Exhaust Heat Powered Adsorption Air Conditioner for Automotive Applications

An adsorption air conditioning system is proposed to provide cabin comfort cooling for automotives. This report focuses on the development of a compact adsorption cooling system for automobile applications and its experimental performance. This system uses AQSOA - Z01, an adsorbent material that adsorbs and regenerates water efficiently at low temperature ranges. A water circulation system was built to simulate the process of obtaining heat from exhaust gas heat and providing low-grade thermal energy for the adsorption cooling system. As this system does not need to be powered by the engine as it is in the conventional system, fuel efficiency of the engine can be improved by 10%. This also results in reduction of pollutants due to combustion. The prototype is produced a maximum1310 Watts of cooling power. The system also achieved 650 W/kg SPC (Specific Cooling Power) and a COP (Coefficient of Performance) value of 0.45.