International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 63 (2013) 171–182

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

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Towards an optimal performance of adsorption chillers: Reallocation

of adsorption/desorption cycle times
I.I. El-Sharkawy a, H. AbdelMeguid a, B.B. Saha b,c,⇑
a
Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura University, El-Mansoura 35516, Egypt
b
Advanced Graduate Program in Global Strategy for Green Asia, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Sciences, Kyushu University, Kasuga-koen 6-1, Kasuga-shi,
Fukuoka 816-8580, Japan
c
International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research (WPI-I2CNER), Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper presents a theoretical investigation of the effect of adsorption/desorption times allocation on
Received 13 December 2012 the performance of adsorption chillers. The ratio between the duration of adsorption and desorption
Received in revised form 29 March 2013 modes is varied to optimize the system performance. Herein, (f) stands for the ratio between duration
Accepted 29 March 2013
of desorption and adsorption modes of the adsorption cooling cycle. Employing a two-bed silica gel/water
based adsorption chiller, theoretical results show that the system performance in terms of cooling capac-
ity and COP is improved by reducing the ratio (f). However, percentage of improvement depends on the
Keywords:
system design and its operating conditions. It is also found that, for each cycle time, there is an optimal
Adsorption
Cooling
value of (f) that maximizes the system performance.
COP Theoretical results show that for a half cycle time of 350 s, switching time of 35 s and f of 0.8, the sys-
Optimization tem delivers continues cooling using only two sorption reactors and minimizes fluctuations in chilled
Silica gel water outlet temperature.
Water Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction they use natural or alternative refrigerants such as water, metha-

The world energy demand increases due to the growth of pop-
ulation and enhanced economic activities. However, non-renew-
able energy resources such as fossil fuels are limited and
eventually, one day, it will run out. Renewable energy including,
solar, wind and biomass can provide a practical solution for the
shortage of conventional energy resources. For instance, solar en-
ergy has many attractive features and can be used in many appli-
cations such as solar heating, cooling and power generation. Solar
cooling systems are proven renewable energy technologies and
attractive alternative to produce useful cooling from solar energy.
Thermally driven adsorption cooling systems are considered to
be sustainable cooling systems as these systems can be powered
by solar energy or waste heat sources. The main features of these
systems are; (i) they are powered by clean and renewable energy
(solar) or waste heat. Utilization of waste heat to produce useful
cooling instead of releasing it to the ambient could contribute in
the reduction of global worming and thermal pollution [1–3], (ii)
⇑ Corresponding author at: Advanced Graduate Program in Global Strategy for
Green Asia, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Sciences, Kyushu
University, Kasuga-koen 6-1, Kasuga-shi, Fukuoka 816-8580, Japan. Tel.: +81 92 583
7903; fax: +81 92 583 8909.
E-mail address: saha.baran.bidyut.213@m.kyushu-u.ac.jp (B.B. Saha).
nol and ethanol which have no harmful effects on the environment,
and (iii) they also have no moving parts and require significantly
small electricity usage.
From the above mentioned perspectives, extensive research ef-
forts have been conducted to improve the system performance in
terms of COP and cooling capacity. Using of proper adsorbent/
refrigerant pair is essential for improving the system performance
[4–11]. Operating conditions have a significant effect on the per-
formance of adsorption chillers. Effect of the inlet conditions
(temperature and flow rates) of heating/cooling fluid on the sys-
tem performance are discussed by a sizable number of research-
ers [12–18]. Adsorption/desorption and switching times are also
crucial parameters affecting the system performance. Duration
of adsorption and desorption modes is usually considered to be
equal. A recent attention to the effect of desorption/adsorption
time ratio on the system performance have been considered by
several researchers where the desorption process is carried out
faster than the adsorption process [19,20]. Glaznev, and Aristov
[20] experimentally studied the temporal evolution of isobaric
adsorption uptake for a monolayer of loose adsorbent grains lo-
cated on a metal plate. The study conducted on Fuji silica/water
pair. The results showed that, the desorption process carried
out faster than adsorption process by a factor of 2.2–3.5, hence,
for the best performance of the adsorption cooling cycle the

