Energy Conversion and Management 45 (2004) 2761–2775

www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Modeling and simulation of a solar powered two

bed adsorption air conditioning system
Li Yong, K. Sumathy *

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong
Received 5 December 2002; received in revised form 25 September 2003; accepted 9 December 2003
Available online 28 January 2004

Abstract
A simple lumped parameter model is established to investigate the performance of a solar powered
adsorption air conditioning system driven by flat-type solar collectors with three different configurations of
glazes: (i) single glazed cover; (ii) double glazed cover and (iii) transparent insulation material (TIM) cover.
The dynamic performance of a continuous adsorption cycle using a double adsorber along with heat
recovery is measured in terms of the temperature histories, gross solar coefficient of performance and
specific cooling power. Also, the influences of some important design and operational parameters on the
performance of the system are studied. It is found that the chosen three types of collector configurations
make no big difference on the performance, but the adsorbent mass and lumped capacitance have signif-
icant effects on the system performance as well as on the system size. Simulation results indicate that the
effect of overall heat transfer coefficient is not predominant if the cycle duration is longer. Also, there exists
an optimum time to initiate the heating of the adsorbent bed in a dayÕs operation.

2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Solar energy; Air conditioning; Adsorption; Simulation

1. Introduction

Adsorption refrigeration systems present the advantages of being absolutely benign for the
environment, having zero ozone depletion potential (ODP) as well as zero global warming po-
tential (GWP). Also, refrigeration is an attractive application of solar energy because the supply

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +852-28592632; fax: +852-28585415.
E-mail address: ksumathy@hkucc.hku.hk (K. Sumathy).

0196-8904/$ - see front matter
2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2003.12.004
2762 L. Yong, K. Sumathy / Energy Conversion and Management 45 (2004) 2761–2775

Nomenclature

A area (m2 )
cp specific heat at constant pressure (kJ/kg K)
COPsolar solar powered coefficient of performance
Fc collector heat recovery factor
DH heat of adsorption (J/kg)
I solar radiation (W/m2 )
L latent heat of vaporization (J/mol)
m mass (kg)
p pressure (Pa)
q adsorbate intake (kg/kg adsorbent)
SCP specific cooling production (W/kg)
t time (s)
T temperature (K)
DTm log mean temperature difference in adsorber
U overall heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)
UL overall heat loss coefficient (W/m2 K) of heat tank and solar collector
W lumped capacitance (thermal capacities of plate, connecting pipes, storage tank and
water therein) (J/K)
Greek letters
(as) effective absorptivity–transmittance product
q density (kg/m3 )
sc cycle time
Subscripts
a adsorbate
ad adsorbent bed
A adsorbent bed A
B adsorbent bed B
c collector
mt metal
p plate
w water
wt water tank
z adsorbent

of sunshine and the need for refrigeration reach maximum levels in the same season. In the last
two decades, various solar powered refrigeration systems have been studied. Compared with the
existing absorption systems, adsorption systems can be built in small scale and can be operated
with no moving parts, which means that the rectifier or solution pump are not needed. Also, there
exists no corrosion problem in adsorption systems.
 L. Yong, K. Sumathy / Energy Conversion and Management 45 (2004) 2761–2775 2763

The performance of a solar sorption refrigerator has been studied by Critoph and Tamainot-
telto [1] experimentally for three different configurations of its collector cover: single glazing,
double glazing and single glazing plus transparent insulation (TIM). Similarly, Li and Sumathy [2]
have conducted tests on a solid adsorption ice making system with activated carbon and methanol
as the working pair. It has been reported that using a simple flat plate collector with an exposed
area of 0.92 m2 , it was possible to produce about 4–5 kg/day of ice. Boubakri et al. [3] have
proposed a model to simulate the operating performance of an adsorptive solar powered ice
maker, which has been validated experimentally. This global model could also estimate the limits
of ice production by means of adsorptive collector–condenser technology. The daily ice pro-
duction (DIP) could reach about 11.5 kg/m2 of collector, and the corresponding COP was about
19%. Recently, a new hybrid system of solar powered water heater and adsorption icemaker has
been proposed by Wang et al. [4]. In their system, the adsorber of the adsorption icemaker is
placed in a water bath that is powered directly by a vacuum solar collector.
Various solar powered heating systems, using collectors of the flat plate type, vacuum tube
type, heat pipe vacuum tube etc., have been commercialized. In a developing country like China, a
solar water heater has been marketed for about 1 billion Yuan per year [4]. They are usually used
during the spring, autumn and winter seasons, but in summer, the heating requirement decreases
and the cooling requirement increases. In general, for any solar-operated system, the collectors
have been the most expensive component, and hence, they should be utilized for different
applications suitable to different seasons. An attempt is made in this study to utilize the collectors
used in the water heating system (during winter) as the heat source to energize an adsorption
refrigeration/air conditioning system (during summer) with relatively low investment.
The literature shows that solar-powered adsorption systems have mostly been intermittent and
used only for ice making applications. For applications such as air conditioning, when the tem-
perature requirement is only around 6–8 C, two or more adsorption beds can be used to produce
a cooling effect continuously. Two bed systems using different heat sources have been studied
intensively in recent years. Saha et al. [5] studied the use of adsorption cycles driven by waste heat
of near ambient temperature. Sami and Tribes [6] have developed a lumped parameter model to
predict the dynamic performance of such adsorption cycles with single and/or double adsorbers,
but with electrical resistance as a heat source. However, very few reports have addressed the
performance of a solar powered continuous adsorption system. In this paper, a lumped parameter
model has been established to investigate the performance of a solar powered adsorption air
conditioning system driven by simple flat plate solar collectors with three different configurations
of glazes: (i) single glazed cover, (ii) double glazed cover and (iii) transparent insulation material
(TIM) cover. The temperature profile of the heat storage tank and two adsorbers has been
analyzed, and the influences of some important design/operational parameters on the perfor-
mance of the system have been reported in this study.

2. System description

Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram of the continuous adsorption air conditioning system
considered in this study. The main focus here is to modify the existing solar water heater and use it
2764 L. Yong, K. Sumathy / Energy Conversion and Management 45 (2004) 2761–2775

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the solar powered continuous air conditioning system.

as an air conditioning system in summer. The collectors and the storage tank of the ‘‘solar water
heater’’ are used as the heat source for heating the adsorbent beds. The modified system consists
of the following components: (1) a flat plate solar collector; (2) two tanks to store hot and cold
water, respectively; (3) two adsorbers (A and B); (4) a condenser; and (5) an evaporator.
To begin, the solar energy gained through the collector is accumulated in tank 1, and when the
water reaches the required temperature, tank 1 is connected to adsorber A to heat and desorb the
refrigerant (adsorbate) from the adsorbent (desorption phase). The refrigerant vapor is, in turn,
cooled in the condenser and then passed to the evaporator, wherein it again gets evaporated at low
pressure, thereby providing cooling to the space to be cooled. During the same period, adsorber B
adsorbs the refrigerant vapor leaving the evaporator. The cooling water from tank 2 removes the
heat of adsorption and condensation.
Hence, the operation of the system follows a periodic succession of cycles. That is, at any time
of operation, when adsorber A is in the desorption process (heating period), adsorber B will be in
the adsorption process (cooling period). These periods are separated by isosteric heating and
cooling of the adsorbers. In order to increase the efficiency of the system, at the end of each
desorption phase, adsorbers (A and B) are connected with each other to recover heat. As a
consquence, it is possible to attain a continuous production of cooling (i.e. 50–90% depending on
the cycle time).
The entire system operation can be grouped into four time periods, i.e. (i) time duration to
preheat the water in the tank to the required temperature; (ii) duration in which adsorber A/B is in
the desorption phase; (iii) heat recovery phase; (iv) duration in which adsorber A/B is in the
adsorption phase. This operational scheme is referred to as the base case, and the respective time
periods are shown in Fig. 2. The Ôcycle timeÕ refers to the time to accomplish the above said three
time periods which includes the times for desorption, heat recovery and adsorption.
 L. Yong, K. Sumathy / Energy Conversion and Management 45 (2004) 2761–2775 2765

Fig. 2. Base case operational scheme.

One of the objectives in the present study is to identify a suitable collector cover from the three
available configurations: transparent insulation material cover, single glazed cover and double
glazed cover. Honeycomb Transparent Insulation Materials (TIM) make use of the thermal
insulation properties of a stagnant air layer and are characterized by low convection heat loss. On
the other hand, the single glazed cover can attain a high solar transmittance, but its heat loss is
significant. The collector absorptivity–transmissivity product for the different configurations,
which changes with the angle of incidence, is adopted based on experiments [7,8].

3. Mathematical model

In order to analyse the evolution of the heat transfer process in the adsorbent bed, which is the
heart of the system, and to identify the parameters that influence the system performance, a
mathematical model has been developed. To simplify the model, the following assumptions are
made:

• Temperature and pressure in the components are uniform.

