Waste heat-driven dual-purpose adsorption cycle for cooling and desalination

This paper discusses the performance of an adsorption cycle (AD) that produces two useful effects namely: cooling and desalination. Low temperature hot water typically below 85°C extracted from waste heat is utilized to operate the adsorption cycle. The mathematical modeling and experimental results of the cycle are discussed. The performance of the Adsorption cycle is analyzed using key parameters such as the specific daily water production (SDWP), the specific cooling capacity (SCC), the coefficient of performance (COP), the performance ratio (PR) and the overall conversion ratio (OCR). The performance of the cycle across different hot water inlet temperatures ranging from 65 to 85°C for different configurations of the plant i.e., 2-bed and 4-bed mode operations, are investigated. The experimental results showed that the AD cycle is capable of producing the chilled water at 7 to 10°C with specific cooling capacity (SCC) ranging from 25 to 35 Rton /tonne of silica gel. Simultaneously, the AD cycle produces a specific daily water production (SDWP) of 3 to 5 m3 per tonne of silica gel per day, rendering it as a dual-effect machine that has an overall conversion or performance ratio of 0.8 to 1.2.