0017-9310/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2013.03.076
172 I.I. El-Sharkawy et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 63 (2013) 171–182
Nomenclature
A0 coefficient in Eq. (2) (kg kg1)
A1 coefficient in Eq. (2) (kg kg1 K1)
A2 coefficient in Eq. (2) (kg kg1 K2)
A3 coefficient in Eq. (2) (kg kg1 K3)
B0 coefficient in Eq. (3) ()
B1 coefficient in Eq. (3) (K1)
B2 coefficient in Eq. (3) (K2)
B3 coefficient in Eq. (3) (K3)
COP coefficient of performance ()
Cp specific heat capacity (kJ kg1 K1)
Ds surface diffusivity (m2 s1)
Dso pre-exponential constant (m2 s1)
Ea activation energy (J mol1)
f the ratio of desorption time to adsorption time ()
F0 geometric parameter used in LDF model ()
M mass (kg)
m_ mass flow rate (kg s1)
P equilibrium pressure (kPa)
Ps saturation pressure (kPa)
Q st isosteric heat of adsorption (kJ kg1)
Ru universal gas constant (kJ kmol1 K1)
optimal adsorption/desorption times allocation should be opti-
mized. Aristov et al. [21] studied the temporal evolution of qua-
si-isobaric adsorption/desorption curves for simple bed
configuration of n layers of loose Fuji silica RD grains, typically
n = 1,2,3,4 and 8, located on a heat transfer metal support. They
used fast temperature drop or jump techniques within a temper-
ature range suitable for adsorption cooling applications. They
found that under certain conditions the kinetics of isobaric
adsorption/desorption is invariant with respect to the ratio be-
tween heat transfer surface and adsorbent mass. A new cycle
time allocation for enhancing the performance of two-bed
adsorption chillers was proposed [22]. The authors assumed that
the duration of adsorption phase (presents half-cycle time) equals
sum of desorption, pre-cooling and pre-heating times (present the
second half-cycle time). The proposed allocation showed an
improvement on the system performance in terms of cooling
capacity and COP. The intermittent cooling cycle with variable
adsorption/desorption duration at fixed total cycle time was
investigated [19]. The actual performance of LiNO3/silica KSK
(SWS-9L) was tested in a single bed adsorption chiller with spe-
cial emphasis on the optimization of the relative duration of
adsorption and desorption phases to maximize the COP and the
cooling capacity of the cycle. The authors concluded that the sys-
tem performance could be improved by shortening desorption
time compared to that of adsorption phase. Influence of cycle
time and the relative duration of adsorption/desorption phases
using a single bed. AQSOA-FAM-Z02/water based adsorption chil-
ler was also experimentally investigated [23]. The composite sor-
bent of LiNO3/vermiculite, SWS-9V was proposed to operate at
low regeneration temperature (<70 °C) and was also tested by a
lab-scale adsorption chiller [24]. The optimization results illus-
trated that the optimal cycle performance, for given operating
conditions, are strongly dependent on the cycle time and the rel-
ative duration (R) of the isobaric adsorption and desorption times.
For high driving temperature (90 °C), the system achieved the
optimal performance at cycle time = 1200 s when the adsorption
duration is 7 times longer than the desorption one, which corre-
sponding to f = 0.14. While, at low driving temperature (68 °C),
the optimal performance were obtained at cycle time = 1800 s,
Rp radius of adsorbent particle (m)
T temperature (K)
t time (s)
W adsorption equilibrium uptake (kg kg1)
W instantaneous adsorption uptake (kg kg1)
UA overall heat transfer coefficient-area product (W K1)
Subscriptsads
adsorbent/adsorption
bed adsorber/desorber reactor
c condenser cooling water
chill chilled water
cond condenser
cw cooling water
des desorption
evap evaporator
hw hot water
in inlet condition
metal metal
out outlet condition
ref refrigerant
protracting the duration of the desorption time at the expenses
of the adsorption one (f = 1.33).
The present study aims to investigate of the optimum adsorp-
tion/desorption time allocation for enhancing the performance of
adsorption chillers. Duration of adsorption and desorption modes
are varied to optimize the system performance. Two-bed silica
gel/water based adsorption chiller is used in this study.
2. System description
Fig. 1(a) shows a schematic diagram of two-bed adsorption
chillers. As can be seen from Fig. 1(a), the system comprises four
heat exchangers namely a condenser, an evaporator and two sorp-
tion (adsorber/desorber) reactors. In the presented adsorption sys-
tem, two refrigerant valves were placed between the evaporator
and the adsorber/desorber reactor and another pair of refrigerant
valves installed between the condenser and the sorption reactors
to control the refrigerant flow throughout the system. The evapo-
rator and condenser are connected together through a bended tube
to keep a pressure difference between both of them. The system
operation consists of four modes namely, A, B, C and D, respectively
[16]. In Mode A, valves V2 and V3 are opened whilst V1 and V4 are
closed (see Fig. 1a). Refrigerant evaporates at evaporator pressure
extracting the cooling load from chilled water and flows to Bed1
through V2. Refrigerant vapor is then adsorbed at Bed1 at which
cooling water removes generated heat of adsorption. On the other
hand, Bed2 is heated up using hot water at which desorbed refrig-
erant is released and flows to the condenser through V3. Refriger-
ant vapor is then condensed and moves to the evaporator through
a bended tube. Heat of condensation is removed using cooling
water. In this mode, Bed1 and Bed2 are, respectively, in adsorption
and desorption processes. The system is then switched to Mode B
where all valves are closed. Bed1 is in pre-heating mode and
heated up by hot water whilst Bed2 is in pre-cooling mode and
cooled down using cooling water. Modes C and D are exactly the
opposite of modes A and B. Fig. 1(b) shows the thermodynamic
processes of adsorption cooling cycle. The cycle composes four pro-
cesses namely, adsorption, pre-hating, desorption and pre-cooling
 I.I. El-Sharkawy et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 63 (2013) 171–182 173

