RESUMO

In this paper the heat and mass transfer in zeolite/water solid sorption machines (heat pumps, coolers and heat transformers) activated by heat exchangers with heat pipes is experimentally investigated, and numerical modelling is made for two finned adsorbers coupled with heat recovery realised by heat pipes. Solid sorption cooler setup is presented, which has two - adsorbers and heat pipe heat exchangers.
The proposed heat pipe heat exchangers show a good thermal response and could be used to heat and desorb the porous sorbent bed up to 300°C and to cool down again to the ambient temperature due to beneficial effects of thermal contact between finned heat pipe and sorbent system. The anomalous decreasing of effective thermal resistance was registered for the compound (MgA) zeolite/porcelain clay during the desorption stage. This decreasing could be explained by a "micro heat pipe" effect inside the sorbent bed in transient process of heating/desorption.