Experimental study on the adsorption refrigeration device built on a water-silica gel working pair

Due to increasing restriction put on compressor based cooling, adsorption cooling has been increasing its popularity. Abovementioned restrictions forces usage of ecological refrigerants, such as water. Additional advantage of adsorption devices is possibility to use low-grade waste heat source or solar energy as the main driving energy instead of electricity. This trend has lead to significant development of adsorption based branch in cooling industry over past 30 years. The paper presents the results of experimental research for an adsorption refrigeration device built of two deposits. Water-silica gel was chosen as the working pair, because this solution allows to work at the lowest drive temperatures. As a result of the experiment, EER coefficients were obtained at the level of 0.57-0.82 and SCP coefficients in the range from 8 to 21 W/kg. The results allow to conclude that adsorption devices can, in many cases compete with compressor solutions.