• Thermodynamic equilibrium exists in the adsorber at any given time.
• Mass transfer resistance in the adsorbent bed is negligible.
• Specific heat and density of dry adsorbent and water are constant.
• Cooling ability of the condenser is unlimited, and the temperature of evaporation is constant.

Based on the assumptions stated above, a lumped parameter model has been developed. The
governing equations for the heat transfer process are derived by considering energy balances on
tank 1 and the adsorbers. To simplify the equations, the heat capacity of the solar collector,
connecting pipes, tank 1 and water are lumped together (W ).
The radiation intensity on a horizontal plane is assumed to vary sinusoidally from sunrise to
sunset according to


ph
I ¼ Imax sin ð1Þ
L
where Imax is the maximum intensity of solar radiation occurring at solar noon, L the length of the
day and h the difference between the time of the day (at a given instant) and the sunrise time in
hours.
The total intensity of radiation (Qt ) is obtained from:
Z
Qt ¼ Ac I dt ð2Þ
2766 L. Yong, K. Sumathy / Energy Conversion and Management 45 (2004) 2761–2775

The rate at which energy is absorbed by the collector is balanced by the following: (1) increase
in internal energy of the lumped capacitance, (2) heat loss from the solar collector and (3) heat
transferred to the adsorbent bed. Hence
W dTwt
Fc Ac IðasÞ ¼ þ UL Ac ðTwt  TA Þ þ Uad Aad ðTwt  Tad Þ ð3Þ
dt
It should be recognized that during the first period and third period (Fig. 2), the third term
given in the above equation equals zero. The overall heat loss coefficient UL , corresponding to
single glazed, double glazed and TIM covered collector, are used from experimental data [1].
During the desorption period, the energy balance of the adsorbent bed is given as
dTad dq
ðmmt cp mt þ mz cp z þ mz qcp a Þ ¼ mz DH þ Uad Aad ðTwt  Tad Þ ð4Þ
dt dt
The left hand side of Eq. (4) represents the sensible heat of the adsorber shell, adsorbent and
adsorbate. On the right hand side, the first term gives the heat of desorption for the amount of
refrigerant desorbed, and the second term shows the total amount of heat transferred from tank 1
to the adsorber.
Similarly, the energy equation during the adsorption process is given by
dTad dq dq
ðmmt cp mt þ mz cp z þ mz qcp a Þ ¼ mz DH þ Uad Aad ðTwt  Tad Þ þ mz cp a ðTe  Tz Þ ð5Þ
dt dt dt
The third term on the RHS of Eq. (5) represents the sensible heat to increase the temperature of
the refrigerant vapor from the evaporation temperature to the adsorption temperature.
The heat transferred between the water and the adsorber is determined by the overall heat
transfer coefficient Uad Aad . The heat exchange between the two adsorbers can be expressed as
dTadB dqB
ðmmt cp mt þ mz cp z þ mz qcp a Þ ¼ mz DH þ Uad Aad DTmB ð6Þ
dt dt
dTadA dqA
ðmmt cp mt þ mz cp z þ mz qcp a Þ ¼ mz DH þ Uad Aad DTmA ð7Þ
dt dt
Adsorption equilibrium is assumed, and the modified Dubinin–Astakhov (D–A) equation is
used to estimate the adsorbate intake:

n 
T
q ¼ q0 exp  k 1 ð8Þ
Tsat
The performance of the adsorption cooling system considered in this study is evaluated by three
performance factors, such as the cooling production, the gross solar coefficient of performance
(COPsolar ) and specific cooling power (SCP). The cooling production is the refrigerant latent heat
of evaporation minus the sensible heat to cool the refrigerant from the condensation temperature
to the evaporation temperature and is given by
Qev ¼ mz ðq2  q1 Þ½LðTev Þ  cpr ðTc  Tev Þ ð9Þ
The coefficient of performance (COP) of an adsorption cycle may be defined in the most general
terms as the ratio of the useful thermal energy moved in or out of the cycle, to that of the high
 L. Yong, K. Sumathy / Energy Conversion and Management 45 (2004) 2761–2775 2767

temperature thermal energy used in effecting this movement. More specifically, in the solar
powered cooling mode, the gross (available) solar COP is equal to the heat flow into the evap-
orator divided by the radiation energy reaching the solar collector:
Qev
COPsolar ¼ ð10Þ
Qt
The specific cooling power is defined as the ratio between the cooling production and the cycle
time per unit of adsorbent weight:
Qev
SCP ¼ ð11Þ
mz s c
The specific cooling power reflects the size of the system, since it relates both the mass of
adsorbent and the cooling power. For a nominal cooling load, higher SCP values indicate the
compactness of the system.

