Solid sorption refrigeration is a type of environmental benign and energy saving technology and the sorbents utilized can be divided into physical, chemical and composite sorbents, according to the nature of the forces involved in the adsorption process. The types, characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of different adsorbents, refrigerants and working pairs are summarized in this paper, together with the models that describe the adsorption equilibrium. Moreover, some of the procedures to prepare composite adsorbents are presented. The application of different working pairs for different situations is related with the adsorption heat, the adaptability to the driving temperature and to the desired working pressure. The methods to measure the adsorption quantity of different working pairs are compared, and future research directions of adsorption working pairs are also analyzed.

A review on adsorption working pairs for refrigeration

Thermal energy storage and conversion aims to improve the high inefficiency of the industrial processes and renewable energy systems (supply versus demand). Chemical sorption processes and chemical reactions based on solid–gas systems are a promising way to store and convert thermal energy for heating or cooling applications and, thereby to increase the efficiency of the processes and to reduce the greenhouse effect. Although more efforts are required to bring this technology to the market, some important breakthrough have been made regarding to system efficiency. Over the last two decades, the experimental research in this field has increased largely to validate these advances under practical conditions. Therefore, this paper gives a state-of-art review of performances obtained under practical conditions by the different prototypes built over the last two decades. In addition, the main advantages and disadvantages of solid–gas chemical sorption processes and chemical reactions are summarized.

E. Lepinasse

Papers

A solid-gas thermochemical cooling system using BaCl2 and NiCl2