Investigation of the performance of a solar powered adsorption heat pipe

Abstract AR

An adsorption heat pipe was designed and built from a stainless steel tube of 32 mm outer diameter, 30 mm inner diameter and 1000 mm long, the inner surface of the tube was coated by 10 mm thickness of active carbon, which was assumed to be the adsorbent, while the adsorbent was assumed to be the methanol, or acetone.

The adsorption heat pipe consist of three zones, namely adsorption/ desorption, adiabatic and evaporation/condensation zones.

Electrical heater with variables capacity is used to heat up the unit generator during desorption process, water was used to cool the condenser, while air was used to cool the generator.

Two types of adsorption pair are used, namely active carbon-methanol and active carbon-acetone.

The effect of heat input to the generator on the heat pipe surface temperature and evaporator temperature are studied.

The results showed that the adsorption heat pipe can work at a relatively low temperature namely 70-100 oC, the time required for cooling process in the range of 18 to 24 minutes, and activated carbon – Acetone pair gave a good behavior for the heat pipe due to the short cycle– time compared with that for activated carbon – Methanol Keywords: - Adsorption, Adsorbent, Refrigeration; Heat pump,Adsorption Heat Pipe.