4. Results and discussion

The set of differential equations listed in Section 3 was first normalized and then solved
simultaneously by a fourth order Runge–Kutta method. The time step was varied from 1 to 10 s,
based on the length of the cycle time. During each time step, iterations were performed to obtain a
converged solution. The adsorbent/adsorbate pair used in this work is activated carbon and
methanol.
To assess the validity of the proposed model, the dynamics of heat transfer in the presence of
adsorption/desorption were simulated for the case of a single adsorber heated by an oil tank
employed in the experimental studies of Sami and co-workers [6,9]. A detailed description of the
experimental system and procedure can be found in Refs. [6,9], and only the parameters and data
that are directly relevant to the present theoretical analysis are presented here. The experimental
unit comprises an adsorber packed with 19.5 kg of AC35. The oil flow was heated using steam at
120 C and an electrical resistance heater of 2.3 kW was used to achieve high generating tem-
peratures. The adsorber was cooled using water at 14 C during the cooling phase. The cycle
duration was 3.5 h, and the other operational conditions are presented in Table 1.
The predicted adsorbent bed temperature using the present model and the experimental data
obtained for a single adsorber are presented in Fig. 3. It is quite clear that the overall temperature
history is qualitatively predicted well. It should be noticed that there exists a small difference in
values wherein the temperature during the desorption phase is underestimated and that during the
adsorption phase is marginally overestimated. This may be due to the fact that the predicted
temperature represents an average temperature obtained using the lumped model, whereas in the

Table 1
Thermodynamical conditions for the experimental AC35-methanol heat pump cycle in Refs. [6] and [9]
Initial temperature (ambient temperature) Tini ¼ 20 C
Temperature at the beginning of the isosteric heating phase Tads ¼ 40 C
Temperature at the end of the desorption phase Tmax ¼ 125 C
2768 L. Yong, K. Sumathy / Energy Conversion and Management 45 (2004) 2761–2775

Fig. 3. Measured and calculated temperature of the adsorbent bed.

experiments, the temperature had been measured at typical locations. Also, in the present model,
the condenser and evaporator is assumed to be ideal heat exchangers that have unlimited capacity.
As mentioned before, the main purpose of the model is to predict the performance of the different
components in a two bed adsorption air conditioning systems, such as the collector, tank and
adsorber. Hence, the proposed simple lumped model is found to be acceptable in predicting the
dynamic performance of adsorption systems.
Various parameters used in the simulation are mainly adopted from previous experimental re-
sults [6,10] and are summarized in Table 2. In Hong Kong, the ambient temperature varies between
25 and 30 C in summer. In an air cooled or water cooled adsorption/absorption system, the
condensation and adsorption/absorption temperature mainly depends on the prevailing ambient
temperature. Hence, the operational conditions listed in Table 3 have been chosen to study the
performance of the air conditioning system. As mentioned earlier, the study has been conducted,
for three different collector configurations and their characteristics are listed in Table 4.
Fig. 4 shows the hot water temperature profile in the system for three different collector con-
figurations. Also shown in the figure is the typical variation in the intensity of radiation received
by the collector on a given day. For any given collector type, it is seen that the hot water tem-
perature increases slowly in the beginning because of the low intensity of radiation during the
early hours of the day. As the day progresses, with the increase in intensity of radiation, the
temperature increases rapidly. When the water temperature in tank 1 reaches point 1, it is con-
nected to adsorber A, and hence, a slight dip in the temperature is observed. Beyond that, the
temperature of the hot water increases. At point 2, yet another dip is noticed, which indicates that
tank 1 is connected to adsorber B. Beyond 13:00 h, the increase in temperature is very slow, which
is due to the fact that not only does the solar radiation intensity decrease, but also the losses from
the collector are high because of the higher temperature in the system. This effect is prominently
reflected for a system with a single glazed cover. This is because, though the transmittance–
absorptance product is higher (effecting the rapid increase in temperature during early hours), the
heat loss coefficient is higher for the single glazed cover (Table 4), which becomes more dominant
with the increase in temperature difference between the collector and ambient temperature.
 L. Yong, K. Sumathy / Energy Conversion and Management 45 (2004) 2761–2775 2769

Table 2
Adsorber parameters adopted in the simulation
Parameters Value
Adsorbent (active carbon)
Heat capacity of the adsorbent 805 J/(kg K)
Density of the adsorbent 500 kg/m3
k 10.21
n 1.39
q0 0.284
Heat of adsorption 1,100,000 J/kg
Adsorbate (methanol)
Heat capacity 750 J/(kg K)
Metal
Heat capacity 938 J/(kg K)
Density 2675 kg/m3
Thermal conductivity 83 W/m K
Adsorber
Adsorbent mass 20 kga
Metal mass 18.6 kga
Overall heat transfer coefficient Uad 50 W/(m2 K)a
Heat transfer area in adsorber Aad 3 m2a
a
Input parametric study data for base case.