(a) Cooling Cooling

.
water out (mcP )c (Tc,out − Tc ,in ) water in

Condenser

V3 dw
V1
ads ( Qst ) dw
( Qst )
dt ads
Bed2 dt
Bed1
Hot Cooling

Liquid refrigerant
water out water out
( mcP ) cw (Tcw ,out − Tcw ,in )
. .
(mcP ) hw (Thw,in − Thw,out )

Hot Cooling
water in water in

V4 V2

Evaporator
( mcP ) chill (Tchill ,in − Tchill ,out )
.

Chilled Chilled
water out water in

0.3 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.07 0.04

(b)
Condenser
Condenser Desorption
pressure 0.02
Pressure

0.01

Adsorption
Evaporator
pressure
Evaporator

5 15 25 35 45 55 65 75 85 95
Temperature [oC]
Fig. 1. (a) Schematic diagram of two-bed adsorption chiller. (b). Thermodynamic processes of basic adsorption cooling cycle using silica gel-water pair.

processes. A detailed description of adsorption cooling cycle can be 3. Mathematical modeling

found elsewhere [6,8,16].
In the present study, theoretical calculations have been con- 3.1. Adsorption isotherms and kinetics
ducted based on a two-bed adsorption cooling system proposed
by Saha et al. [15]. The system performance has been investi- Adsorption isotherms of the RD type silica-gel/water pair is esti-
gated experimentally by Boelman et al. [25] and theoretically mated by using the modified Freundlich equation [15] (S-B-K equa-
by Chua et al. [26]. Physical design parameters of evaporator, tion) as given by Eq. (1) below;
condenser and sorption heat exchangers are furnished in  BðT s Þ
Table 2. Ps ðT w Þ
W ¼ AðT s Þ ð1Þ
Ps ðT s Þ
174 I.I. El-Sharkawy et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 63 (2013) 171–182

where; second term stands for the heat rejected to the ambient by cooling
water (see Fig. 1a).
AðT s Þ ¼ Ao þ A1 T s þ A2 T 2s þ A3 T 3s ð2Þ The log mean temperature difference (LMTD) method is used to
estimate the outlet temperature of cooling fluids as given by Eq. (7)
BðT s Þ ¼ Bo þ B1 T s þ B2 T 2s þ B3 T 3s ð3Þ below;
 
