GAS-FIRED SORPTION HEAT-PUMP DEVELOPMENT

The heat-driven sorption heat pump cycle appears in U.S. patent literature as early as 1909, and refrigerators employing a solid sorbent were commercially available in the 1920s. This paper will describe a program to develop a gas-driven heat pump which demonstrates the simplicity and low cost potential of the original sorption cycle, while achieving high efficiency through regeneration. Regeneration is accomplished by circulating a heat transfer fluid through two solid sorbent beds being alternately heated and cooled. The current development program uses a proprietary ''thermal wave'' concept in which over 70% of the total bed input heat required per cycle is supplied by regeneration. The primary component requiring development is the sorbent bed containing the heat transfer fluid/sorbent heat exchanger. Considerable analysis has been carried out and several prototype beds have been built and tested. Analytical and experimental results for one bed design are presented and discussed in the paper.