Accepted Manuscript

Instrumentation and Control of a two-stage 4-bed Silica gel + Water Adsorption

Cooling cum Desalination system

Sourav Mitra, Pramod Kumar, Kandadai Srinivasan, Pradip Dutta

PII: S0263-2241(15)00548-5
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.measurement.2015.10.014
Reference: MEASUR 3626

To appear in: Measurement

Received Date: 25 July 2015

Revised Date: 27 September 2015
Accepted Date: 9 October 2015

Please cite this article as: S. Mitra, P. Kumar, K. Srinivasan, P. Dutta, Instrumentation and Control of a two-stage
4-bed Silica gel + Water Adsorption Cooling cum Desalination system, Measurement (2015), doi: http://dx.doi.org/
10.1016/j.measurement.2015.10.014

This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers
we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and
review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process
errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
 Instrumentation and Control of a two-stage 4-bed Silica gel + Water Adsorption

Cooling cum Desalination system

Sourav Mitra1, Pramod Kumar1, Kandadai Srinivasan1† and Pradip Dutta1*

1
Department of Mechanical Engineering

Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore - 560012, India

Abstract

This paper presents the instrumentation and control architecture for a laboratory based

two-stage 4-bed silica gel + water adsorption system. The system consists of primarily two

fluids: refrigerant (water vapour) and heat transfer fluid (water) flowing through various

components. Heat input to the system is simulated using multiple heaters and ambient air is

used as the heat sink. The laboratory setup incorporates a real time National Instruments (NI)

controller to control several digital and analog valves, heaters, pumps and fans along with

simultaneous data acquisition from various flow, pressure and temperature sensors. The paper

also presents in detail the various automated and manual tasks required for successful

operation of the system. Finally the system pressure and temperature dynamics are reported

and its performance evaluated for various cycle times.

Keywords: Automation of adsorption system, instrumentation, integrated controller and data

acquisition, prioritized loop control

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed e-mail: pradip@mecheng.iisc.ernet.in,

Tel: +91-80-2293-3225/3361/3362/2831, Fax: +91-80-2360-4536

†Also with School of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering, University of Western

Australia, Crawley WA 6009, Australia

1. INTRODUCTION

The motivation for developing an experimental prototype of a two-stage silica gel +

water adsorption based chiller-cum-desalination system is derived from perennial shortage of

potable water and even minimal refrigeration in several rural areas of developing countries.

The challenges faced are i) absence/unreliability of grid electric supply for operating other

methods of desalination, ii) drought of soft water for cooling needs when water cooled

systems are used and iii) absence of skilled manpower to maintain desalination/chiller units.

On the other hand, these areas are endowed with abundant solar energy and other forms of

low grade thermal energy such as from biomass. Being heat driven, an adsorption cooling

cum desalination system can potentially meet the dual needs and there is well developed

state-of-the-art for this method [1–11]. This method is based on cyclic heating and cooling of

an adsorption bed to realize pressure lifts from evaporating to condenser pressures. The

guiding principles for the present system are i) design with only air cooled heat rejection

systems, ii) realistic performance assessment, however low it may be, by generous

instrumentation and iii) evolving an automated control logic that takes care of routine

operation. The parasitic electrical load can be met from localized source like photovoltaic

panels.

Prior art of adsorption desalination is rich with both computational and experimental

studies for multi-bed single-stage systems. There are also a few studies on multi-staging of

adsorption systems [12–17]. Conclusive outcome of these studies is that the system

performance is a strong function of pressure lifts, temperature swings and cycle times.

However, in all these studies, details of instrumentation and control were given only a limited

stress. Majority of the literature on control and automation for refrigeration system pertains to

mechanical vapour compression systems [18–26]. Similar control logic cannot be

implemented in the present system due to the inherent difference in operational time scales.
Recently, a study [27] describing the automation of single-stage 2-bed solar driven activated

carbon + ammonia adsorption system has been presented. The study presents an account of

valve operation logic with little focus on instrumentation and control architecture required to

implement it.

This paper aims at presenting a detailed description of instrumentation and control for a

two-stage 4-bed silica gel + water adsorption chiller and desalination system. Components of

mechanical hardware are designed to operate the system in multiple modes such as

single/two-stage 2-, 3- or 4-bed/stage operation, and variability with bypassing cooling if

only desalination is required and operating as a chiller if desalination is of secondary

importance (closed cycle operation). The guiding principles of design described earlier were

inevitable when tropical arid zone operations are imminent. Although, several models do

predict that single-stage operation does not give sufficient throughput [15–17], there has been

no experimental evidence. The present design allows experimental verification of that

premise. The system control logic along with its modality of implementation using an

integrated controller and data acquisition system (DAQ) is presented in detail. Further,

various manual and automated operational steps required for the system operation are

described. The system has been operated for various conditions and some representative

results which enable an assessment of the system potential are presented in this work.

2. THERMAL COMPRESSION

At the outset, it is emphasized that neither stages of the adsorption cooling cum

desalination system takes part in actual desalination process and it acts merely as a

compressor for water vapour generated in the evaporator to raise the pressure to a level

corresponding to saturation pressure of water vapour at ambient temperature. Thus, there is

no contamination due to the adsorbent (silica gel). For the cooling part, refrigeration is
obtained by evaporating brackish/saline water at a pressure commensurate with temperature

at which refrigeration is required (typically 5–10°C). This low pressure vapour is compressed

via thermal compression route using the pressure-temperature-uptake relations of silica gel +

water. The compression of low pressure water vapour from evaporator (typically ~ 1 kPa) to

condenser pressure (around ~7 kPa) is achieved virtually without the use of any moving

parts. The motive energy for this thermal compression is low-grade heat (<100°C) which may

be derivable from simple flat plate solar collectors or low grade thermal energy such as waste

heat. The following section provides a brief overview of the processes involved in such a

system.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic representation of the thermal compression cycle for silica gel

+ water adsorption cooling cum desalination system. The adsorber bed can be construed as a

heat exchanger filled with silica gel granules in contact with heat exchanging coils through

which heat transfer fluid (water) passes. This coil serves as a common passage for both

heating (to build the pressure after adsorption and for desorption) and cooling (for removing

heat of adsorption and reducing the pressure after desorption). External to the bed, closed

circuits of cooling and heating water are different. The bed has two vapour valves each for

inlet and outlet of water vapour. Thermal compression process also has four processes which

are broadly analogous to those in a mechanical compressor and are described below:

1) Adsorption: The low pressure vapour enters the bed from a vapour inlet port and gets

adsorbed by micro-porous silica gel. Adsorption being an exothermic process, it is

required to pass cold water through the coil to remove the heat of adsorption. This

process is continued for a time period given by tads; beyond which the bed cannot

adsorb any more vapour. This is equivalent to suction in a mechanical compressor.