Table 3
Operational conditions for the continuous adsorption cycle
Operating conditions
Condensation temperature 30 C
Evaporation temperature 7 C
Ambient temperature 25 C
Adsorption temperature 30 C

Table 4
Parameters for different collector configurations
Collector configuration Single glazing Double glazing TIM
Lumped capacitance 4.97 · 105 J/K 5.1 · 105 J/K 5.4 · 105 J/K
Heat loss coefficient 4.94 W/(m2 K) 2.47 W/(m2 K) 1.57 W/(m2 K)

In order to understand the operation of the proposed two bed adsorption system, the tem-
perature distribution in tank 1 and adsorbers A and B are plotted in Fig. 5. It can be seen that
when tank 1 is connected to the adsorber A (point 1), there exists a large temperature difference
between the hot water and the adsorber, which, in turn, enhances the heating process, and within
a short period of time (about 25 min), the adsorber could reach close to the hot water temper-
ature. With progressive heating, the temperature of adsorber A rises along with the temperature
2770 L. Yong, K. Sumathy / Energy Conversion and Management 45 (2004) 2761–2775

Fig. 4. Variation in temperature profile for three kinds of collector configurations.

Fig. 5. Temporal history of the system for the base case.

of water tank 1 with negligible difference. Hence, the lumped model proposed in this study is
sufficient to predict precisely the temperature variation in the system. However, it should be
understood that, this lumped model is only valid for relatively thin adsorbent beds and long cycle
times. In the present study, the cycle time (includes time for desorption, heat recovery and
adsorption) is assumed to be 6 h, as shown for the base case in Fig. 2. If the cycle time becomes
too short, say about 1 h, the temperature difference becomes significant and the temperature
profile becomes eratic (as shown in Fig. 6), reflecting an inhomogeneous temperature distribution
in the bed, and the proposed lumped capacitance model is not able to predict the performance of
the system accurately. In such circumstances, one has to resort to a more complicated model that
 L. Yong, K. Sumathy / Energy Conversion and Management 45 (2004) 2761–2775 2771

Fig. 6. Temporal history of the system for 1 h cycle time.

includes both heat and mass transfer processes to predict and analyse the temperature distribution
in the system.
To identify the right choice of collector glazing, simulations were performed to study the effect
of the earlier mentioned three different collector configurations on the performance of the system
in terms of solar cooling power (SCP) and COPsolar . Fig. 7 shows that both the TIM and double
glazed collectors could achieve a relatively higher performance, compared to the single glazed
collector, and the difference between their performances is not significant. Since the manufac-
turing cost of the TIM cover is high, from an economic point of view, it is recommended to use a

Fig. 7. Base case performance for different collector configurations.

2772 L. Yong, K. Sumathy / Energy Conversion and Management 45 (2004) 2761–2775

double glazed collector to energize a continuous adsorption system. These results agree well with
the experimental results [1] obtained for an intermittent system.
The above discussed results pertain to a given collector area (3 m2 ). It would be interesting and
informative to study its effect on the performance of the adsorption cooling system. Though the
COPsolar and cooling production increase with the increase in collector area (Fig. 8(a) and (b)), the
COPsolar reduces beyond 5 m2 . This is due to the fact that the cooling production does not increase
much once the water temperature reaches above 100 C. Hence, with further increase in the
temperature, the cooling production remains stable, but the COPsolar reduces. It can also be seen
in this figure that the performance of the system driven by the single glazed collector is always
lower compared to a double glazed or TIM collector, and this confirms that double glazed col-
lectors can be used as the heat source, which costs less than TIM covered collectors. Hence,
further parametric study is conducted for the system with double glazed collectors.
In the results discussed so far, the lumped capacitance is assumed to be constant. It is essential
to know whether this parameter affects the performance of the system or not. For the given
modified adsorption hybrid system, the change in lumped capacitance can only be achieved by
varying the amount of water used in the tank to be heated. Hence, the analysis is performed for
different tank volumes. It is seen that, in general, the system COP decreases with the increase in
tank volume as shown in Fig. 9. It is obvious that for low tank volumes (representing less volume
of water), the water could attain the required desorption temperature much earlier, which effects
the system performance. Hence, it is recommended to use the minimum required amount of water
(low tank volumes), depending on the desired temperature difference when tank 1 is connected to
adsorber A/B, to initiate desorption. Nevertheless, to ensure no phase change occurs in the col-
lectors (assuming that the outlet of the collector is connected to 1/4 of the tank volume), the
minimum volume should be about 0.05 m3 .
Having analyzed the influence of the tank volume, the effect of adsorbent mass on the system
performance is shown in Fig. 10. It can be seen that the SCP is more sensitive and decreases with
the increase in adsorbent mass. Similarly, the COPsolar and cooling production increases as long as

