Experimental assessment of cooling power of water adsorption on nano-tailored microporous silica in a downscaled system

This work focuses on experimental assessment of nano-tailored microporous silica doped with 1.5 % of aluminium in adsorption chiller application. The mean pore size of the selected material is ~1.8 nm. The addition of aluminium shows a significant increment of the adsorption of water in the experimental setup in the lower region of adsorption. The tested amount was approximately 100 grams in a closed-loop one cycle adsorption chiller system in a fully controlled environment to test the energy output and energy capacity of the material in combination with the water evaporative cooling in downscaled system. The material was tested under different conditions focusing on input temperature and cooling output at different flowrates. Compared to the theoretical values based on the measurements of adsorption isotherms the actual experimental values exhibit diminution in all parameters due to various thermal losses in the practical system. The potential of the material, however, shows better results in comparison to many other typical adsorption materials for this application such as silica gel and some zeolitic materials.