2) Preheating: The bed is now isolated by closing both the vapour valves and the water

circuit is switched to hot water flow. This heats the bed and starts desorption. Since the
 vapour valves are closed, this leads to an increase in pressure of the bed. This process is

continued till the required pressure build-up is achieved which requires time of tph. This

is similar to compression.

3) Desorption: After achieving high pressure in the bed the vapour outlet valve is opened

and hot water flow through the coil is continued to expel as much of water vapour

possible subject to equilibrium uptake state. This continues for a specific period (tdes)

beyond which the bed cannot desorb any more vapour which is analogous to discharge.

The outlet valve is closed after this period.

4) Precooling: The precooling phase is needed to bring the bed pressure back to slightly

less than the evaporator pressure just like the re-expansion process in a mechanical

compressor. During this process both the vapour valves are closed and the water circuit

is switched to cold water flow though the coils. Sensible cooling of adsorbent is

accompanied by some re-adsorption of vapour in the void volume reducing the bed

pressure. This process continues for time tpc, at which the bed pressure reaches its initial

low pressure and the cycle is repeated.

Unlike in mechanical compression where the cycle is completed in a fraction of second,

the duration of each of the four processes in thermal compression cycle varies from 100 to

1000 s because of differential thermal performance of the silica gel beds and kinetics of

adsorption in each process. From operational point of view the following constraints are

imposed:

tads = tdes (1)

tph = tpc= tsw (2)

Equal times are enforced on adsorption and desorption processes; preheating and

precooling (henceforth called as switching). Therefore, the entire cycle now features only two
time scales: adsorption time (tads) and switching time (tsw). This simplifies the control logic

for valve operation. An adsorption cooling cum desalination system consists of multiple of

such beds, each going through the cycles with a certain phase shift from one another such that

there is a continuous throughput. Subsequent sections will describe the system architecture

and the control logic for two-stage 4-bed adsorption cooling cum desalination system.

3. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

Fig. 2 shows the process and instrumentation diagram of the system discussed in this

study. There are 4-beds in stage-1 (Bed 1-1 to 1-4) and stage-2 (Bed 2-1 to 2-4). Multi-

staging is required when a single-stage cannot provide enough pressure lift needed to achieve

condenser pressure, however provision has been made to bypass the upper stage if large

pressure lifts are not required (such as desalination without cooling). Fig. 3 shows the

photograph of the experimental system.

Each bed is equipped with its own set of valves, pressure and temperature sensors and

water flow meters. The entire piping layout of the system can be divided into two categories,

namely vapour and water circuits. There are separate pumps and heat exchangers in the cold

and hot water circuits. The following section describes the components and the

instrumentation on each of these circuits.

3.1 Vapour Circuit

The evaporator generates low pressure water vapour which passes through two stages

of adsorbers, intermediate plenums and finally condensed at higher pressure and collected in

a tank. Instrumentation and control hardware for each of these components are described

below:
3.1.1 Evaporators

Brackish water flash evaporates outside copper tubes to generate water vapour. There

are two evaporators (Evap-1, Evap-2) in series each catering to a pair of adsorbers. The

brackish water is filled in the evaporators manually for the experimental prototype. Manually

operated vacuum sealed ball valves (MV1, MV2) close the inlet water port in each

evaporator. The two evaporators are connected by a pipe which has an electro-pneumatically

actuated valve (SV 17). This is a normally closed (NC) type valve and requires the supply of

24 VDC (digital control) and 6–8 bar air pressure for operation. The response time of

actuation is <800 ms. SV17 is used to connect to the vacuum pump for initial evacuation and

de-aeration of brackish water. The brackish water and vapour temperature in each evaporator

are measured by using two T-type thermocouples (TC). The thermocouples are calibrated in

the range of 5–85°C using a NIST traceable temperature calibrator and the expected

uncertainty in temperature measurement is ±0.2°C. The vapour pressure in each evaporator is

measured using a 0.1–50 kPa absolute pressure sensor (P1, P2). Table 1 and 2 list the

specifications of various sensors and automated valves used in this study.

3.1.2 Adsorbers

Each adsorber has two vapour ports with a pneumatically actuated vapour valve on each of

them (SV1, SV2; SV3, SV4; and so on). These NC valves are similar to the one on the

evaporator (SV 17). For bed temperature measurement, two TCs with Swagelok vacuum

compatible fittings are placed at different depths within the adsorber assembly and the

average of the two is used to represent the bed temperature. The vapour pressure in each

adsorber is measured with an absolute pressure sensor similar to the one mounted on the

evaporators. A detailed description of adsorber construction is already reported [28, 29].

3.1.3 Plenums

The plenums play dual role as vapor distribution channels for the beds and as pressure

dampers during switching of vapor valves. Thermodynamic states of water vapour in it are

assessed with two TCs (T13, T14; T23, T24) mounted equidistant from the central plane

along with a pressure sensor (P7; P12) mounted at the centre of it. The plenum-1 (Fig. 2) has

both stage-1 and stage-2 adsorbers connected to it. Hence, it is also used as the common

manifold to connect all the adsorbers to the vacuum pump at the beginning by using a

manually operated butterfly valve (BV2). Further, both the plenums are connected to the

condenser via vapor valves (SV18; SV19) such that upper stage can be bypassed if needed.

3.1.4 Condenser and Collection Tank

The condenser is an air-cooled finned copper tube heat exchanger with two vapour

inlets, one from each stage, and a condensate outlet. At any given moment only one vapour

inlet valve (SV18/SV19) is opened. The condenser also has provision for vapour temperature

(T25) and pressure measurements (P13) like other components mentioned above.

The condensate gets collected in a tank having 1 mm least count graduation scale. The

condensate is desalinated water which is still below atmospheric pressure in the collection

tank. This water is taken out by breaking its vacuum in the prototype. In a production system

the condensate can be pumped out using a positive pressure head pump.

