Performance Prediction of Adsorption Self-Cooling Mobile Container

Solar thermal cooling technology utilization such as adsorption cooling system has attracted researchers as an alternative to conventional vapor compression system. The adsorption cooling system can utilize low-grade heat as its power source. This paper presents a numerical simulation of a new conceptual design of adsorption self-cooling mobile container to predict its adsorption performance. The container was mathematically modeled to calculate and simulate cooling power, COP, SCP, and the lowest temperature that could be obtained. The design consists of four main components namely the adsorption chamber, valve system, refrigerant chamber, and cabin chamber. Comparison between silica gel-water and zeolite-water had been investigated. The results show that evaporator temperature profile of the system with zeolite-water is better than the other working pair. Minimum value of the evaporator temperature is 18.14°C with zeolite-water as the working pair. The average cooling power, COP, and SCP during adsorption process are 1.48 J, 0.014, 0.984 W/kg, respectively.