Experimental study on adsorption desalination (AD) cycle for simultaneous production of cooling effect and fresh water

Abstract

Adsorption desalination (AD) system is considered to be an environmentally-friendly and yet low-cost desalination technology that can produce two useful effects, i.e., high-grade fresh water and chilled water for cooling, using a low-temperature waste heat source. In this study, in order to design and fabricate the pilot-scale AD system that employs commercially-available silica gel as an adsorbent, its physical properties are analyzed by adsorption-desorption isotherms of nitrogen on silica gel at 77 K, followed by an evaluation of the adsorption isotherms of water vapor used as an adsorbate. Then, the performance evaluation of the pilot-scale AD system housed in Hanyang University has been experimentally carried out for a wide range of heat source temperature and feed water quality. Here, its performance is assessed in terms of specific daily water production (SDWP) and specific cooling capacity (SCC). ？ 2018 The Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers.