Solar adsorption cooling with focus on using steatite adsorbent: A review

The focus on solar cooling systems is driven by the need for efficient and pollution free climate friendly technologies. Such systems are required to meet cooling requirements in medical, post-harvest preservation of food in remote areas and ice-making. Solar radiation within tropics poses an opportunity for exploitation in solar adsorption systems. Research activities in this sector are geared towards finding technical, environmental and economic solutions to existing systems. The purpose of this paper is to review advancement in solar adsorption cooling systems in view of using novel composite adsorbent consisting of impregnated steatite, paired with methanol as adsorbate. The review presents a brief background on the basic adsorption process, working pairs and challenges of current adsorption systems along with published performance data and improvement strategies. It is noted that solar adsorption systems suffer low conversion efficiency and high capital cost in comparison with conventional vapour compression systems.