3.2 Water Circuit

Water is used as heat transfer fluid in this system and it flows in closed loop. There are

three water circuits for chilled, cold and hot water flow (Fig. 2). The evaporator generates the

cooling effect due to evaporation and water to be chilled provides the cooling load. The cold

water circuit is used to remove heat from the adsorber beds of both the stages during
precooling and adsorption processes. The cold water then rejects this heat to the ambient

through an air cooler. The hot water circuit is divided into two parts, one for each stage. This

water circuit supplies heat to the adsorber beds during preheating and desorption. The hot

water temperature is maintained by three 2 kW heaters. Thus, water circuits consist of the

following major components: evaporator, adsorbers, cold/hot water tanks and air-cooler.

3.2.1 Evaporators

The evaporators are connected to chilled water circuit. A constant temperature bath is

used as a source for steady flow at constant inlet temperature and also a receiver for chilled

water from the evaporator. The water inlet temperature to the first evaporator and outlet

temperature from second evaporator are measured using TCs. A manual ball valve (MV5) is

placed at the outlet to regulate the water flow rate of the circuit. It is also equipped with a 0–

50 Lpm flow sensor.

3.2.2 Adsorbers

Adsorbers have a water header to evenly distribute the flow into 15 heat exchanging

copper tubes. A detailed description of the adsorber design can be found in previous paper

[29]. Water flows through the bed in two passes and returns back to the header. At the inlet

and outlet two 3-way pneumatically operated ball valves (WV1, WV2; WV3, WV4; and so

on) are placed to switch between cold and hot water. Each ball valve is operated by 6–8 bar

air pressure controlled by 24 VDC pilot operated solenoid valve. In normal condition the 3-

way ball valve connects to the cold water circuit and upon actuation it switches to the hot

water circuit. Further, the water flow rate through the heat exchanging tubes is controlled so

that each adsorber has near identical water flow rate. This is achieved by using a motorized

flow control valve (FCV1, FCV2; FCV3, FCV4; and so on) on the return line of both hot and
cold water circuits of each adsorber. The motor requires 4–20 mA current input with a

resolution of 0.5 mA. At 20 mA input signal, the motor completely closes the ball valve and

at 4 mA it completely opens it. Water flow rate is measured using 0–100 Lpm flow sensor

placed at the adsorber outlet.

3.2.3 Hot/Cold water Tanks

There are two hot and one cold water tanks which serve as thermal storage and

expansion tanks for their respective flow circuits. The cold/hot water tanks are equipped with

temperature sensors. Although the system is designed to work with solar hot water, to test the

prototype, electrical heaters in hot water tanks are used as heat source. Since the performance

analysis is required as a function of source temperature, individual heater on/off controls are

used through the digital output card on the NI controller.

3.2.4 Air Cooler

A commercially available finned tube heat exchanger is customized for rejecting the

heat of adsorption and precooling. The cold water loop rejects the heat in air cooler which

uses a 220 W fan running continuously during the steady operation of the system. The

consequence of using the air cooler is that it raises the temperature of heat rejection to about

5–10°C above the dry bulb temperature as compared to 3–5°C above the wet bulb

temperature if a cooling tower was used . The choice of air cooler has been deliberate

because of shortage of soft heat exchanger grade makeup water.

4. DATA ACQUISITION AND CONTROL

Data acquisition and control is accomplished using National Instruments (NI) PXIe

8115 real time controller. The NI controller is equipped with digital and analog input/output
cards for data acquisition and control. The control and data acquisition architecture is as

shown in Fig.4a). Fig. 4b) shows the photograph of internal details of the control panel. The

NI cards required for the actuation of various valves and sensors are listed out in Table 1 and

2. The control logic is developed using NI Labview® software (version 2012). The control

algorithm is deployed on the standalone controller and logs the data on its local hard disk. A

PC is used for data streaming and user input/interrupts.

4.1 Pressure Sensor and Flow Sensor

Pressure and flow sensors provide 4–20 mA analog input (AI) directly to the NI PXI

6239 card. Data is acquired at 1000 samples/s per channel (parallel manner) and averaged out

for every 1 s window to filter out high frequency noise. This is fast enough due to the large

system thermal inertia and process times associated with thermal compression processes. The

sensors are powered by 24 VDC source.

4.2 Thermocouple

T-type thermocouples are terminated directly to the PXIe 4353 card having 24 bit

resolution. The card has on-board reference junction compensation. The maximum sampling

rate of the card is 90 samples/s per channel scanned simultaneously. However, for the present

system 1 sample/channel every 5 s is found to be adequate.

4.3 Vapour and 3-Way Water Valve

All on/off valves are controlled by the PXI 6512 digital output (DO) card. The 24 VDC

digital outputs to all the valves are provided using relays (Fig. 4a). This is due to the low

current capacity (<75 mA/channel) of the DO card which is less than the required current
(>100 mA) for the valves to operate. Further, the addition of relays acts as isolation for the

controller card.

4.4 Flow Control Valve

This valve requires 24 VDC (0.2–0.8 A) for operation and 4-20 mA current for control.

The operating current is actuated by PXI 6512 DO card and the control current is provided by

the analog output (AO) PXI 6704 card (Fig. 4a).

4.5 High Power Equipment

The digital output to switch high power AC equipment namely pumps, heaters and heat

exchanger fans is provided by a set of isolation relays, contactors (24 VDC coils) and

overload relays (OLR). Fig. 5 shows the typical wiring diagram. The DO card switches the

relays thereby providing current for the actuation of contactors. The contactors then switch

high power AC to individual components. All the low voltage (24 VDC) cables to the field

are shielded to prevent any electrical interference from the high power (AC) cables.

5. SYSTEM OPERATION

The system operation involves various steps in which certain steps are accomplished

manually and rest is automated. The controller runs the NI Labview ® code which implements

the logic as mentioned in this section. The various activities to be followed in sequence are:

a) Start up

b) Automated steady operation

c) Measurement and removal of desalinated water

d) Bed evacuation
 The start-up comprises of few automated and manual tasks. However, the steady

system operation is completely automated with user intervention requiring to stop the system.

The step of removal of desalinated water and bed evacuation are completely manual

processes in the prototype.

5.1 Start up

Initially brackish water is filled in the evaporator using a manual inlet valve (MV1 or

MV2). Salinity content of feed water is measured with handheld total dissolved solid (TDS)

meter with a range of 0–9999 ppm (±2% of measured value or 1 ppm whichever is higher). A

level indicator is provided to guide the maximum level of filling. After filling the evaporators

the manual valves are closed manually. Subsequent to this process the start-up phase of the

system is initiated.

