Proof of Concept Car Adsorption Air-Conditioning System Using a Compact Sorption Reactor

A prototype compact sorption generator using an activated-carbon/ammonia pair based on a plate heat exchanger concept has been designed and built at Warwick University. The novel generator has low thermal mass and good heat transfer. The heat exchanger uses nickel brazed shims and spacers to create adsorbent layers only 4 mm thick between pairs of liquid flow channels of very low thermal mass. The prototype sorption generator manufactured has been evaluated under the European Union (EU) car air-conditioning testing conditions. While driven with waste heat from the engine coolant water (at 90 degrees C), a pair of the current prototype generators (loaded with about 1 kg carbon in each of two beds) has produced an average cooling power of 1.6 kW with 2-kW peaks.