an attractive alternative, mainly in places in which the
electric power is not available. A group of four students was given the project of developing a workable
refrigeration machine with the use of solar energy. The activated charcoal was put inside a solar
heating tube consisting of two concentric tubes. The external is vacuum evacuated, and the inner tube
filled with activated charcoal and covered with a layer of black copper oxide to absorb the solar
radiation. The cycle of adsorption refrigeration consists of two steps the daytime process in which the
methanol is separated from the activated charcoal, and the night time process in which the methanol
is absorbed again by the activated charcoal. Using this cyclical process it is possible to obtain a
temperature of 4 °C.
Keywords: Solar refrigeration, adsorption, equilibrium, cooling, developing working projects.

1 INTRODUCTION
The aim of this project is to study the adsorption system; activated-carbon-methanol, for use in a solar
cooling process. This is an alternative solution to the problem of electricity shortage in rural areas and
the need to preserve food and medicine by cooling in those communities. The adsorption-cooling
process can take non-conventional heat sources such as solar energy, avoiding the electricity
consumption. The proposed system consists of a collector, with the adsorbent (activated carbon),
which consists of a double vacuum glass tube of boron-silicate, 7.5 cm in diameter and 1.5 m in
length, in the inside a perforated copper tube is placed, this is connected to a condenser, an
evaporator and a cooling chamber inside the refrigerator. The independent variables analyzed in the
study were; different type of activated carbon and operational times. The dependent variables are a
response of the adsorption; capacity of the coal used, and the temperature reached during the cooling
process [1].

1.1 The problem

Poverty rates in Mexico are associated with a lack of basic services such as; electricity, potable water,
gas and sewage. In rural areas of the country, five million Mexicans from a total population 115 million,
lack access to electricity. The deficiency in the supply of electrical energy is mainly due to the lack of
infrastructure, as a result of high investment costs and the difficulty in access to certain areas due to
the orography of the country. Thus, many remote areas are without electricity, which precludes the
use of refrigerators, necessary for the preservation of food and medicines. The commercial
refrigeration systems based on compression cycles needs electricity. To meet the cooling needs in
areas not energized, clean technology is proposed, based on solar energy and the use of products
that does not harm the environment, such as an adsorption-desorption system (methanol with
activated carbon)[2,3,4].
1.1.1 Project justification

The proposed solar refrigerator is based on the adsorption-desorption process of methanol with
activated carbon. The solar cooling system by adsorption has the following advantages:
-The solid (adsorbent) is not subjected to changes in volume during the sorption process.

Proceedings of INTED2012 Conference. ISBN: 978-84-615-5563-5

5th-7th March 2012, Valencia, Spain. 4571
- It's allowing the effective use of a larger amount of refrigerant per cycle, providing better yields.

-The technology used in the cooling process is relatively simple, and all proposed materials for the
system are readily available and inexpensive.

-Operates without moving parts and low-intensity thermal energy, like solar radiation, which is a
source of, abundant, clean and free energy.

-Mexico is a country with intense incidence of sun in most of its territory, equivalent to 2000 kWh/m2
per annum..

-Methanol is used in the process, given its chemical composition, and because it is in a closed system,
no emissions are produced in contrast to the fossil fuels currently used.

-The activated carbon has the advantage of being an extremely porous material, very high surface
area, allowing greater adsorption capacity. These combinations produce a highly efficient cooling
process [5].
1.1.2 Solar radiation
Mexico is a country with high incidence of solar energy in most of its territory. The northern area is one
of the sunniest in the world. About three-quarters of the country are with an average insolation of 5
2
Kwh/m . Therefore, renewable-energy systems can be applied at remote sites such as Oaxaca,
Veracruz, Chiapas and Guerrero where the use of solar radiation can be used to satisfy the needs of
replacing electrical energy.
Cooling systems are based on evaporation or gasification a liquid at a low pressure. As a solid
absorbs heat to pass to the liquid state, a liquid must also absorb heat to vaporize or move into a
gaseous state. In recent years, the work of refrigeration systems that use solar radiation to produce
the cooling effect has been developed. The solar-energy application is one of the most important and
interesting technologies, the higher ambient temperatures; it's required more refrigeration or cooling
power, in this environment the solar cooling system work better. The larger temperature's more
efficient cycle is obtained [6, 7].
Both compression refrigeration and adsorption systems can be adapted to run on solar energy. Due to
the erratic nature of solar radiation itself, it makes sense to think about intermittent cooling systems,
although systems that operate continuously have been developed, the need of a storage and an
auxiliary power source, so they can continue operating hours, when there is no solar radiation (night
and periods of heavy overcast) make them more expensive [8].