In the above mentioned equations, A(Ts) and B(Ts) are functions of ðUAÞbed
T cw;out ¼ T bed þ ðT cw;in  T bed Þ exp ð7Þ
the adsorbent temperatures where Ao  A3 and Bo  B3 are constants _ p Þcw
ðmc
given in Table 1.
Energy balance of desorber reactor (during desorption process) can
The linear driving force model (Eq. (4)) is used to estimate the
be described by Eq. (8) where the flag / = 0 and / = 1 during switch-
adsorption rate of silica gel/water pair.
ing and desorption processes, respectively.
dw 15Ds dT
¼ 2 ðW  wÞ ð4Þ ðMcP;M þ Mref cp;ref þ Mmetal cp;metal Þ
dt Rp dt
 
  dw
¼ /M ads _ P Þhw ðT hw;out  T hw;in Þ
ðQ st Þ  ðmc ð8Þ
Ea dt
Ds ¼ Dso exp  ð5Þ
Ru T
Similar to Eq. (6), the left hand side of Eq. (8) shows the change in
where Ds is the surface diffusivity, Dso stands for the a pre-exponen- internal energy of the desorber reactor. The first term of the right
tial constant. Ea is the activation energy and Ru is for the universal hand side presents heat extracted due to desorption phenomenon
gas constant (see Table 1). whilst the second term is the heat added to sorption bed from hot
water.
3.2. Energy balance of adsorber/desorber reactors The exit temperature of the outlet hot water can be estimated
using the equation given below;
Lumped parameter model is used to describe the energy bal-
 
ðUAÞbed
ance of the adsorber/desorber reactors where both adsorbent and T hw out ¼ T bed þ ðT hw;in  T bed Þ exp ð9Þ
_ p Þhw
ðmc
the heat exchanger metals are assumed to have the same temper-
ature. Eq. (6) below describes the energy balance of the adsorber
exchanger during adsorption process, 3.3. Condenser and evaporator energy balance

dT The energy balance equations for the condenser and evaporator

ðMcP;M þ M ref cp;ref þ M metal cp;metal Þ
dt can be expressed by Eqs. (10) and (11), respectively. Numerical val-
 
dw ues of the flag / are similar to that given in Eqs. (6) and (8).
¼ /M ads _ P Þcw ðT cw;out  T cw;in Þ
ðQ st Þ  ðmc ð6Þ
dt  
dT cond dwdes
ðMcP Þcond ¼ / hfg Mads _ P Þc ðT c;out  T c;in Þ
 ðmc ð10Þ
where the flag / = 0 during switching and / = 1 during adsorption dt dt
cycle operation. In Eq. (6), the left hand side presents the change  
of the internal energy of adsorption reactor including heat exchan- dT ev ap dwads
ðMcp Þev ap ¼ /hfg M ads _ P Þchill ðT chill;out
 ðmc
ger metal, adsorbent and refrigerant. The first term of the right hand dt dt
side presents the heat realised due to adsorption process whilst the  T chill;in Þ ð11Þ
Table 1 Employing the LMTD approach, the outlet temperature of the con-
Numerical values of parameters used in Eqs. (1)–(5) [15]. denser and evaporator heat exchangers are given by Eqs. (12) and
Parameter Value (13), respectively.
 
A0 (kg kg1) 6.5314 ðUAÞcond
A1 (kg kg1 K1) 0.072452
T c;out ¼ T cond þ ðT c;in  T cond Þ exp ð12Þ
_ p Þc
ðmc
A2 (kg kg1 K2) 0.23951  103
A3 (kg kg1 K3) 0.25493  106  
B0 () 15.587
ðUAÞev ap
T chill;out ¼ T ev ap þ ðT chill;in  T ev ap Þ exp ð13Þ
B1 (K1) 0.15915 _ p Þchill
ðmc
B2 (K2) 0.50612  103
B3 (K3) 0.5329  106
Dso (m2 s1) 2.54  104 3.4. Mass balance
Ea (J mol1) 4.2  104
Rp (m) 1.74  104
The mass balance equation for of the adsorption cooling system
can be expressed by;
 
dMref dwads dwdes
Table 2
¼ M ads þ ð14Þ
dt dt dt
Values adopted in the cycle simulation [15].

