SIMULATION OF HYDRATION/DEHYDRATION OF CaO/Ca(OH)2 CHEMICAL HEAT PUMP REACTOR FOR COLD/HOT HEAT GENERATION

ABSTRACT A chemical heat pump (CHP) utilizes reversible reactions involving significant endothermic and exothermic heats of reaction in order to develop a heat pump effect by storing and releasing energy while transforming it from chemical to thermal energy and vice versa. In this paper, we present a mathematical model and its numerical solution for the heat and mass transport phenomena occurring in the reactant particle bed of the CHP for heat storage and cold/hot heat generation based on the CaO/Ca(OH)2 reversible hydration/dehydration reaction Transient conservation equations of mass and energy transport including chemical kinetics are solved numerically subject to appropriate boundary and initial conditions to examine the influence of the mass transfer resistance on the overall performance of this CHP configuration. These results are presented and discussed with the aim of enhancing the CHP performance in next generation reactor designs.