Demonstrating pressure-driven heating and cooling using a MOF-coated heat exchanger
摘要
Compression-adsorption based heat exchange offers a pathway to develop heat pumps that operate at moderate pressures using carbon dioxide (CO₂). Building on earlier conceptual work, this study presents the experimental evaluation of a batch operation system. Here, MIL-101(Cr), a type of metal-organic framework (MOF) is coated on the surface of a finned-tube heat exchanger. CO₂ adsorption and desorption into the MOF driven by a pressure swing cycle heat and cool the water flowing through the tubes. At an inlet water temperature and flow rate of 293 K and 0.5 L·min-1, applying a single-step pressure change between 0.8 and 3.0 MPa yields a water temperature change of ±9 K, with CO2 adsorption or desorption nearly complete within two minutes. A total energy of 20 kJ was generated per cycle, 81% of which was effectively transferred to the water. Parametric analysis showed that thermal output depends primarily on pressure swing range, while water flow rate influences heat transfer duration and thermal output. The water side was identified as the main limitation to further performance gains. These results demonstrate the viability of pressure-driven adsorption as a working principle and offer a practical step toward alternative heat pump cycles for CO2 that operate below the critical point.