Symbols Value
3.5. System performance
M ads (kg) 47
_ p Þhw=cw (kW)
ðmc Heating: 5.36 Cooling: 6.36
Performance of thermally driven adsorption chillers in terms of
ðMcp Þcond ðkJÞ 24.280  0.386 + 20  4.186
ðMcp Þev ap ðkJÞ 12.450  0.386 + 50  4.186
cooling capacity and COP is calculated using the following
4241.38 relations;
ðUAÞbed ðW  K 1 Þ
ðUAÞcond ðW  K 1 Þ 15349.80 R tcycle
_ P Þchill ðT chill;in  T chill;out Þdt
ðmc
ðUAÞev ap ðW  K 1 Þ 4884.90 Q cycle
chill ¼
0
ð15Þ
t cycle
 I.I. El-Sharkawy et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 63 (2013) 171–182 175

R tcycle
ðmc_ P Þchill ðT chill;in  T chill;out Þdt
COP ¼ R0 tcycle
0
_ P Þhw ðT hw;in  T hw;out Þdt
ðmc
Here tcycle denotes the total cycle time.
4. The proposed cycle time allocation
As adsorption cooling cycle is composed of four batch operated
processes; adsorption, pre-heating, desorption and pre-cooling, the
cycle time can be estimated using the following relation;
t cycle ¼ t preheating þ tdesorption þ tprecooling þ t adsorption
In conventional adsorption cooling cycle, adsorption and desorption
processes are equal in time duration. However, it is proven that
kinetics of desorption is faster than that of adsorption [19,20].
Accordingly, desorption time is proposed to be shorter than that
of adsorption and the ratio between them is defined as (f). There-
fore, Eq. (17) can be written as;
t cycle ¼ 2t preheating=precooling þ ð1 þ f Þ  t adsorption
The present simulation aims to investigate the optimal values for
both (f) and switching time that maximize the system performance.
5. Simulation and optimization procedure
The developed mathematical model which is described in Sec-
tion 3, is coded and solved by the MATLAB function ode15s. For
optimization procedure, Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algo-
ð16Þ rithm-version II (NSGA-II) was employed. NSGA-II is a multi-objec-
tive genetic algorithm developed by Deb et al. [27] and Deb and
Sundar [28]. The NSGA is an evolutionary algorithm from the field
of Evolutionary Computation. There are two versions of the algo-
rithm, the classical NSGA and the updated and currently canonical
form NSGA-II. Deb provides in depth coverage of Evolutionary Mul-
tiple Objective Optimization algorithms in [29], including a de-
tailed description of the algorithm. NSGA-II is used to estimate
the optimal adsorption/desorption and switching times for two-
bed silica gel/water based adsorption chillers that maximize both
ð17Þ cooling capacity and COP.
It is found that the system COP increases with the increase of
adsorption/desorption time and the effect of switching time is
marginal. For this reason, a single objective optimization procedure
was carried out to maximize the cooling capacity only with the
same decision variables.
To investigate the effect of the desorption/adsorption time ratio
(f), at different half cycle times and different switching times on
ð18Þ the system performance (cooling capacity and COP), the simulation
process is carried out in imbricate three for-loops, the first one is
for different half cycle times, the second covers a wide range of
switching times (tpre_heating = tpre-cooling starting from 20 s to 100 s
with increment of 5 s) and the last loop is for the (f).
For both specified cycle time and switching time the simulation
is conducted for f varied from 0.1 to 1.0 with an increment of 0.05.
For each value of f, the adsorption time and desorption time is esti-
mated according to Eqs. (17) and (18). The resulting combination

Fig. 2. The combination of adsorption time and desorption time at different f values for cycle time = 700 s and switching time = 35 s.

Table 3
Rated operating conditions.

Hot water inlet Cooling water inlet Chilled water inlet

Temperature (°C) Flow rate (kg s1) Temperature (°C) Flow rate (ads + cond) (kg s1) Temperature (°C) Flow rate (kg s1)
85.7 1.28 31.1 (1.52 + 1.37) 14.8 0.7
176 I.I. El-Sharkawy et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 63 (2013) 171–182

(a) 0.56
0.54

0.52

0.5

COP
0.48

0.46

0.44

0.42

0.4 50
1000 40
800
600 30
400 20
Adsorption/ 200 10 switching time [s]
Desorption time [s]

(b)

14.5

14
Cooling capacity [kW]

13.5

13

12.5

12

11.5 10

11 20
300 30
400
500
600 40
700
800
900 50
1000
Adsorption/ switching time [s]
Desorption time [s]

(c) 14.64

14.63
Cooling capacity [kW]

14.62

14.61

14.6

14.59

14.58
400 45
40
350 35
300 30
25
250 20
Adsorption/
Desorption time [s] switching time [s]

