Heat transfer intensification in fixed bed adsorbers

Abstract The low thermal conductivity of the solid sorbents is one of the major drawbacks of the sorption heat pumps development. A better thermal transfer in the adsorber fixed beds is required to obtain a decreased time of the processing cycles and thus a reduced adsorber size per unit of power. Small improvements in the parameters of thermal transfer were obtained with unconsolidated porous mixtures such as bimodal mixtures and metallic foams. New consolidated materials made of metallic foam and zeolite were developed. The measurements of the thermal conductivity and of the wall heat transfer coefficient show a great improvement in the thermal transfer quality. Resistances to mass transfer appear but they are consistent with the adsorption heat pump process. With this type of composite material it seems possible to reduce the adsorber size by a factor from 5 to 10.