The Heat Transfer in Plate Fin Heat Exchanger for Adsorption Energy Storage: Theoretical Estimation and Experimental Verification of the Methodology for Heat Accumulation Process

Adsorption energy storage is a promising resource-saving technology that allows the rational use of alternative heat sources. One of the most important parts of the adsorption heat accumulator is the adsorber heat exchanger. The parameters of heat transfer in this unit determine how fast heat from an alternative energy source, such as the Sun, will be stored. For the design of adsorption heat accumulators, plate fin heat exchangers are mainly used. In this paper, the procedure for the estimation of the global heat transfer coefficient for the adsorber heat exchanger depending on its geometry is considered. The heat transfer coefficient for a LiCl/SiO2 sorbent flat layer under conditions of heat storage stage was measured. Based on these data, the global heat transfer coefficients for a number of industrial heat exchangers were theoretically estimated and experimentally measured for the adsorption cycle of daily heat storage. It was shown that theoretically obtained values are in good agreement with the values of the global heat transfer coefficients measured experimentally. Thus, the considered technique makes it possible to determine the most promising geometry of the plate fin heat exchanger for a given adsorption heat storage cycle without complicated experiments.