Fig. 3. (a) COP versus adsorption/desorption and switching times for optimal system performance at assorted operating conditions for conventional adsorption chiller. (b).
Cooling capacity versus adsorption/desorption and switching times for optimal cooling capacity at assorted operating conditions for conventional adsorption chiller. (c).
Adsorption/desorption and switching times for optimal cooling capacity at assorted operating conditions for conventional adsorption chiller.
 I.I. El-Sharkawy et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 63 (2013) 171–182 177

of adsorption and desorption times at different f values for both
specified cycle time (700 s) and switching time (35 s) is shown in
Fig. 2 as a representative example. For each cycle time, the simula-
tion process was run 323 times for different combination of
switching times and f values.
6. Results and discussion
Optimization technique is used to estimate the optimal values
of adsorption/desorption and switching times that maximize both
cooling capacity and COP for conventional adsorption chiller. Chil-
ler specifications adapted on the simulation are presented on Ta-
ble 2 while the operating conditions are given in Table 3. Effect
of adsorption/desorption and switching times on COP is presented
in Fig. 3(a), it is obvious that the system COP increases with the in-
crease of adsorption/desorption time whilst the effect of switching
time is marginal. Fig. 3(b) shows a plot of the optimal values of
adsorption/desorption and switching times versus the cooling
capacity. As can be seen from Fig. 3(b), the cooling capacity reaches
its maxima at adsorption/desorption and switching times of 315
and 35 s, respectively. It is worthy to mention here that, the short
cycle times are not appear on Fig. 3(b) because the optimal COP
could not be achieved at this region. Meaning that, both COP and
cooling capacity cannot be maximized together at short cycle
times. As the cycle COP increases with the increase of cycle time,
optimization procedure has been carried out to optimize the cool-
ing capacity only. The results are presented in Fig. 3(c). It is clear
from this figure that, the maximum value of cooling capacity is

(a) 100
9

90
14
14
12 .5

5
80 .1
11
10

12

13

13 .

14 14 .1 14
14
.2
14
Switching time [s]

.3
70

14 4 .3 2
14

.
.4
12

14
1 .5
12.5

14 . .4
60
14
5 .6
13

13.5

50 6
14 .

14
14 .7

.7
14 .75
40

30

20
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
f = t Des/t Ads

(b) 100 0.
0. 4
0. 40
25
0.39

90 40
4

5
0.

0.
40
75
5
0.34

80
02
0.392 5

0.4
0. 38
0.36
0.37

0.
40

75
Switching time [s]

41
0.

70 . 40
0
0.3975 0.395

0.

1
0.4
41
25

60 25
. 41
0
0.4

50
15
5
0.41

40
0.417 5

30

20
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
f = t Des/t Ads

Fig. 4. (a) A contour plot of cooling capacity of the assorted adsorption chiller versus (f) and switching time. Half cycle time = 350 s. (b). A contour plot of COP of the assorted
adsorption chiller versus (f) and switching time. Half cycle time = 350 s.
178 I.I. El-Sharkawy et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 63 (2013) 171–182

about 14.63 where the half cycle time ranges between 300 and
350 s which corresponding to a COP of about 0.42.
A contour plot of cooling capacity of the assorted adsorption
chiller relating (f) and switching time is presented in Fig. 4(a).
The half cycle time is 350 s whilst (f) is varied between 0.1 and
1. It is clear from Fig. 4(a) that, the maximum adsorption capacity
is achieved at (f) of about 0.85 and switching time of about 35 s.
Fig. 4(b) shows the contour plot relating COP, (f) and switching
time. It can be seen that, the COP also reaches its maxima at
f = 0.85. Fig. 5(a) and (b) shows respectively plots of cooling capac-
ity and COP versus (f) and switching time for a half cycle time of
450 s. One can notice that, the maximum cooling capacity is
achieved within region bounded by 0.85 < f < 0.9 and switching
time ranges from 30 to 35 s. It is obvious from Fig. 5(b) that the
COP reaches its maximum value at (f) of about 0.45 whilst the in-
crease in COP after that is marginal.
The cooling capacity and COP are investigated in the same man-
ner for relatively long half cycle time, typically 600 s, and theoret-
ical results are presented in Fig. 6(a) and (b). It is obvious that, the
maximum value of cooling capacity is achieved within the range
0.85 < f < 0.95, and switching time varied between 30 s and 50 s
without significant effect of the change in switching time. It can
be also noticed that, the COP reaches its maxima at f = 0.4, however
there is a marginal change at higher values of (f).
Fig. 7 shows plot of cooling capacity and COP versus half cycle
time for adsorption cooling system working at conventional and

(a) 100

13 .8 3 .9
13 1 14 4 .1
.7
90
11 .5
10.5

12 .5

1 3 .6 .5
12

13

1 13
80

1
13 . 3 .7

14 14 14 4 .5
8

.2 .3
Switching time [s]

14 .9
70
13

.4
14 .2 1

60

1
14 .

