Performance of an Adsorption Chiller Using Diesel Truck Exhaust: Effect of Operating Parameters

ABSTRACT

In India, air conditioning is essential in the truck driver’s cabin during the summer. An air conditioning system powered by the vehicle’s engine adds to the engine’s workload, resulting in higher fuel demand and more emissions. An adsorption chiller that runs on engine exhaust is designed here to lower the interior temperature of a truck cabin to address the above-mentioned issue. Here, an adsorption air conditioner system’s effectiveness is forecast using a lumped analytical technique. During the adsorption process, heat from the adsorber bed is absorbed by cold water and released into the radiator. The desorber bed has been heated using hot water as a heat transfer medium from the engine exhaust heat. The analysis was carried out using the adsorption kinetic equation at adsorption equilibrium. The influence of inlet water flow rate, temperature and switching time (adsorber process to desorber process and vice versa) on adsorption chiller performance has been studied here. According to simulation results, the proposed adsorption chiller can be used to keep the driver cabin cool during summer for operational conditions adopted during the simulation. The adsorption air conditioner’s highest coefficient of performance (COP), as determined by this investigation, was found to be 0.214.

KEYWORDS:

• Engine exhaust
• adsorption chiller
• lumped parameter model
• operating parameters
• cycle performance
• cooling capacity

Nomenclature

Symbols	=
AI	=	Artificial Intelligence
ANN	=	Artificial neural network
hfg	=	Latent heat of evaporation for adsorbent, J kg−1
$\text{dotm}$	=	Mass flow rate for adsorbent, kg sec−1
Ps	=	Adsorbent vapour pressure in saturation state, Pa
Qev	=	Refrigeration effect at chiller, kW
Qde	=	Input heat in chiller, kW
Rp	=	Silica-gel’s radius, m
x*	=	Adsorbent maximum mass adsorbed/desorbed per kg of silica-gel (kg/kg), kg kg−1
x	=	Adsorbent adsorbed mass in specific temperature, kg kg−1

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.