Anti-condensation coatings are widely used in refrigeration, air conditioning and ships technology. They can store a certain amount of water in its own volume, and then return it back in favorable conditions. Anti-condensation coatings are used also to protect structures from the moisture. This paper presents the results of experimental research on heat and mass transfer in an anti-condensation coating under natural and forced convection. Experimental results are obtained for horizontal and inclined plates. Experimental data are compared with different models of computation.

This paper provides some information about thermoelectric technology. Some new materials with improved figures of merit are presented. These materials in Peltier modules make it possible to generate electric current thanks to a temperature difference. The paper indicates possible applications of thermoelectric modules as interesting tools for using various waste heat sources. Some zero-dimensional equations describing the conditions of electric power generation are given. Also, operating parameters of Peltier modules, such as voltage and electric current, are analyzed. The paper shows chosen characteristics of power generation parameters. Then, an experimental stand for ongoing research and experimental measurements are described. The authors consider the resistance of a receiver placed in the electric circuit with thermoelectric elements. Finally, both the analysis of experimental results and conclusions drawn from theoretical findings are presented. Voltage generation of about 1.5 to 2.5 V for the temperature difference from 65 to 85 K was observed when a bismuth telluride thermoelectric couple (traditionally used in cooling technology) was used.

The trigeneration systems for production of cold use sorption refrigeration machines: absorption and adsorption types. Absorption systems are characterized namely by better cooling coefficient of performance, while the adsorptive systems are characterized by the ability to operate at lower temperatures. The driving heat source temperature can be as low as 60-70 °C. Such temperature of the driving heat source allows to use them in district heating systems. The article focuses on the presentation of the research results on the adsorption devices designed to work in trigeneration systems.

The internal diameter of a tube in a ‘church window’ condenser was estimated using an entropy generation minimization approach. The adopted model took into account the entropy generation due to heat transfer and flow resistance from the cooling-water side. Calculations were performed considering two equations for the flow resistance coefficient for four different roughness values of a condenser tube. Following the analysis, the internal diameter of the tube was obtained in the range of 17.5 mm to 20 mm (the current internal diameter of the condenser tube is 22 mm). The calculated diameter depends on and is positively related to the roughness assumed in the model.

Thermoacoustic refrigerator uses acoustic power to transport heat from a low-temperature source to a high-temperature source. The increasing interest in thermoacoustic technology is caused due to its simplicity, reliability as well as application of environmentally friendly working fluids. A typical thermoacoustic refrigerator consists of a resonator, a stack of parallel plates, two heat exchangers and a source of acoustic wave. The article presents the influence of the stack position in the resonance tube and the acoustic frequency on the performance of thermoacoustic refrigerator with a standing wave driven by a loudspeaker, which is measured in terms of the temperature difference between the stack edges. The results from experiments, conducted for the stack with the plate spacing 0.3 mm and the length 50 mm, acoustic frequencies varying between 100 and 400 Hz and air as a working fluid are consistent with the theory presented in this paper. The experiments confirmed that the temperature difference for the stack with determined plate spacing depends on the acoustic frequency and the stack position. The maximum values were achieved for resonance frequencies and the stack position between the pressure and velocity node.

The aim of the study was to examine the efficiency of the thermal wave type adsorption refrigerating equipment working on a pair of activated carbon and methanol. Adsorption units can work in trigeneration systems and in applications driven by waste heat. They can be built also as a part of hybrid sorption-compressor systems, and they are very popular in solar refrigeration systems and energy storage units. The device examined in this study operates in a special mode called thermal wave. This mode allows to achieve higher efficiency rates than the normal mode of operation, as a significant contributor to transport heat from one to the other adsorber. To carry out the experiment a test bench was built, consisting of two cylindrical adsorbers filled with activated carbon, condenser, evaporator, oil heater and two oil coolers. Thermal oil circulation was responsible for providing and receiving heat from adsorbers. In order to perform the correct action a special control algorithm device was developed and implemented to keep the temperature in the evaporator at a preset level. The experimental results show the operating parameters changes in both adsorbers. Obtained COP (coefficient of performance) for the cycle was 0.13.

Adsorption refrigeration systems are able to work with heat sources of temperature starting with 50°C. The aim of the article is to determine whether in terms of technical and economic issues adsorption refrigeration equipment can work as elements that produce cold using hot water from the district heating network. For this purpose, examined was the work of the adsorption air conditioning equipment cooperating with drycooler, and the opportunities offered by the district heating network in Warsaw during the summer. It turns out that the efficiency of the adsorption device from the economic perspective is not sufficient for production of cold even during the transitional period. The main problem is not the low temperature of the water supply, but the large difference between the coefficients of performance, COPs, of adsorption device and a traditional compressor air conditioning unit. When outside air temperature is 25°C, the COP of the compressor type reaches a value of 4.49, whereas that of the adsorption device in the same conditions is 0.14. The ratio of the COPs is 32. At the same time ratio between the price of 1 kWh of electric power and 1 kWh of heat is only 2.85. Adsorption refrigeration equipment to be able to compete with compressor devices, should feature COPads efficiency to be greater than 1.52. At such a low driving temperature and even changing the drycooler into the evaporative cooler it is not currently possible to achieve.

Development of electronics, which aims to improve the functionality of electronic devices, aims at increasing the packing of transistors in a chip and boosting clock speed (the number of elementary operations per second). While pursuing this objective, one encounters the growing problem of thermal nature. Each switching of the logic state at the elementary level of an integrated circuit is associated with the generation of heat. Due to a large number of transistors and high clock speeds, higher heat flux is emitted by the microprocessor to a level where the component needs to be intensively cooled, or otherwise it will become overheated. This paper presents the cooling of microelectronic components using microjets.

In the dumps of metallurgical enterprises of Kazakhstan about 700 million tons of waste products are generated annually, and are polluting the atmosphere and the soil. The concentration of valuable components in waste products are no lower than in natural resources. The reserves of coal in the Ekibastuz basin are estimated to be more than a billion tons, and almost half of this is made up of ash. Every year, up to 30 million tons of ash-cinder waste is generated, which presents a serious threat to nature. Gallium and germanium concentrations in dumps are approximately 200 grams per ton, which is comparable to the content in coal before processing. The current research aims at creating a unit to obtain hydrogen-enriched water gas from Ekibastuz coal, with the production of zinc, gallium and germanium sublimates, copper-containing cast iron, slag wool and cast stone, through the joint processing of zinc-rich slag and ash-cinder wastes from thermal power plants. To achieve this, we used previous methods of extreme energy saving and a new method, the smelt layer with inversion phase. Experimental results from the “reactor inversion phase – rotary kiln” (RIPh) unit, which processed zinc-germanium contained slag, showed the potential to extract germanium from zinc sublimates, to reduce iron to the form of cupreous cast iron, and to obtain combustible gases and smelt suitable for slag-wool production. Calculations performed on the joint processing of Ekibastuz coal and zinc-rich slag using the proposed unit “reactor of inversion phase – rotary kiln – gas generator” showed it can obtain hydrogen-enriched water gas, along with the extraction of valuable components of primary raw material.