Selective water sorbent for solid sorption chiller: experimental results and modelling G. Restuccia a, *,A.Freni a ,S.Vasta a ,YuAristov b a CNR- Istituto di Tecnologie Avanzate per l’Energia ‘‘Nicola Giordano’’, S. Lucia sopra Contesse, 98126 Messina, Italy b Boreskov Institute of Catalysis, Pr. Ak. Lavrentieva 5, Novosibirsk, 630090 Russia Received 10 January 2003; received in revised form 16 July 2003; accepted 4 September 2003 Abstract In this paper the experimental results of a lab-scale chilling module working with the composite sorbent SWS-1L (mesoporoussilicagelimpregnatedwithCaCl 2 )arepresented.Theinterestingsorptionpropertiesofthismaterialyield ahigh COP=0.6thatgivesapromisingalternativetothecommonzeoliteorsilicagelforapplicationinsolidsorption units driven by low temperature heat (T 4100  C). The measured low specific power of the device is a result of not optimisedgeometryoftheadsorberandofthepelletisedshapeoftheadsorbent.Heattransferoptimisationiscurrently underprogresstoincreasethespecificpower.Theexperimentalresultsarecomparedwiththoseofamathematicmodel able to describe the dynamic behaviour of the system. The model is used to study the influence of the main operating parameters on the system performance. # 2003 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved. Keywords: Adsorption system; Silica gel; Calcium chloride; Water; Experiment; Performance; Modelling Refroidisseur a` adsorption solide muni d’un adsorbeur permettant l’adsorption se´lective d’eau : re´sultats expe´rimentaux et mode´lisation Mots cle ´s : Syste`mea` adsorption;Silice;Chloruredecalcium;Eau;Expe´rimentation;Performance;Mode´lisation 1. Introduction The air conditioning systems based on the adsorp- tion/desorption process represent an important alter- native to the traditional technology of vapour compression. The gas–solid systems, in fact, have a low environmental impact and use heat as an energy source, therefore they allow a diversification in the use of the primary energy sources (e.g. heat wastes or methane instead of electricity) [1,2]. Recently, a new family of composite sorbents called Selective Water Sorbents (SWSs) was presented for sorption cooling and heating [3–5]. A typical SWS is a two-component material based on a porous host matrix and an inorganic salt impregnated inside pores. A large variety of both host matrices (such as mesoporous or microporous silica gels, aluminas, porous carbons, polymers, etc.) and salts (CaCl 2 , LiBr, MgCl 2 , LiCl, etc.) gives a wide possibility to change the sorbent properties in a wide range to fit the demands of parti- cular applications among which are sorption heat pumps and refrigeration machines discussed in this 0140-7007/$35.00 # 2003 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2003.09.003 International Journal of Refrigeration 27 (2004) 284–293 www.elsevier.com/locate/ijrefrig * Corresponding author. Tel.: +39-090-624229 Fax: +39- 090-624247. E-mail addresses: giovanni.restuccia@itae.cnr.it.