14 .3

50

14
.6
14 .4

14 .5

40
14.6
14
.6
5
30

20
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
f = t Des/t Ads

(b) 100
0.4

90
47
0.384

80
0.426
0.405
Switching time [s]

0.433

70
0.4
54
0.44

60
54
0.447

0.4

50

40

30

20
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
f = t Des/t Ads

Fig. 5. (a) A contour plot of cooling capacity of the assorted adsorption chiller versus (f) and switching time. Half cycle time = 450 s. (b). A contour plot of COP of the assorted
adsorption chiller versus (f) and switching time. Half cycle time = 450 s.
 I.I. El-Sharkawy et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 63 (2013) 171–182 179

(a) 100

13 13 .4
9

.3
11.5

13 3 .6
90

.3
13

.5
12 .5

1
10

12

13
80

.4
13
13 .1

13
11
Switching time [s]

.7
70

.5
13
13 .2

.6
13

13 .8
60

.7
13
50

.8
13

13 .9
13 .9
40

30

20
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
f = t Des/t Ads

(b) 100
0.485

90
0.44
0.46

0.4
0.4

80

9
9
Switching time [s]

0.48
0.49

70
0.4
95

60
0.495

50

40
0.5

30

20
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
f = t Des/t Ads

Fig. 6. (a) A contour plot of cooling capacity of the assorted adsorption chiller versus (f) and switching time. Half cycle time = 600 s. (b). A contour plot of COP of the assorted
adsorption chiller versus (f), and switching time. Half cycle time = 600 s.

the new cycle time allocations. The cooling capacity and COP for temperature, a new cycle time allocation is proposed and pre-
new cycle is estimated at the optimal values of (f) and switching sented in Fig. 8. Herein, the half cycle time is considered to be
time. It can be seen from Fig. 7 that, the cooling capacity increases 350 s as a case study where the values of (f) and switching time
with the increase of half cycle time until reaches its maxima at half for this arrangement are considered to be 0.8 and 35 s, respec-
cycle time between 350 s and 450 s. It is also obvious that, there is tively. Fig. 9 shows the temporal history of the system heat
an improvement on both cooling capacity and COP using the new exchangers, namely adsorber/desorber reactors, evaporator and
cycle time allocation. condenser. The system is working at the new cycle time allocation
that presented in Fig. 8 and the following operating conditions;
Th = 85.7 °C, Tc = 31.1 °C and Tchill,in = 14.8 °C. Chilled water outlet
7. Case study of a cycle time allocation temperatures for adsorption chiller working at conventional and
new cycle time allocation are shown in Fig. 10. It can be seen from
To assure that the evaporator is always connected with one of Fig. 10 that, the fluctuations of the chilled water outlet tempera-
sorption reactors for less fluctuations of the chilled water outlet ture is significantly reduced by using the new cycle time
180 I.I. El-Sharkawy et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 63 (2013) 171–182

8. Results verification

The results of this paper agree well with the results and conclu-
Cooling capacity [kW]

sions obtained by Miyazaki et al. [22]. The reason for this agree-
ment is that both work use the same specifications of adsorption
chiller, which has been proposed by Saha et al. [15]. However,

