Examination of Using Aluminum-Foam/Finned-Tube Beds Packed with Maxsorb III for Adsorption Ice Production System

Mahmoud Badawy Elsheniti, Mohamed Shaaban Eissa, Hany Al-Ansary, Jamel Orfi, Osama Elsamni and Abdelrahman El-Leathy
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Mahmoud Badawy Elsheniti: Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Mohamed Shaaban Eissa: Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21544, Egypt
Hany Al-Ansary: Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Jamel Orfi: Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Osama Elsamni: Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21544, Egypt
Abdelrahman El-Leathy: Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 8, 1-21

Abstract: Producing ice using adsorption systems can represent a sustainable solution and meet the recent global environmental regulations as they use natural refrigerants and can be driven by solar energy. However, the beds used in these systems still have low thermal and adsorption characteristics. This study investigates numerically the use of an emerging aluminum foamed bed packed with advanced Maxsorb adsorbent in a two-bed adsorption system and reports cases of performance improvements compared to the classical finned-tube based system used to produce ice. A comprehensive 2-D transient pressure distribution model for the two beds was developed and validated. The model considers the temporal and spatial variations of the two beds’ parameters, while the effect of the thermal mass and heat transfer effectiveness of the condenser and evaporator components are imitated at the boundary conditions for bed openings using two zero-dimensional models. The results show the interrelated effects of varying the cycle times from 400 s to 1200 s with 2, 5, and 10 mm foam thicknesses/fin heights on the overall performance of both systems. The Al-foam based system demonstrated the performance superiority at a 2 mm foam thickness with maximum ice production of 49 kg ice /kg ads in 8 h, an increase of 26.6% over the counterpart finned-tube based system at a 400 s cycle time. The best COP of 0.366 was attained at a 5 mm foam thickness and 1200 s with an increase of 26.7%. The effective uptake of the Al-foam based system was reduced dramatically at a 10 mm foam thickness, which deteriorated the system performance.

Keywords: adsorption ice maker; metal foamed adsorber; finned tube; packed bed (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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