Design and Construction of a 10 KW Sorption Heat Pump Prototype
Abstract
The cooling power of a closed adsorption system is depending on the thermo-physical properties of the sorbent/sorbate material combination. A good adaption by synthetic measures of the material properties to the temperature levels and mass flow rates of the external heating and cooling hydraulic loops has to be done consequently. Based on experimental results gained on a single vacuum chamber 1 kW average cooling power closed adsorption-desorption laboratory test rig, a scale-up to a four chamber 10 kW cooling power demonstrator was carried out. This scaling comprised the water sorbate evaporator and water vapour condenser design and the two combined fin-tube fixed sorbent bed adsorber/desorber heat and mass transfer units. The heat transfer fluid mass flow rates from the external heat sources and heat sinks was determined though simulation with an experimental results based model and is described for the mid temperature loop. In this paper, the design of the 10 kW prototype is described and technical decisions that were done as well as component choices are documented.