The start-up comprises of two key activities: de-gassing of evaporator and warming up

hot water source. Since the evaporator is opened to atmosphere when brackish water is filled,

it is necessary to de-aerate the chamber. Further, it is necessary to remove any dissolved

gases present in water. A rotary vacuum pump is used to accomplish these tasks.

Concurrently the chilled water pump (M4) is run with the constant temperature bath

temperature set to cooling mode having a set point temperature of 5°C. During this process it

is desired to remove only the air/non-condensable from the evaporator. However, as the

pressure reduces, vapour formation is imminent even at room temperature which is

minimized by simultaneously reducing the temperature of brackish water. The final target

pressure by this process is 0.9 kPa, corresponding to saturation pressure of water at 5°C.

After achieving this steady state, holding time of 60 min is provided to evacuate any

dissolved gases present in water. The vapour valve SV17 is activated by manual input from
Labview® interface. The valve is opened and closed intermittently by the user so as to prevent

continuous vapour loading of the vacuum pump.

Meanwhile the heaters are simultaneously switched on to heat up the water in the tanks

to the user defined set point heat source temperature. This is accomplished in an automatic

mode and the logic for heater control is given by the flowchart shown in Fig. 6.

The Labview® code employs the entire logic of manual digital output control and

automated heater control in the form of parallel loops shown schematically in Fig. 7. Further,

the user needs to operate the valve SV17 manually based on temperature and pressure

readings of evaporators. Hence, for this purpose the temperature and pressure data are

simultaneously acquired and displayed continuously on the monitor.

5.2 Automated steady operation

After the start-up phase, the system is ready for steady operation in automated mode.

The constant temperature bath is now set into heating mode to serve as cooling load for the

evaporator. The user starts the system operation from the PC with various inputs as shown in

Fig. 8. The entire operating sequence runs till user interrupts. The controller automatically

supervises the operation of valves, heaters, acquires and logs the data obtained from various

sensors. The entire control and data acquisition is implemented through parallel loops (Fig.

8), similar to that in start-up phase. Priorities are assigned to each loop to help the controller

decide loop execution priority in case of clash. The loops are shown in decreasing order of

their priority with highest priority assigned to the digital output loop and least priority to the

data logging loop.

There are 8 beds to be operated in tandem as per the timing scheme shown in Fig. 9.

The entire cycle time can be divided into six states where each state corresponds to a time

slot. The user inputs are the two variables tads and tsw based on which the time slots are
calculated. During each time slot, beds undergo different processes corresponding to different

valve positions. The entire valve logic for all the beds are mapped to each of this state and fed

to the controller as a binary array. The controller automatically actuates the corresponding

relays which in turn actuates the valves, as shown in Fig. 4a. The binary array for each state

is tabulated in table 3. The controller goes through each of these states in a cyclic manner and

hence implements the logic in the form of state-machine as represented in Fig. 10.

The flow control valve is provided a pre-set current input value for position control.

The water flow rate required through each bed is fixed and hence the valve positions once set

need not be changed during the entire system operation. Thus, a pre-set logic is ideal for such

application. The numerical value of current provided by the controller to each valve is

tabulated in table 4. The required hot water flow rate through each adsorber is 25 Lpm and

cold water flow rate is 33 Lpm. The current values provided to each valve are selected to

maintain the desired water flow rates with an uncertainty of ±1 Lpm. The current value

required by each valve varies marginally for same flow rate due to variable pipeline lengths

and flow resistances of the water circuit; these values are arrived at by a trial and error

method. The values are calibrated for the current setup for each operational parameter and

therefore cannot be generalized. However, in a functional system the data acquired from

experiments can be used to pre-set the required flow rates.

5.3 Measurement and removal of desalinated water

The measurement of the desalinated water production is a manual process. Desalinated

water gets accumulated in the collection tank, which is accompanied by a glass level

indicator. The average rate of desalinated water production is obtained by manually reading

the water level at the start and end of a cycle time. The measurements are performed for 3

cycles and an average value is estimated.

 Once the collection tank is full the desalinated water is drained manually. The

collection tank is isolated from the condenser by closing the valve MV3 and the drain valve

MV4 is opened thereby breaking the vacuum in the chamber and allowing the desalinated

water to flow out. Once the tank is emptied the drain valve MV4 is closed and vacuum pump

is connected to the chamber through the butterfly valve BV3. After evacuation, the collection

tank is disconnected from vacuum pump by closing BV3 and then reconnected to the

condenser by opening MV3. This entire process may be carried out even when rest of the

system is operating. The TDS content of the collected desalinated water is measured. In a

production model, the draining of desalinated water may be automated by use of a condensate

pump and solenoid valves.

5.4 Bed evacuation

After the system is stopped, the beds are brought back to initial dry condition before the

next experiment is started. The moisture present within the silica gel beds are drawn out by

passing hot water (at 85°C) through each of them while simultaneously evacuating it by the

vacuum pump. At any given instant only one bed is connected to the vacuum pump (through

plenum-1) in order to minimize the vapour load on it. This process is carried out one by one

till all the beds achieve ~1 kPa pressure at 85°C.

6. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

The entire description above is for 4-bed mode; however, the number of beds can be

reduced by suitably disconnecting the water and vapour flow to selected adsorbers. Hence,

the 4-bed/stage system can be run in 2-, 3- or 4-bed modes. The results presented in the

subsequent sections are for 2-bed mode of operation to prove the efficacy of instrumentation
and control system. The detailed performance results are already published elsewhere [28,

29].

6.1 Temperature Swing

For the 2-bed mode operation, the beds 1-1 and 1-3 from stage-1, beds 2-1 and 2-3

from stage-2 (shown in Fig. 2) are disconnected. Fig. 11 a) and b) show the transients of

water flow rate to the bed, the inlet water temperature and bed temperature. Only one bed

(bed 1-2, 2-2) is shown from each stage to represent the transient responses. The pair of water

valves (e.g. WV1, WV2) on each bed switches between hot and cold water flow whereas the

flow rates are set by pair of flow control valves (eg. FCV1, FCV2). The switch between the

cold to hot water and vice versa is near instantaneous, as the valve switching time is <1 s.

