Shuai Du

• Ph.D
• Shanghai Jiao Tong University

The rapidly developing atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) technology can convert inexhaustible water vapor from the air into liquid water, which has become a highly potential technological solution for humanity to cope with water crises. Unlike the energy-intensive method of cooling air below the dew point to achieve water production, the sorption-...

The heat pump integrated with latent heat storage is an efficient heat decarbonization technology for improving of thermal energy storage efficiency in terms of quantity and quality using renewable energy and off-peak electricity.

Growing atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) technology is expected to provide a new solution to global water scarcity. However, the operating strategy of most existing devices is based on solar energy to adsorb at night and desorb during the day. The failure to operate multiple cycles results in the waste of fast sorption kinetics properties and inc...

Numerous adsorbents have been developed to extract water from air by sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting (SAWH). However, laboratory-level studies on the water uptake performance of adsorbents usually use materials with small mass such as microgram or milligram level. These findings may not be well adapted to scale-up applications. Moreover...

The water content in the refrigerant may undermine the cooling effect in ammonia water absorption refrigeration systems. Distillation column is normally implemented. The use of distillation columns, however, may increase system complexity, especially in practical operation. In fact, the distillation column can be eliminated under particular operati...

This paper presented a modified ammonia-water power cycle that is operated at two pressure levels and equipped with two separators and one heater. The internal irreversibilities due to heat transfer can be greatly reduced by well-matched temperature during the heat addition process. In the feasibility study, the suitable selection range of design p...

Ammonia water absorption refrigeration systems are effective in utilizing fishing-boat exhaust waste heat for cryopreservation. However, the liquid level control and the use of a solution pump characterized by small flowrate and high-pressure head result in poor reliability in the traditional system. Besides, the system must necessarily be designed...

In this study, a novel organic Rankine cycle (ORC) based on a pump driven by internal multi-potential, i.e., gravity-assisted thermally driven pump (GTP), is presented. The newly proposed cycle consists of a GTP, a condenser, an expander, and an evaporator. The GTP component is composed of three top-down organized units, and it drives the transport...

Sustainable Manufacturing In article number 2000108, Ruzhu Wang and co‐workers study possible steam generation paths based on heat pump and propose a novel path to turn water into high‐temperature steam by an air‐source heat pump with a temperature lift over 100 °C, which could be a sustainable solution for industrial heating decarbonization. The “...

Steam generation process is closely related to energy conversion and cleaner energy utilization, and the industrial steam is even regarded as the currency of heat with significant social and economic value. In this paper, the possible industrial steam generation paths are analyzed based upon thermodynamics analysis, in which fossil fuel, electric a...

In this article, a novel cascading power cycle (CPC) driven by waste heat in a wide temperature range is proposed for promoting the energy grade, heat source recovery rate and cycle performance, which is consisted of a pumpless absorption power cycle and a pumpless organic Rankine cycle, taking ammonia‐water and R245fa as working fluids, respective...

Compact absorber is beneficial for bulk reduction and cost-saving of absorption systems. This paper presents an experimental study on the heat and mass transfer performance of a novel absorber which consists of an S-shaped capillary coils bundle. Experiments were carried out for a practical ammonia-water absorption system under practical working co...

Based on the concept of a diffusion absorption system, a hot-cold conversion pipe utilizing 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane (R134a)-dimethylformamide (DMF)-helium (He) as the working pair is presented with the aim of cooling output by recovering the low-grade waste heat. The model of the hot-cold conversion pipe is established, in which a heat pipe is us...

The CCHP system driven by biomass energy is essential for mitigating the fossil energy crisis and reducing CO2 emission. But few research work focuses on the micro-scale system due to the limited efficiency. In this paper an efficient household CCHP system is designed, which is driven by the water steam (100 °C–120 °C) from the biomass boiler and i...

The diaphragm pump is commonly utilized in the small-scale ammonia-water power cycle for pumping the liquid from absorber to evaporator. The electricity consumption and possible leakage of such a pump influence the system efficiency and reliability significantly. In order to find an alternative “pump” with high reliability and low cost, a gravity a...

Various single stage ammonia-water absorption system configurations result in a confusion of determining a better one with better performance. In this paper, a unified single stage ammonia water absorption system configuration for freezing, air-conditioning, and space heating applications is proposed, and it can produce best thermal efficiencies in...

The heat integration of existing single-effect ammonia-water absorption system is studied. A set of possible heat modifications involving with absorption heat or rectification heat recovery are identified on energy transfer diagram, the performance of each heat modification is studied and compared, and the interaction of heat transfer in generator,...

An ammonia-water power cycle with a distillation stage is proposed, two Kalina cycles and one Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) are selected for comparisons under two scenarios: medium (346 °C) and low (146 °C) heat source temperatures. The optimization efforts are aimed at maximizing net power production for all concerning cycles, the results show that...

Using conventional fossil fuels causes both energy crisis and environmental pollution. Renewable energy with the merits of almost unlimited availability and environmental-friendliness provides a perfect solution to the problem. Solar energy is widely recognized as one of the most important renewable energy resources due to its even distribution, sa...

This paper presents the development and experimental study of an ammonia water absorption refrigeration prototype for waste heat utilization of diesel engine exhaust. Side cooling rectification and side heating generation are designed to achieve desirable heat matching for better internal heat recovery thus improving the system performance. An acti...

Two stage ammonia-water absorption refrigeration system is applicable for low driving temperature heat source and large temperature lift applications. However, low system performance weakens its advantages because the large heat dissipation brings unacceptable power consumption. Better internal heat recovery is significantly effective for system pe...

In a water-ammonia absorption refrigeration system, the rectification heat is dissipated to the surroundings without recovering in traditional single-effect cycle. An improved cycle is proposed for the utilization of rectification heat when the chiller is operated under a large temperature lift or low heat source temperature when GAX (Generator-Abs...

Solar driven air conditioning systems can cope with solar collectors working in a wide range of temperatures. Sorption systems, including absorption and adsorption refrigeration systems, are among the best choices for solar cooling. Five systems including modular silica gel–water adsorption chiller, single/double effect LiBr–water absorption chille...

The requirement of vapor purification is a main drawback on the system bulk and performance of an ammonia water absorption refrigeration system. This paper presents a new vapor purification structure with excellent internal heat recovery capacity for refrigeration applications to instead a traditional distillation column. The new structure is mainl...

An air-cooled two-stage NH3-H2O absorption refrigeration system is proposed for potential application of residential small scale cooling system driven by solar heated hot water. It can reduce the initial fabrication and maintenance costs of both the solar collection system and the absorption chiller. An experimental prototype for 2 kW cooling capac...