2 ADSOPTION COOLING
The adsorption cooling cycles presented is similar to traditional systems, replacing the compression by
an adsorption-desorption system. This type of cooling has certain advantages over prevailing systems,
compression-refrigeration, because they do not generate noise, has a long functioning life, low
maintenance cost and alternative thermal power for its operation, such as solar radiation [9].
Refrigeration using solid-gas adsorption, represent an interesting alternative, because the reversibility
of the adsorption mechanism, the relative ease and simplicity in technology and its mode of operation,
the only difference with ordinary refrigerators; the compressor is replaced by the generator, a
difference that has important implications that are not present in conventional refrigeration cycles,
such as:

- The fixed adsorbent bed in the generator, necessarily operate in a discontinuous manner, so the full
cycle of the refrigerator will be intermittent.

- The auxiliary power for the operation of the compressor is heat obtained from solar radiation.

Figure 1 presents a theoretical framework for absorption refrigerator, which comprises a throttle valve
(V1), an evaporator, a condenser, two conventional valves (V2 and V 3) and a generator (adsorbent).

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 ADSORBER   ADSORBER  

CONDENSER   CONDENSER  

EVAPORATOR   EVAPORATOR  

DESORTION-­‐CONDENSATION   DESORTION-­‐EVAPORATION  
EVAPORATIONEVAPORATION
NCOND  

Fig 1.
Fig 1.
The ideal thermodynamic cycle represented in the Clapeyron diagram in Fig. 2 shows that the
saturation curve adsorbate coolant, in this case methanol is approximately straight, as are the isosteric
lines of a constant adsorbed amount of methanol in activated carbon.

Fig 2

The stages of the cycle are as follows:

- In the early morning; the generator is at low temperature and pressure, and adsorbate content is high
(point 1-2). The concentration at this point is qmax. As heat is provided, there is an increase in
temperature and pressure, although initially, the adsorbate concentration remains constant (stage 2).
- When the pressure equals the saturation pressure of methanol at the temperature of the condenser
(point 2-3), condensation begins. The condensation phase (step 3) takes place at constant pressure
and while warming on the generator is sufficient. .
- At the end of the day (about 3-4), the generator begins to cool and the pressure in the circuit is
reduced. In principle, the cooling is at constant concentration (stage 4), but when the pressure drops
to the value of the saturation pressure at the evaporator temperature, evaporation begins (stage 1) in
which the heat required for evaporation is obtained from the container that seeks to be cooled and
during which the refrigerant is again adsorbed, and the refrigeration process is obtained. The process
lasts until the concentration is at its maximum at the generator. .

2.1 Refrigeration by Methanol-Activated-Carbon system.

Methanol System operation is based on an intermittent cycle, or single direction, where no heat
recovery. The cycle consists of two phases: one characterized by the adsorption process, when there
is evaporation of working fluid (the adsorbate), and another, regeneration of the porous medium (the
adsorbent) by thermal conversion of solar energy in which the adsorbate is condensed. For cooling
applications, the adsorbent must have high adsorptive capacity at room temperature and low pressure
and temperature adsorption capacity and pressure. Whereas the system must operate with negative
temperatures for the production of ice, the activated carbon-methanol pair is the one with the best
features for this purpose [10].

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The following properties of methanol justify its use in the cooling process:
- Evaporates at temperatures well below 0 ° C
-The enthalpy of vaporization is significant (1 200 kJ/kg, at - 5 ° C) .
- Density: 0.79 g / ml. The size of the molecule is sufficiently small (4.10-4 µ m), which facilitates its
adsorption in micro pores with diameters less than 10-3 microns.
- The normal boiling point (~ 65 ° C) is relatively high, which prevents spontaneous combustion in the
room where the refrigerator is.
- Requires always working pressures below atmospheric, which means a safety factor in case of loss
of tightness of the system.
On the other hand, activated carbon is characterized by its elevated adsorption capacity, which can be
2
superior to 600-1000 m /g

2.2 Methodology and experimentation

Different adsorbents were evaluated; 100 g of zeolite adsorbed 6.3 ml of methanol, 100 of Activated
carbon from coconut adsorbed 25 ml methanol and 100g of activated carbon from avocado also
adsorbed 25 ml of methanol. The Activated carbon used in the system was from coconut.
The evaluation of the adsorption was done using a system shown in the Fig 3