COP
Half time Cycle [s]
Fig. 7. Cooling capacity and COP versus half cycle time for adsorption cooling
system working at conventional and new cycle time allocations.
allocations. This is due to continues connection of the evaporator
with the adsorber reactor. The results of this case study agree with
the results obtained by Miyazaki et al. [22].
the time allocation in the present work is considered to be more
generic and general in which the duration of adsorption phase is
not required to be the half of total cycle time as illustrated in
Fig. 2. A case study of cycle time allocation is presented herein to
consolidate our results and findings.
Glaznev and Aristov [20] measured adsorption and desorption
kinetics for Fuji RD type silica gel considering the adsorbent and
heat exchanger as an integrated unit. They found that the desorp-
tion phase (for monolayer) is about 2–3 times faster than that of
the adsorption phase. However, results of the present study show
that value of f (desorption time/adsorption time) between 0.8
and 0.9 is sufficient to optimize the system performance. In our
opinion, the reason for this difference owing to the system hard-
ware including the configurations of adsorber/desorber heat
exchangers, condenser and evaporator, mass of adsorbents and
fluxes of heat transfer fluid, etc. Cooling and heating response of

Bed1

Pre-h Desorption Pre-c Adsorption

0 35 315 350 700

Bed 2

Adsorption Pre-h Desorption Pre-c

0 350 385 665 700

Evaporator

Connected to Bed 2 Connected to Bed 1

0 350 700

Fig. 8. The case study of cycle time allocation at; half cycle time = 350 s; f = 0.8 and switching time of 35 s. Pre-c: Pre-cooling process. Pre-h: Pre-heating Process.

Desorber
Temperature [oC]

Adsorber

Condenser

Evaporator

Time [s]
Fig. 9. Temperatures of the system heat exchangers using the new cycle time allocation.
 I.I. El-Sharkawy et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 63 (2013) 171–182
Fig. 10. Chilled water outlet temperatures for adsorption chiller working at conventional and new cycle time allocations.
adsorber/desorber heat exchanger affects significantly the adsorp-
tion/desorption dynamics of adsorbent.
Sapienza et al. [24] experimentally tested the composite sor-
bent SWS-9V at high driving temperature (90 °C) and cycle time
of 1200 s and the optimal value of f was found to be 0.14. While,
at low driving temperature (68 °C) and cycle time of 1800 s the ra-
tio f had an optimal value of 1.33. These results assert that for the
same system and the same adsorbent but with different driving
temperature and cycle time there is a wide range of the optimal va-
lue of f depending on the system working conditions.
It is worthy to mention that, the optimal values of f obtained in
this study are based on the isotherms, kinetics, system specifica-
tions which are presented in Tables 1 and 2, and a similar study
is necessary for any particular chiller unit or different adsorbent-
refrigerant pair.
9. Conclusion
Performance of silica gel/water based adsorption chiller has
been investigated. NSGA-II optimization technique is used to esti-
mate the optimal values of adsorption/desorption and switching
times that maximize both cooling capacity and COP for conven-
tional adsorption chiller. The results show that the system COP in-
creases with the increase of adsorption/desorption time whilst the
effect of switching time is marginal, and the cooling capacity
reaches its maxima at adsorption/desorption and switching times
of 315 and 35 s, respectively, for the presented system. Optimiza-
tion procedure has been carried out to optimize the cooling capac-
ity only, and the results illustrate that the maximum value of
cooling capacity is about 14.63 kW where the half cycle time
ranges between 300 and 350 s which corresponding to a COP of
about 0.42.
Effect of the ratio between desorption and adsorption times (f)
on the system performance in terms of COP and cooling capacity
has been studied. Theoretical results show that, the system perfor-
mance is improved when (f) is less than unity regardless the cycle
time. It is also found that, for each cycle time, there is an optimal
value of (f) that maximize the system performance. According to
181
the results of the present study, at a half cycle time of 350s, the
maximum adsorption capacity is achieved at f = 0.85 and switching
time of 35 s whilst maximum cooling capacity is achieved within
region bounded by 0.85 < f < 0.9 and switching time ranges from
30 to 35 s at half cycle time of 450 s. This study also presents a cy-
cle time allocation that achieves continues cooling using two sorp-
tion reactors only. Employing the proposed cycle time allocation,
the fluctuations of the chilled water outlet temperature is signifi-
cantly reduced.
The results obtained from this work accord with the facts con-
cluded by Miyazaki et al. [22], Aristov et al. [19], Sapienza et al.
[24], Glaznev, and Aristov [20], Aristov et al. [21], that the optimal
value of the ratio f that gives the best performance of the cycle de-
pends strongly on the system configurations, physical dimensions,
number of adsorbent beds, the adsorbent, cycle times, driving heat
source temperature and so on. Moreover, for the same system the
optimal value of f has a wide range according to the system work-
ing conditions and designated cycle times.
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