Experimental comparison analysis of two heat transfer enhancement methods on a thermochemical reactor

This paper experimentally investigates the performance of a thermochemical reactor for space heating using two heat enhancement methods, copper fins and copper plates. It is evaluated under laboratory conditions with the varying inlet air relative humidity and inlet air flow rate. The evaluated parameters are the reactor air pressure drop, outlet air temperature and outlet water temperature. While improving the reactor performance, the study presents comparative reactor performance of the two methods. The study shows that the copper plate reactor achieves a better desorption performance than the copper fin reactor. In charging, the copper plate reactor can reach the maximum outlet air temperature lifts at 95.1°C in 0.35 h, which is 12.3°C higher than copper fin reactor under the same conditions. In discharging, the peak reactor outlet air temperatures for the two reactors are found under different inlet air flow rate for the different internal air flow characteristics resulted from the copper fins and plates. Also, the copper fin reactor presents higher pressure drop than the copper plate reactor. Additionally, the copper fin reactor presents a slightly higher outlet water temperature in discharging than the plate reactor for the relatively larger thermal contact area between the copper fins and water pipe. Further research should be conducted in improving the reactor performance including reducing the heat loss, reactor optimisation and identifying suitable operating conditions.