DEVELOPMENT OF HYBRID-TYPE ADSORPTION HEAT PUMP ADDING ELECTRICALLY OPERATED PUMP
In Japan, a tremendous amount of heat energy below 373 K is discharged into atmosphere as waste heat, and it accounts for about 80 % of heat loss. Advanced utilization of such low temperature heat energy leads to establishment of a highly-efficient energy utilization system. Adsorption heat pump (AHP) is very attractive technology for achieving the objective, because it can generate cold heat energy below 283 K for air conditioning by utilizing the low temperature heat energy as regeneration heat source of an adsorbent. However, heat output and COP of the conventional thermally-operated AHP decrease significantly as regeneration temperature. We have proposed a hybrid type AHP aiding electrically-operated suction pump. In the proposed AHP, a mechanical booster pump (MBP) is incorporated into the thermally-operated silica gel/water type AHP as a suction pump, and works for promoting water vapor transportation between an adsorber and evaporator/condenser. We have studied effect of MBP power on heat output performance of AHP experimentally. It is demonstrated that the proposed AHP can achieve 1.6 times as large heat output performance as the thermally-operated AHP.