However, the water inlet temperature takes significantly longer time to respond due to large

thermal inertia of the metallic water passages and water already present in the adsorber

header and heat exchanger tubes. The silica gel bed temperature rise/drop is even slower

because of its own thermal capacitance and hence it is evident that bed thermal dynamics is

immune to the valve switchover timing.

6.2 Pressure Swing

The pressure rise/fall is obtained during switching time (preheating/precooling). This is

the most important feature of adsorber beds. The pressure swing is obtained as a consequence

of near isosteric heating/cooling brought about by temperature swing of silica gel bed. Stage-

1 lifts the pressure from evaporator pressure (pevap) to inter-stage pressure (pint) and stage-2

beds should operate between inter-stage pressure to condenser pressure (pcond ). Fig. 12 a) and

b) show the pressure transients and compares them to water flow switching. It is observed

that the time for pressure rise in bed is significantly slower than the switching time of the
vapour valves (<800 ms). This is inferred from a steep change in the flow rate whereas the

pressure rise/fall occur over a finite time marked by preheating/precooling durations in the

figures. This is due to kinetics of adsorption/desorption processes. Further, the observation

reaffirms the choice of 1 s window for moving average filter during acquisition of pressure

data. It also proves that the entire system response is not limited by the overall response time

of control hardware and algorithm adopted in this work.

A comparison of temperature and pressure transients in Figs. 11 and 12 elucidates that

temperature swing of the beds are significantly slower than pressure swing, as noticed from

the time of rise/fall of temperatures and pressures. This is due to a larger bed thermal inertia

as compared to the inertia resulting from kinetics of adsorption/desorption.

6.3 Effect of cycle time on pressure swing

At the end of preheating of bed 1-2 and precooling of bed 2-2 the beds across the stages

interact and mass transfer occurs. During this process bed 1-2 discharges vapour which gets

drawn in by bed 2-2. Hence, in order to maintain forward flow the pressure of bed 1-2 at the

end of preheating should be marginally higher than pressure at the end of precooling process

of bed 2-2. Fig. 13 shows the pressure rise curves for bed 1-2 during preheating and pressure

fall curves for bed 2-2 during precooling process for 1 kPa evaporator pressure having three

half cycle times and constant switching time of 200 s. It is evident that the switching time of

200 s ensures that the pressure in bed 1-2 after preheating process is marginally higher than

that of bed 2-2 after precooling process, thereby preventing any back flow. It is observed that

as the half cycle time increases the pressure swing becomes faster causing a small jump in

pressure curves as the two beds interconnect. This may be prevented by having a variable

switching time, however in order to simplify the control logic a constant value is used

irrespective of the half cycle times. In fact it can be seen from Fig. 13 that within few seconds
the pressures equalizes between the two beds to a pressure corresponding to inter-stage

pressure.

6.4 Performance Indicators

The performance indicators for this system are desalinated water throughput, cooling

capacity and the coefficient of performance (COP). The desalinated water throughput is

estimated by measuring the condensate collection in a certain number of operational cycles.

Cooling capacity is derived directly from desalinated water throughput and heat of

vaporization at evaporator condition described in Ref. [28, 29]. COP is defined as the ratio of

cooling capacity and heat input the adsorber bed. For estimating heat input the logged

electrical heater pulses are integrated over the cycle times and an average value is used. Fig.

14 a)–c) show the system performance extracted from experimental data for various half

cycle times for 1 kPa evaporator pressure. It is evident from the figure that half cycle time of

1800 s is the optimum operating point with respect to system throughput; however an

optimum is not obtained with respect to COP which is typical of most adsorption cooling

cum desalination systems [11, 16, 28, 29].

6.5 Overall Assessment

The foregoing results conclusively prove that to standardize the operational sequence of

an adsorption chiller considerable measurements need to be made on a prototype. The

adsorption chillers, unlike mechanical counterparts, operate over long time constants. Despite

exhaustive modeling there are several features such as thermal inertia and thermal wave

phenomena [27] due to water passages switching from cold to hot and vice versa, which are

not amenable to precise modeling. There is no option other than assessing the overall
performance through a detailed experimental investigation. This has been the main objective

and it has helped in optimizing durations to be allocated to various processes.

Once the operation is standardized, a production model that uses the same adsorbent-

adsorbate pair need not have this level of sophistication in instrumentation. For example, the

flow meters can be completely dispensed with. Except for a few pressure sensors (one for

each stage) and a few thermocouples, others can be avoided. Flow control valves can be

discarded by suitable design of piping to maintain desired flow rate. The control system can

be embedded into a small module as is done for other types of refrigeration systems. A salient

outcome is that, the system operation is sufficiently immune to precision and time constants

of control system because of large durations of processes involved.

7. CONCLUSION

The instrumentation and operational aspects of a laboratory prototype of a two-stage 4-

bed silica gel + water adsorption chiller-cum-desalination system has been presented in

detail. The adsorption cooling cum desalination system requires the operation of multiple

actuators in tandem with each other while simultaneously acquiring data from multiple

sensors. In the present system entire instrumentation and control architecture is integrated

into a single controller running prioritized programs in parallel. The instrumentation and

control architecture discussed in this study is for a two-stage 4-bed mode however the system

may be operated in single/two-stage system with 2-, 3- and 4-bed modes. Hence, this

architecture is being replicated for a commercial system (under construction) by suitably

adjusting for number of stages and beds. The results for the system when operated as two-

stage having 2-bed/stage mode is presented to provide an appreciation of control strategy.

The system dynamics curves show that the water and vapour valves operational time is

significantly faster than the bed temperature and pressure dynamics and hence the system
response is not limited by the instrumentation and control hardware. A constant switching

time is selected to simplify the control logic which creates marginal inter-stage pressure

deviation for various half cycle times. The bed performance results show that there exists an

optimum half cycle time for maximizing the throughput.

References

[1] C. Hildbrand, P. Dind, M. Pons, and F. Buchter, “A new solar powered adsorption

refrigerator with high performance,” Sol. Energ., vol. 77, no. 3, pp. 311–318, Sept.

2004.

[2] Y.L. Liu, R.Z. Wang, and Z.Z. Xia, “Experimental study on a continuous adsorption

water chiller with novel design,” Int. J. Refrig., vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 218–230, March

2005.

[3] X. Wang, and K.C. Ng, “Experimental investigation of an adsorption desalination plant

using low-temperature waste heat,” Appl. Therm. Eng., vol. 25, no. 17–18, pp. 2780–

2789, Dec. 2005.