Fig. 8. Effect of collector area on (a) COP; (b) cooling production.

 L. Yong, K. Sumathy / Energy Conversion and Management 45 (2004) 2761–2775 2773

Fig. 9. Effect of water tank volume on the COP and SCP of the system.

Fig. 10. Variation in the COP and SCP with the adsorbent mass.

the adsorbent mass is less than 60 kg. The increase in adsorbent mass indicates more methanol
being adsorbed initially. Hence, during the desorption phase, more methanol vapour can be de-
sorbed, which produces more cooling and thereby results in high COPsolar . On the other hand, if
the mass of adsorbent is increased to more than 60 kg, the COPsolar as well as the cooling pro-
duction decreases. This is because, with the given heat input, only the bed could be heated, and
this is not sufficient to desorb the required amount of methanol. For the given system, a maximum
COPsolar of 0.09 is achieved for an adsorbent mass of 60 kg.
To determine the effect of the overall heat transfer coefficient (UA) on the performance, its
value is changed from 50 to 400 W/K, implying improvement of the heat transfer coefficient for
the adsorber either by heat transfer area intensification or by bed conductivity. The analysis (Fig.
11) shows that UA does not have a pronounced impact on the given system, which may probably
2774 L. Yong, K. Sumathy / Energy Conversion and Management 45 (2004) 2761–2775

Fig. 11. Influence of the overall heat transfer coefficient on the COP and SCP.

be due to the fact that the cycle time is long enough to complete the required amount of
desorption. However, for shorter cycle times, it is expected that UA will have a tremendous
impact on the system performance.
As mentioned before, the analysis has been performed assuming the water in tank 1 is pre-
heated for 4 h, such that tank 1 is connected to adsorber A at 10:00 h (base case). In order to
identify its influence, the starting time (time at the start of the first cycle) is varied from 8:00 to
14:00 h. It is seen from Fig. 12 that the first cycle begins when tank 1 is connected to adsorber A
to initiate desorption. It is quite evident from this figure that the performance varies with a change
in starting time. If the starting time is delayed, the performance increases due to the fact that the
water gets more heated, which would, in turn, increase the desportion temperature. For any

Fig. 12. Starting time vs. COP and SCP.

 L. Yong, K. Sumathy / Energy Conversion and Management 45 (2004) 2761–2775 2775

cooling system, it is always preferred to have a higher desorption temperature, but lower
adsorption temperature. However, if the starting time is delayed beyond noon, the performance
reduces because of two reasons: the heat loss becomes significant, and the system could only
perform a few cycles in the operating period. Hence, there exists an optimum starting time to
initiate the desorption process. For the given system, it turns out to be around 10:00 to 12:00 h.

5. Conclusion

A lumped parameter model is established to investigate the performance of a solar powered

adsorption air conditioning system driven by flat-type solar collectors. One of the major contri-
butions of the model is its simplicity and convenience in analyzing the performance of such hybrid
systems. The main feature of the present system is that the existing solar hot water system is
modified to serve as an adsorption cooling system. Hence, this hybrid system could be used both
in summer as well as winter for the desired application. The temperature profile shows that the
proposed model can predict the dynamic response of adsorption systems well for the given
operational conditions. It is found that the chosen three types of collector configurations make no
big impact on the performance, and so, from the economic point of view, a flat plate collector with
double glazed cover can be used as the heat source. The theoretical analysis shows that both the
adsorbent mass and lumped capacitance have significant effects on the system performance as well
as on the system size. The study also shows that there exists an optimum time to initiate the
desorption process, and the proposed lumped parameter model is only applicable to analyse
system performance with thin adsorbent beds and longer cycle durations.

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