Experimental Studies on Adsorption Refrigeration System

The refrigeration system is most widely used in domestic and industrial applications. The conventional vapour compression refrigeration system uses CFC or HFC based refrigerants which affects the ozone layer and also this type of systems needs conventional energy sources. Hence it is necessary to identify environmental friendly alternative cooling system which is driven by renewable energy sources. In this work, we have developed a adsorption based refrigeration system which uses solar energy and conventional electrical energy. The adsorbent and refrigerant pair used in this work is silica gel and water. The experiments were conducted at various hot water temperature and best hot water temperature was optimized. The cooling effect produced by this system was satisfactory and the energy supplied by the conventional electrical energy is reduced with the help of solar energy. From the experimental results, we conclude that the hybrid solar adsorption system can be used as a replacement for the vapour compression refrigeration system.