[4] D.C. Wang, Z.Z. Xia, J.Y. Wu, R.Z. Wang, H. Zhai, and W.D. Dou, “Study of a novel

silica-gel adsorption chiller. Part I. Design and performance prediction,” Int. J. Refrig.,

vol. 28, no. 7, pp. 1073–1083, Nov. 2005.

[5] K. Thu, K.C. Ng, B.B. Saha, A. Chakraborty and S. Koyama, “Operational strategy of

adsorption desalination systems,” Int. J. Heat Mass Tran., vol. 52, no.7–8, 1811–1816,

March 2009.

[6] K.C. Ng, K. Thu, A. Chakraborty, B.B. Saha, and W.G. Chun, “Solar-assisted dual-

effect adsorption cycle for the production of cooling effect and potable water,” Int. J.

Low-Carbon Tech., vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 61–67, June 2009.

[7] Y. Liu, K. Yu, R.Z. Wang, and Z.Z. Xia, “Performance study of a continuous solar-

powered adsorption air-conditioning system,” in Proc. Int. Conf. Mater. Renew. Energ.

Environ., 20-22 May 2011, pp. 131–138.

[8] L. Wang, X. Bu, and W. Ma, “Preparation and performance testing of silica gel/

calcium chloride composite adsorbents for waste heat adsorption refrigeration,” World

Autom. Congr., 24-28 June 2012, pp. 1–5.

[9] K. Thu, A. Chakraborty, Y.D. Kim, A. Myat, B.B. Saha, and K.C. Ng, “Numerical

simulation and performance investigation of an advanced adsorption desalination

cycle,” Desalination, vol. 308, pp. 209–218, Jan. 2013.

[10] K.C. Ng, K. Thu, Y. Kim, A. Chakraborty, and G. Amy, “Adsorption desalination: An

emerging low-cost thermal desalination method,” Desalination, vol. 308, pp. 161–179,

Jan. 2013.

[11] S. Mitra, K. Srinivasan, P. Kumar, S.S. Murthy, and P. Dutta, “Solar driven adsorption

desalination system,” Energ. Proc., vol. 49, 2261–2269, 2014.

[12] B.B. Saha, A. Akisawa, and T. Kashiwagi, “Silica gel water advanced adsorption

refrigeration cycle,” Energy, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 437–447, 1997.

[13] B.B. Saha, A. Akisawa, and T. Kashiwagi, “Thermodynamic analysis of adsorption

refrigeration cycles,” in Proc. Inter. Energ. Conv. Eng. Conf., 27 Jul–1 Aug 1997, vol.

2, pp. 1258–1264.

[14] B.B. Saha, A. Akisawa, and T. Kashiwagi, “Solar/waste heat driven two-stage

adsorption chiller: the prototype,” Renew. Energ., vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 93–101, May

2001.

[15] B.B. Saha, S. Koyama, T. Kashiwagi, A. Akisawa, K.C. Ng, and H.T. Chua, “Waste

heat driven dual-mode, multi-stage, multi-bed regenerative adsorption system,” Int. J.

Refrig. vol. 26, no. 7, pp. 749–757, Nov. 2003.

[16] S. Mitra, P. Kumar, K. Srinivasan, and P. Dutta, “Simulation study of a two-stage

adsorber system,” Appl. Therm. Eng., vol. 72, no. 2, pp. 283–288, Nov. 2014.

[17] S. Mitra, P. Kumar, K. Srinivasan, and P. Dutta, “Silica gel + water adsorber chiller and

desalination system: a transient heat transfer study,” ASME J. Therm. Sci. Eng. Appl.,

(in press).

[18] M. Becker, D. Oestreich, H. Hasse, and L. Litz, “Fuzzy control for temperature and

humidity in refrigeration systems,” in Proc. Third IEEE Conf. Control Appl., 24-26

Aug 1994, vol. 3, pp.1607–1612.

[19] S.A. Tassou, and T.Q. Qureshi, “Performance of a variable-speed inverter/motor drive

for refrigeration applications,” Comput. Contr. Eng. J., vol. 5, no. 4, pp.193–199, Aug.

1994.

[20] H. Rasmussen, and L.F.S. Larsen, “Non-linear and adaptive control of a refrigeration

system,” IET Contr. Theor. Appl., vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 364–378, Jan. 2011.

[21] I.M. MacLeod, and A. Stothert, “Distributed intelligent control for a mine refrigeration

system,” IEEE Contr. Syst. Mag., vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 31–38, Apr. 1998.

[22] L.S. Larsen, C. Thybo, J. Stoustrup, and H. Rasmussen, “Control methods utilizing

energy optimizing schemes in refrigeration systems,” in Proc. European Control Conf.,

1-4 Sept. 2003, pp. 1973–1977.

[23] J. Primozic, and R. Svecko, “Control in refrigeration systems,” in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf.

on Ind. Technol., 10-12 Dec. 2003, vol. 2, pp.1040–1045.

[24] N. Jain, Li. Bin, M. Keir, B. Hencey, and A. Alleyne, “Decentralized Feedback

Structures of a Vapour Compression Cycle System,”, IEEE Trans. Contr. Syst.

Technol., vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 185–193, Jan. 2010.

[25] E. Aridhi, M. Abbes, and A. Mami, “Temperature control in a cavity of refrigeration

using PI controller and predictive control,” in Proc. 15th Int. Conf. Sci. Tech. Autom.

Contr. Comput. Eng., 21-23 Dec. 2014, pp. 123–128.

[26] S.E. Shafiei, T. Knudsen, R. Wisniewski, and P. Andersen, “Data-driven predictive

direct load control of refrigeration systems,” IET Contr. Theor. Appl., vol. 9, no. 7, pp.

1022–1033, April 2015.

[27] A.El Fadar, A. Haddi, M. Becherif, and J. Jay, “Automation of a solar adsorption

refrigeration system,” in Proc. Int. Conf. Renew. Sust. Energ,, 7-9 March 2013, pp.

118–122.

[28] S. Mitra, P. Kumar, K. Srinivasan, and P. Dutta, “Performance evaluation of a two-

stage silica gel + water adsorption based cooling-cum-desalination system,” Int. J.

Refrig., vol. 58, 186–198, Oct. 2015.

