Performance modelling of a two-bed silica gel-water pair adsorption chiller

• Adsorption chiller performance was improved with the heat and mass recovery model to overcome a discontinuous process. • An innovative technique including thermal energy storage for optimal stand-alone adsorption chiller during nighttime and low peak was carried out. • Performance evaluation revealed that COP increased from51 % - 62 % as well as SCP out of 750 W/kg −1500 W/kg. In this study, thermodynamic modelling of a two-bed silica gel-water pair adsorption cycle using the first and second laws of thermodynamics was presented. The adsorption chiller included thermal energy storage to overcome any limitations and unbalance during the night. Furthermore, the performance of heat and mass recovery model was compiled and then compared to the intermittent cycle. Results have proved that heat and mass recovery model significantly rose the system's performance while compare to a discontinuous process. With heat and mass recovery model, the system's performance (COP) rose from 51 to 63 %, while the Specific Cooling Power (SCP) rose out of750–1500 W/kg. In addition, performance parameters such as COP and SCP depend highly on desorption temperature and the maximum concentration of refrigerant during adsorption. This study results revealed that the driving temperature gives the greatest performance coefficient of the cycle 0.93 because of the mass variation of the adsorbate and the increase of maximum concentration of refrigerant W max from 0.07- 0.1 kg/kgSiO2. Since heat is expelled from the system during cooling phase, cooling water limits the chiller's performance at0.23; thenlonger cycle time lowers the driving heat consumption. Finally, adsorption chiller operation with thermal energy storage is predictable given the output hot water temperature of 95 °C.