The use of adsorption chillers for waste heat recovery

Abstract

The purpose of this article was to discuss the use of adsorption chillers for waste heat recovery. The introduction discusses the need to undertake broader measures for the effective management of waste heat in the industry and discusses the benefits and technical problems related to heat recovery in industrial plants. In addition, heat sources for adsorption chillers and their application examples were described. The principle of operation of adsorption chillers is explained in the next chapter. Heat sources for adsorption chillers are indicated and their application examples are described. The above considerations have allowed the benefits and technical obstacles related to the use of adsorption chillers to be highlighted. The currently used adsorbents and adsorbates are discussed later in the article. The main part of the paper discusses the use of adsorption chillers for waste heat management in the glassworks. The calculations assumed the natural gas demand of 20.1 million m 3 per year and the electricity demand of 20,000 MWh/year. As a result of conducted calculations, a 231 kW adsorption chiller, ensuring the annual cold production of 2,021 MWh, was selected. The economic analysis of the proposed solution has shown that the investment in the adsorption chiller supplied with waste heat from the heat recovery system will bring significant economic benefits 90 after 10 years from its implementation, even with total investment costs of PLN 1,900,000. However, it was noted that in order to obtain satisfactory economic results the production must meet the demand while the cost of building a heat recovery system shall not exceed PLN 1 million.

Analysis of heat and mass transfer in an adsorption bed using CFD methods

“…Adsorption cooling systems operate on environmentally friendly refrigerants (such as water) and allow to recover waste heat, thus to reduce primary energy consumption [3]. Furthermore, adsorption systems are characterized by low operating and maintenance costs, lack of vibration, and quiet operation [4]. Despite their numerous advantages, adsorption cooling systems also have drawbacks, such as intermittent operation, large equipment size, the need for vacuum maintenance, and, above all, low COP [5].…”