Vacum

Methanol

Actívate carbon

Heater

Fig 3

The next step was to place the collector to the sun Fig 4

Fig 4

Without carbon and the internal and external temperatures were measured results are shown in Fig 5

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 temperature Internal temperature

External temperature

Time min

Fig 5

The following step was to measure the internal temperatures with the activated carbon and the result
is shown en Fig 6

Fig 6
In the Fig 7 the change of pressure against heating time is recorded

Fig 7

The full system is shown in Fig 8

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 Fig 8
I. Cooling load refrigerator designed.
a. Calculation of sensible heat (energy needed for extraction).

q w= Sensible heat of water, KJ

q w = mC w( T2 − T1 ) C w= Sensible heat of water = 4.18 KJ/Kg °C
m = Water mass= 1 Kg
q w = (1Kg)(4.18KJ/Kg°C)(30 − 3)°C T 2 = Cooling temperature = 3° C
b. Calculation of Sensible Heat in the inside of the refrigerator
T 2 = considering
Temperatura dea entrada
volume= 30° C inside
of air
3
the refrigerator of 0.001 m equivalent to 0.00145Kg according to:

m a = Va ρ a = (0.001m 3 )(1.145Kg/ m 3 ) = 0.00145Kg q a= Sensible heat of air, KJ

C a= Sensible heat of air= 1.005 KJ/Kg °C
c. Total cooling load.
qa = (0.00145 Kg)(1.005 KJ/Kg°C)(30 − 3)°C m = Water mass= 0.00145 Kg
T 1 = Cooling temperature = 3° C
q t = q w + qa T 2 = Temperatura de entrada = 30° C

qt = (113 + 0.0394)1.15

d. Amount of heat provided by the evaporation of methanol.

qm = mmet λ met q m= Methanol latent heat, KJ
λw= Methanol latent heat= 1104 KJ/Kg
q w = (0.160 Kg)(1104 KJ/Kg) = 177KJ mm = methanol mass= 0.160 Kg
T = Temperatura de Evaporación (vacío) = -5° C

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II. Cooler efficiency.
The temperature reached during the experiment was 3 ° C with an outside temperature of 22 ° C.
According to this information, we calculated the efficiency as follows:
a. Useful energy.
Useful energy is determined by the sum of the sensible heat absorbed by the adsorbent and
methanol and the latent heat of methanol:
m ac= Activated-carbon mass =566 g
Qic = (macCp ac + mmet Cpmet )(T2 − T1 ) + mmet λmet Cp ac= Specific heat of carbon=0.20 cal/g °C
m met=Methanol mass=253 g
Qic = (566 × 0.2 + 253 × 0.604)(25 − 3) + 253 × 279 Cp met= Specific heat of del methanol=0.604 cal/g °C
T 1 = Cooling temperature = 3° C
Qic = 76 439 cal T 2 = Initial temperature = 25° C
λw= Latent heat methanol = 279 cal/g
b. Incidence of solar energy in the collector. Q ic= Useful energy.

Qit = Gi A c
Q it= Radiant energy , KJ
Q it = (300J/sm )(0.17m )(8h)(3600s/h)
2 2
G i= Global solar radiationRadiación =300 W/m 2
Ac=Solar colector area=.17 m 2
Qit = 1469 KJ
c. EFFICIENCY

Q ic 319 η= Efficiency
η= η= η = 0.217
Q it 1469

3 CONCLUSIONS
The process of adsorption of methanol on activated carbon was performed successfully, both in the
laboratory and with the full system using concentric tubes.
The adsorption capacity of activated carbon methanol, 25 ml per 100 g of adsorbent is much larger
than the zeolite.
The designed solar collector can efficiently transfer heat, reaching the evaporation temperature of
methanol (65 ° C) in 25 minutes of exposure,
With the solar cooling system designed by adsorption reached temperatures down to 3 ° C, sufficient
to the preservation of food and medicine.
It is considered that the system efficiency of 0.21 is satisfactory given the adsorption capacity that
counts the refrigerator.
Increasing the number of header pipes will achieve lower temperatures and higher yields.
For the production of ice will be necessary to increase the number of collecting ducts, in order to
increase also the adsorption capacity of methanol in activated carbon, and hence the cooling levels.
In the experimentation yielded the following results:
Total Cooling Load 130 KJ
Useful Energy 319 KJ
Incident Solar Energy 1 469 KJ
Efficiency 0.21

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 Cooling temperature 3 ° C
Internal temperature of collector 140 °C
External temperature of collector 38 ° C

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