Experimental Characterization of a Three-Dimensional-Printed Adiabatic Desorber for Absorption Chillers

Abstract

Absorption chillers are bulkier and more expensive than vapor compression chillers (especially for the low-capacity applications). One of the stumbling blocks is their on-demand fabrication and the complexity of their sorption elements (multifunctional exchangers with coupled heat and mass transfers). Adiabatic sorption exchangers (i.e., absorbers and desorbers) have recently been studied with a focus on enhancing the mass transfer phenomenon and allowing for the heat transfer to be performed in compact mass-manufactured heat exchangers. The present work provides the experimental characterization, by a concept of mass effectiveness, of a three-dimensional-printed adiabatic falling film mass exchanger for absorption chillers operating in desorption mode with the H₂O-LiBr working fluid. The impact of four parameters was analyzed: the operating pressure, the solution mass flow rate, the solution concentration, and the solution equilibrium deviation temperature. For the tested experimental domain, the desorber can provide an equivalent cooling capacity (in a single-stage chiller) of between 0.32 and 4.74 kW with an effectiveness in the range of 69.5–100%. The presented desorber showed very good performances while having the advantages of a negligible solution pressure drop, high robustness, as well as easy and potential low-cost manufacture.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Mexican sectorial fund “CONACYT-SENER-SUSTENTABILIDAD ENERGÉTICA” and the PACs-CAD project for their support with this research. "PACs-CAD" is a cross-border project supported by Interreg France-Switzerland, a European territorial cooperation program. It has received €463,185 through the European regional development fund (ERDF) and CHF 150,000 through the Swiss Federal Interreg funds.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amín Altamirano

Amín Altamirano is a Research Engineer at the LOCIE Laboratory of the Savoie Mont Blanc University, France. He received a B.S. in Mechatronics from the Monterrey Institute of Technology, an Engineering Degree from the Metz National School of Engineering, and a M.S. in Mechanics and Energetics from the University of Lorraine. In 2021, he received his Ph.D. in Energetics and Process Engineering from the Savoie Mont Blanc University, were he currently works on the technological development of absorption chillers.

Benoit Stutz

Benoit Stutz is a Professor of Heat and Mass Transfer at the LOCIE Laboratory and the Polytech Annecy Chambéry Department of the Savoie Mont Blanc University, France. He received his Ph.D. in 1996 from the Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP). His main research interests involve two-phase flow, phase change heat transfer, absorption, and geothermal heat pumps. He has published more than 75 papers in well-recognized journals and proceedings.

Nolwenn Le Pierrès

Nolwenn Le Pierrès is a Professor at the LOCIE laboratory and the Polytech Annecy Chambéry Department of the Savoie Mont Blanc University, France. Her research interests are energy processes, sorption thermal processes, heat storage and transformation and thermodynamic analysis, in the framework of solar buildings.