Effect of mass transfer kinetics on the performance of adsorptive heat pump systems

The performance of adsorptive heat pump systems is affected by both heat and mass transfer kinetics. The present paper addresses the effect of intraparticle mass transfer limitations. Three models are used to describe refrigerant transfer between gaseous and solid phases, namely, the equilibrium, the solid diffusion and the linear driving force models. It is shown that in the case where the intraparticle diffusional resistances are significant, the system performance is markedly decreased. Moreover, the use of a linearized adsorption rate expression outside its domain of validity can produce erroneous numerical simulations. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.