[29] S. Mitra, P. Kumar, K. Srinivasan, and P. Dutta, “Development and performance of an

air cooled two-stage multi-bed silica gel + water adsorption system,” Int. J. Refrig.

(under review).
Low pressure High pressure
steam in steam out

1. Adsorption 2. Preheating 3. Desorption 4. Precooling

Fig. 1: Schematic of thermal compression cycle in an adsorption system

 T23 P12 T24
SV19
PLENUM-2
CONDENSER
Fn2
BV3
SV16 SV15 SV14 SV13 SV12 SV11 SV10 SV9
MV3
P13 T25
T21 T19 T17 T15
BED 2-4

BED 2-3

BED 2-2

BED 2-1
SV18
T26
P11

P10

P8
P9
T22 T20 T18 T16
MV4

P14
DESALINATED
T44 T43 T42 T39 T38 T37
T41 T40 WATER
F8 F7 F6 F5
WV15 WV13 WV11 WV9
MV7
T46

FCV16 WV16 FCV15 FCV14 WV14 FCV13 FCV12 WV12 FCV11 FCV10 WV10 FCV9
M2
HOT
T13 P7 T14
WATER
BV2 H6 H5
PLENUM-1
H4

SV8 SV7 SV6 SV5 SV4 SV3 SV2 SV1

AIR COOLER
T47

T11 T9 T7 T5
BED 1-4

BED 1-3

BED 1-2

BED 1-1
COLD M3
Fn1
WATER
P6

P5

P4

P3

T12 T10 T8 T6
MV8

T36 T35 T34 T33 T32 T31 T30 T29

F4 F3 F2 F1
WV7 WV5 WV3 WV1

T45
MV6
FCV8 WV8 FCV7 FCV6 WV6 FCV5 FCV4 WV4 FCV3 FCV2 WV2 FCV1
M1

MV1 HOT
MV2 WATER
SV17 H3 H2
T4 P2 P1 T2 BRACKISH
BRACKISH WATER H1
WATER T28 T27

BV1 EVAP-2 EVAP-1

T3 T1
MV5
CONSTANT
VACUUM PUMP TEMP M4
CHILLED WATER
BATH F9

Symbols Pipelines Symbols Valves Notations Symbols Components Notations

P Pressure sensor P
Chilled water circuit Butterfly valves (manual) BV

Cold water circuit Ball valves (manual) MV T Thermocouple T

3-way Water valves WV

F Water flow sensor F
Hot water circuit
Electrical heater H
Vapour circuit Water flow control valves FCV
Fans Fn
Vapour valves SV Water pump M

Fig. 2: Process instrumentation diagram for the adsorption cum desalination system
 Vapour valve Plenum-2

Plenum-1
Vapour pipeline
Hot water pipeline

3-way water valve

Cold water pipeline
Water flow control valve

Flowmeter
Chilled water line

Constant
Evaporator
temperature bath

Stage-2 Stage-1
Adsorber beds Adsorber beds

Control panel box

Fig.3: Photograph of the experimental setup

NI PXIe 8115 Real Time PXI PXIe PXI PXI Computer
Controller & DAQ 6239 4353 6512 6704

High speed
network

FLOW
SENSORS RELAY ARRAY

PRESSURE POWER FLOW CONTROL

SENSORS ON/OFF VALVES

DIGITAL Pilot 3-WAY WATER

THERMOCOUPLES
CONTROL solenoids VALVES

DIGITAL
CONTROL VAPOURVALVES
Sensor
panel switch
DIGITAL CONTACTORS
CONTROL +
OVERLOAD RELAYS
Control MCB
PXIe
Transformer
panel switch
HEATERS
Bus Bar

PUMPS

AC Mains FANS

Fig. 4a): Control and data acquisition architecture

Control
Transformer
Terminal
Blocks Bus Bar

NI Cards
24VDC
NI PXIe Supply 3 phase
Controller & DAQ MCCB

Fig. 4b): Photograph of control panel

 R-phase

Y-phase

B-phase

+24 VDC

Fuse MCB

RELAY

DIGITAL
OUTPUT

CONTACTOR
24 VDC
-24 VDC Coil

OLR

AC equipment

Fig. 5: Wiring diagram for actuating high power equipment using digital output card
 START STOP

Input hot water

set point (Ts)
Yes

Acquire hot water No

STOP pressed ?
tank temperature (Th)

Compute: diff = (Ts-Th)

Is Yes
diff >2.5 ? Operate 3 heaters

No

Is Yes
diff >1.5 ? Operate 2 heaters

No

Is Yes
diff >(−0.5) ? Operate 1 heater

No

Heaters OFF

Fig. 6: Heater control flowchart

 Manual
Input from user
interface Digital output loop
(valves, pumps)

Analog input loop

START (Pressure sensors) STOP
Inputs: Hardware/Software
i. Hot water set point Temperature interrupt
acquisition loop
Feedback

Heater control loop

Automated

Fig. 7: Manual and automated tasks during start up process

 Highest priority
Digital output loop
(valves, pumps & fans)

Analog output loop

(flow control valves)

START
Analog input loop
Inputs: (Flow & pressure sensors)
i. Adsorption time STOP
ii. Switching time Hardware/Software
iii. Hot water set point Temperature interrupt
iv. Data logging interval acquisition loop
v. Preset flow control
Feedback
valve positions

Heater control loop

Data logging loop

Lowest priority

Fig. 8: Automated system operation

 2tads  2t sw
2tads  t sw
tads  2t sw
tads  t sw
tads PROCESS

t sw Adsorption

Stage-1 BED 1 Preheating

Desorption
Stage-1 BED 2
Precooling
Stage-1 BED 3

Stage-1 BED 4

Stage-2 BED 1

Stage-2 BED 2

Stage-2 BED 3

Stage-2 BED 4

HALF CYCLE TIME

CYCLE TIME

Fig. 9: Timing scheme for bed operation

 START

Input tads , tsw

STOP
Initialize time; t = 0

t = t+1
No
Yes Yes
t < tsw? STATE 1 STOP pressed ?

No t = t+1
No
Yes Yes
t < tads ? STATE 2 STOP pressed ?

No t = t+1
No
Yes Yes
t < tads+ tsw? STATE 3 STOP pressed ?

No t = t+1
No
Yes Yes
t < tads+ 2tsw? STATE 4 STOP pressed ?

No t = t+1
No
Yes Yes
t < 2tads+ tsw? STATE 5 STOP pressed ?

