THE PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF A SOLAR ADSORPTION HEAT PUMP UTILIZING ZEOLITE COATINGS ON METAL SUPPORTS

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The presence of temperature and concentration gradients inside a solar collector may decrease the efficiency of a solar adsorption heat pump. In this study, an arrangement involving zeolite synthesized on metal wire gauzes is proposed.in order to remove any possible limitations originating from the inefficient heat and mass transfer inside the solar collector. Accordingly, zeolite 4A is envisioned to be synthesized as continuous coatings on stainless steel wire gauzes which are assumed to be placed in the collector vertically in a manner assuring a firm contact between the absorber plate and the wire gauzes. A related mathematical model is presented which is solved by using the Euler-explicit, finite difference scheme and the effects of such an arrangement on the COP values, indicators of the efficiency of the solar adsorption heat pumps, are investigated. The mass of the zeolite and the inert materials, as well as the condenser and evaporator temperatures are taken into consideration. As a result, no possible drawback concerning the design of such an arrangement is anticipated and a zeolite layer thickness around 50-100μm; is determined to be sufficient to neglect the adverse effect of the mass of the metal wire gauzes on the efficiency of the solar adsorption heat pumps