Ammonia-based chemisorption heat pumps for cold-climate heating applications: A comprehensive review

Zhiyao Yang, Ming Qu, Kyle R. Gluesenkamp

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

31 Scopus citations

Abstract

This article reviews the state of the art of chemisorption heat pumps that use ammonia as the refrigerant for cold-climate heating applications. In such a system, ammonia vapor is adsorbed by the solid salt through reversible chemisorption reactions, and the thermal effect of the reaction and ammonia phase change is used to extract heat from a cold environment and supply heat to a warm environment. With the high latent heat and low boiling point of ammonia as a low-temperature refrigerant and the high sorption capacity of ammonia-based chemisorption reactions, chemisorption heat pumps have the potential to produce high-efficiency heating, particularly for cold climates. This review first briefly introduces the basics of ammonia-based chemisorption heat pump systems. Then, the latest development of sorbent materials, including ammoniate salts and heat-conductive porous matrix materials, are summarized with the focus on low-temperature heating conditions. The design of system components, as well as cycle configurations, in the literature are summarized. This review concludes with highlights of recent developments on these topics and suggestions of areas for further research.

Original languageEnglish
Article number115674
JournalApplied Thermal Engineering
Volume179
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2020

Funding

This work was sponsored by the US Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC. The authors would also like to acknowledge Mr. Antonio Bouza, Technology Manager–HVAC&R, Water Heating, and Appliance, US Department of Energy Building Technologies Office. This work was sponsored by the US Department of Energy's Building Technologies Office under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC. The authors would also like to acknowledge Mr. Antonio Bouza, Technology Manager–HVAC&R, Water Heating, and Appliance, US Department of Energy Building Technologies Office. The authors would also like to thank Charlie Horak for technical language editing. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ). Different from the existing reviews focusing on the general chemisorption technology, its use in cooling/refrigeration applications, or only some aspects for heating applications, this paper provides a comprehensive review on using the chemisorption technology specifically for space and water heating in cold-climates. Furthermore, chemisorption technology as well as cold-climate heating technologies have been intensively studied with funding from national and international agencies such as the US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation of China, Engineering and Physical Science Research Council of UK, and the International Energy Agency. Therefore, a review dedicated to the chemisorption heating technology for cold climates is greatly needed.

Keywords

  • Adsorption
  • Ammonia
  • Ammoniated salts
  • Chemisorption
  • Cold climate
  • Heat pump

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