No t = t+1
No
No Yes Yes
t < 2tads+ 2tsw? STATE 6 STOP pressed ?

Fig. 10: Flow chart of state machine implementation for DO loop

 90 40
Bed 1-2 inlet temp
Bed 1-2 bed temp
80 Bed 1-2 water flow
35
Temperature ( C)

Flow rate (Lpm)

70
Cold water flow

60 30

50
Hot water flow 25
40
Adsorption Desorption
30 20
0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600
a) Time (s)
Fig. 11 a)

90 40
Bed 2-2 inlet temp
Bed 2-2 bed temp
80 Bed 2-2 water flow
35
Temperature ( C)

Flow rate (Lpm)

70
Cold water flow

60 30

50
Hot water flow 25
40
Desorption Adsorption
30 20
0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600
b) Time (s)

Fig. 11 b)

Fig. 11: Temperature swings superposed on water flow dynamics for two-stage 2-bed mode

with half cycle time of 1800 s a) Stage-1 bed b) Stage-2 bed

 3.5 40
Bed 1-2 pressure
3.0 Bed 1-2 water flow pinter
35

Flow rate (Lpm)

2.5
Pressure (kPa)

Cold water flow

2.0 30

1.5
Hot water flow 25
pevap
1.0
Adsorption Desorption

0.5 20
0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600
a) Time (s)

Fig. 12 a)

8 40
Bed 2-2 pressure
7
Bed 2-2 water flow
pcond 35
6
Flow aret (Lpm)
Pressure (kPa)

Cold water flow

5
30
4
pinter
3 Hot water flow 25
2
Desorption Adsorption
1 20
0 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600
b) Time (s)

Fig. 12 b)

Fig. 12: Pressure curves superimposed on water flow dynamics for two-stage 2-bed mode

with half cycle time of 1800 s a) Stage-1 bed b) Stage-2 bed

 7 pcond 1200 s
1800 s
6
2400 s

5
Pressure (kPa)

Bed 2-2 (Precooling)

4 Pressure
jump

pinter
2 pevap
Beds
Bed 1-2 (Preheating)
interconnect
1
1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 2050
Time (s)

Fig. 13: Effect of half cycle time on bed pressure lifts for a constant switching time of 200 s
 12
Desalinated water (L/day)

0
1200 1800 2400
a) Half cycle time (s)

Fig. 14a)

350

300
Cooling capacity (W)

250

200

150

100

50

0
1200 1800 2400
b) Half cycle time (s)

Fig. 14b)
 0.20

0.15
COP

0.10

0.05

0.00
1200 1800 2400
c) Half cycle time (s)

Fig. 14c)

Fig. 14: Variation of system performance indicators with half cycle time a) Desalinated water

throughput b) Average cooling capacity b) COP

List of figures

Fig. 1: Schematic of thermal compression cycle in an adsorption system

Fig. 2: Process instrumentation diagram for the adsorption cum desalination system
Fig. 3: Photograph of the experimental setup
Fig. 4: a) Control and data acquisition architecture b) Photograph of control panel
Fig. 5: Wiring diagram for actuating high power equipment using digital output card
Fig. 6: Heater control flowchart
Fig. 7: Manual and automated tasks during start up process
Fig. 8: Automated system operation
Fig. 9: Timing scheme for bed operation
Fig. 10: Flow chart of state machine implementation for DO loop
Fig. 11: Temperature swings superposed on water flow dynamics for two-stage 2-bed mode
with half cycle time of 1800 s a) Stage-1 bed b) Stage-2 bed
Fig. 12: Pressure curves superimposed on water flow dynamics for two-stage 2-bed mode
with half cycle time of 1800 s a) Stage-1 bed b) Stage-2 bed
Fig. 13: Effect of half cycle time on bed pressure lifts for a constant switching time of 200 s
Fig. 14: Variation of system performance indicators with half cycle time a) Desalinated water
throughput b) Average cooling capacity b) COP
Table 1: Specifications of various sensors

NI Card
Sensor Type Range Accuracy Location Output
used
(0.1–50) kPa
Pressure Capacitance ±0.05 kPa Vapour circuit 4–20 mA PXI 6239
absolute
±0.2°C
T-type Vapour and
Temperature (-250–300)°C (in range 5– μV PXIe 4353
thermocouple water circuit
85°C)
(0.1–100) Lpm ±1 % of
Flow Magneto-inductive Water circuit 4–20 mA PXI 6239
(0.1–50) Lpm measured value

Table 2: Specifications of various automated valves

Actuation Response NI Card

Valve Input Power Location Input Control
type Time used
Electro- compressed Vapour
Vapor valve <800 ms Digital (24 VDC) PXI 6512
pneumatic air (6–8 bar) circuit
Digital
3-way water compressed <1 s
Pneumatic Water circuit (24 VDC pilot PXI 6512
valve air (6–8 bar)
solenoid)
Flow control 24 VDC Analog (4–20 PXI 6239 &
Motorized <15 s Water circuit
valve (0.2–0.8 A) mA) 6704

Table 3: Binary array for valve operation corresponding to each state

BED 1-1 BED 1-2 BED 1-3 BED 1-4 BED 2-1 BED 2-2 BED 2-3 BED 2-4
WV10

WV11
WV12

WV13
WV14

WV15
WV16
SV10

SV11
SV12

SV13
SV14

SV15
SV16
WV1
WV2

WV3
WV4

WV5
WV6

WV7
WV8

WV9
SV1
SV2

SV3
SV4

SV5
SV6

SV7
SV8

SV9

STATES

State-1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
State-2 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
State-3 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0
State-4 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1
State-5 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1
State-6 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1
Stop 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Table 4: Preset current values for flow control valve

BED 1-2

BED 1-3

BED 1-4
BED 1-1

BED 2-1

BED 2-2

BED 2-3

BED 2-4

Adsorbers
FCV10

FCV11

FCV12

FCV13

FCV14

FCV15

FCV16
FCV1

FCV2

FCV3

FCV4

FCV5

FCV6

FCV7

FCV8

FCV9

Valves
Cold

Cold

Cold

Cold
Cold

Cold

Cold

Cold
Hot

Hot

Hot

Hot

Hot

Hot

Hot

Hot

Water Circuit
10.0

13.5

11.0

14.5

10.0

14.0

10.0

14.0

11.5

13.5

10.5

13.5

10.0

15.0

11.0

14.5

Control current (mA)