NITROGEN ACTIVATED-CARBON SORPTION COMPRESSOR

Joule-Thomson (JT) sorption cryocooling is the most mature technology for cooling from a normal Room-Temperature (RT) down to temperatures below 100 K in the absence of moving parts. Therefore, high reliability and no vibrations are attainable, in comparison with other cryocoolers. Nitrogen is usually used as the working fluid for cooling to temperatures between 80 and 100 K and activated carbons are the best adsorbent for this purpose. In this paper we present the development of a sorption compressor for nitrogen with a commercial Chemviron pelleted activated carbon. The development consists of sorption measurements that we performed for characterizing the adsorption of nitrogen on the selected adsorbent, and the compressor experimental results are compared with equilibrium condition analysis and numerical heat transfer analysis predictions.