Solid sorption heat pumps for tri-generation

Solid sorption heat pumps and coolers have a good potential to be used in the airconditioning, electronic thermal control and transport applications. Recent application is focused on a small-scale combined cold, heat and power system, which utilizes the motor waste heat for cold production (tri-generation system). The main feature of this device is the innovative adsorbent bed consisting of a heat pipe heat exchanger, in which the finned tubes are coated with an active carbon fiber “Busofit”, saturated with different metal salts (salt on the fiber). Owing to the advantageous sorption properties of the complex compound and the good heat transfer quality of the heat pipe, an advanced sorption heat pump can be heated efficiently by the low temperature heat source. The heat pump has two sources of cold namely the low temperature sorbent bed canister and the principal evaporator. The working fluid is ammonia. The experimental results show a specific power of 500-550 W/kg of adsorbent. The most favorable situation is the case, when two sources of cold are welcomed. The goal of this research program is an improvement of the heat pump system from simple case of two reactors with two different salts to complicated system with three reactors, evaporator/condenser and two branches of coolers, acting out of phase to produce heat and cold simultaneously.