Transient behaviour of an adsorption refrigerator. Experimental study of the alcohol/activated carbon system.

The objective of this article is to present an experimental study of an adsorption refrigerator, accounting for the transient phenomena in each component of the machine, in particular in the adsorber. The couples adsorbate/adsorbent investigated (activated carbon/methanol or ethanol) have been chosen on the basis of an earlier comparative study. We have performed a full series of experiments to investigate the transient evolution of temperatures, pressures and the cycled mass, in a discontinuous cycle, and along the components of the refrigerating machine. The influence of various parameters is studied by varying one at a time : adsorbate/adsorbent couple, alcohol load in adsorber, alcohol flowrate, heating power, initial desorption temperature. All these experimental observations are discussed and compared to transient models developed in a separate article.