Disclosed is an adsorption-based heat pump useful for refrigeration and cooling/heating for applications such as HVACs and chillers. Adsorption is a surface phenomenon where a solid substance (adsorbent) attracts molecules of a gas or solution (refrigerant or adsorbate) on its surface. The latent heat of the adsorbate provides the heating/cooling effect. The novel adsorption heat pump enhances heat and/or mass transfer to and from the adsorbate. One embodiment comprises at least one evaporator, at least one desorber (adsorbent heating apparatus), at least one adsorbent cooling apparatus and at least one condenser. The embodiment employs different techniques to enhance heat and/or mass transfer.

A simplified method of making an adsorbent layer can permit design and analysis of sorption systems having improved performance can include generation of one dimensional channels.

The present invention pertains to systems, methods, and compositions for liquid phase change, including for active cloud point, e.g., critical solution temperature, adjustment and heating or cooling, e.g., refrigeration, cycles. In some embodiments heat is absorbed, released or both due to phase changes in a liquid system. Advantageously, the phase changes may be controlled by controlling the ingredients or amounts of certain components of the liquid system. Advantages may include lower capital expenditures, lower operating expenses, or both for a diverse and wide range of heating and cooling applications. Such applications include, for example, cooling of data centers, cooled transportation of goods, refrigeration, heat pumps, extractions, ocean thermal energy conversion, and de-icing of roads to name just a few.

An adsorptive cooling system includes two highly adsorptive structures positioned to receive thermal energy from a thermal energy source, each highly adsorptive structure includes a substrate and a metal-organic framework (MOF) coupled to the respective substrate and adapted for adsorbing and desorbing a refrigerant under predetermined thermodynamic conditions. The adsorptive cooling system includes a cooling unit and a circulation system adapted for circulating the refrigerant from one of the highly adsorptive structures to the cooling unit to provide cooling from the thermal energy source and to return the refrigerant from the cooling unit to the same or other highly adsorptive structure. Each substrate may include a plurality of microchannels, providing ingress and egress paths for a refrigerant, defined by grooves in a surface of the substrate nearest the MOF and/or surfaces of a plurality of microcapillaries of the substrate. The microchannels provide ingress and egress paths for a refrigerant.

The invention relates to a method for cyclical operation of a thermoelectric cell arrangement by periodically changing the temperature of the thermoelectric cell arrangement, wherein the thermoelectric cell arrangement is thermally coupled to a cyclically operated absorption heat pump. The following method steps are carried out cyclically: thermally coupling the thermoelectric cell arrangement during a cooling phase to a cold side of the absorption heat pump, thermally coupling the thermoelectric cell arrangement during a heating phase to a hot side of the absorption heat pump. The invention also relates to a harvester device for generating electrical energy by means of a thermoelectric cell arrangement, wherein the thermoelectric cell arrangement is thermally coupled to an absorption heat pump, wherein the thermal coupling makes it possible to effect, in time with the working cycle of the absorption heat pump, a temperature change in the thermoelectric cell arrangement.

A sorption module for a sorption temperature-control device may include a housing enclosing a working chamber. A sorption zone and a phase change zone may be arranged in the working chamber where a working medium is displaceable reversibly between the sorption zone and the phase change zone. A sorption structure may be arranged in the sorption zone, and a phase change structure may be arranged in the phase change zone. An outer wall of the housing may include a double-walled section that may provide a cavity between an outer wall part and an inner wall part of the double-walled section, and the phase change zone may be arranged on an inner side of the inner wall part.

This invention relates to using a eutectic mixture of two ionic liquids, as an absorbent material in an absorption chiller. The invention provides an absorption chiller comprising a mixture of a refrigerant and an absorbent, and the absorbent is a eutectic mixture of two ionic liquids.

This invention relates to using a guanidinium-based ionic liquid as an absorbent material in an absorption chiller. The invention provides an absorption chiller comprising a mixture of a refrigerant and an absorbent, and the absorbent is a guanidinium-based ionic liquid. A preferred refrigerant is water. This invention also provides a method for synthesizing N,N,N′,N′,N″,N″-hexamethylguanidinium acetate.

A diffusion absorption refrigeration apparatus includes a bubble pump; a gas-liquid separator; a condenser; a gas branch pipe; an evaporator; an absorber; a gas heat exchanger; a storage tank; and a solution heat exchanger, in which a single material of trans-1,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene (R-1234ze(E)) and 2,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene (R-1234yf), which have a low global warming potential (GWP), or a mixture thereof at a predetermined ratio is used as a refrigerant. Accordingly, the stability is high and a low GWP can be achieved.

Systems and methods of continuous cooling at cryogenic temperatures. One exemplary aspect involves a refrigeration system that includes: a chamber adapted to hold liquid and gaseous coolant received from a cooling pot; a first adsorption pump having an inlet end in fluid communication with the chamber, the first adsorption pump configured to capture gas from the liquid and gaseous coolant when the first adsorption pump is enabled; a second adsorption pump having an inlet end in fluid communication with the chamber, the second adsorption pump configured to capture gas from the liquid and gaseous coolant when the second adsorption pump is enabled; a means for desorbing the gas captured by the first adsorption pump; and a means for desorbing the gas captured by the second adsorption pump.