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Efficient Carbon based Water Adsorbers for Sustainable Cooling
Energy efficiency of cooling and air conditioning are a significant future challenge. Activated Carbon
xerogels are promising water adsorbers for sustainable cooling. In order to
optimize their performance the link atomistic structure-performance has to be better understood.
Keywords: energy efficiency, activated carbon, water adsorption, atomistic simulation
The world-wide energy demand for cooling is steadily increasing, making the development of more
energy efficient cooling devices a pressing issue. Promising candidates are waste-heat driven
adsorption/desorption heat pumps. In contrast to conventional heat pumps, where a mechanical
compressor transports the vapour from the cooling evaporation to the heating condensation chamber,
adsorption heat pumps use a waste heat source to make use of adsorption/desorption cycles of a
refrigerant (ideally water) in a porous sorbent for the pumping. The efficiency of such an
adsorption/desorption heat pump depends critically on the performance of the adsorber to adsorb
large quantities of refrigerant within a narrow range characteristic for the type of waste heat used.
The porous activated carbon xerogel adsorber prototypes developed in our group broadly meet these
criteria. However for further fine tuning the atomistic structure and its influence on the water
adsorption behavior of the adsobers have to be better understood. The study of the atomistic
structure of the activated carbon xerogel adsorbers using both coarse grained Monte Carlo and
classical atomistic simulation tools will be the subject of this project. Depending on the interests of the student the project can be adapted to include some experimental work.
The world-wide energy demand for cooling is steadily increasing, making the development of more energy efficient cooling devices a pressing issue. Promising candidates are waste-heat driven adsorption/desorption heat pumps. In contrast to conventional heat pumps, where a mechanical compressor transports the vapour from the cooling evaporation to the heating condensation chamber, adsorption heat pumps use a waste heat source to make use of adsorption/desorption cycles of a refrigerant (ideally water) in a porous sorbent for the pumping. The efficiency of such an adsorption/desorption heat pump depends critically on the performance of the adsorber to adsorb large quantities of refrigerant within a narrow range characteristic for the type of waste heat used.
The porous activated carbon xerogel adsorber prototypes developed in our group broadly meet these criteria. However for further fine tuning the atomistic structure and its influence on the water adsorption behavior of the adsobers have to be better understood. The study of the atomistic structure of the activated carbon xerogel adsorbers using both coarse grained Monte Carlo and classical atomistic simulation tools will be the subject of this project. Depending on the interests of the student the project can be adapted to include some experimental work.
The goals of this project are:
− Study of the influence of chemical composition and crystallinity on atomistic structure, pore
size distribution and composition of pore surfaces using in-house Monte Carlo techniques.
− Link with experimental results and results from semi-empirical analytical water adsorption
models.
− Identification of the critical properties of the atomistic structure influencing the water
adsorption behavior. Development of guidelines for future optimization and tailoring of
activated carbon xerogel adsorbers.
The project can be adapted to the interest and knowledge of the student to either include either
synthesis and characterization of novel xerogel adsorbers based on gained theoretical knowledge or
the optimization and adaptation of the in-house developed computational tools.
The goals of this project are:
− Study of the influence of chemical composition and crystallinity on atomistic structure, pore size distribution and composition of pore surfaces using in-house Monte Carlo techniques.
− Link with experimental results and results from semi-empirical analytical water adsorption models.
− Identification of the critical properties of the atomistic structure influencing the water adsorption behavior. Development of guidelines for future optimization and tailoring of activated carbon xerogel adsorbers.
The project can be adapted to the interest and knowledge of the student to either include either synthesis and characterization of novel xerogel adsorbers based on gained theoretical knowledge or the optimization and adaptation of the in-house developed computational tools.
Dr. Sandra Galmarini, sandra.galmarini@empa.ch, Tel: +41 58 765 4066
Dr. Sandra Galmarini, sandra.galmarini@empa.ch, Tel: +41 58 765 4066