Optimal thermophysical characteristics and uptaking capacity of activated carbon-based composite adsorbent for enhancing the performance of an adsorption cooling system

[Display omitted] •A novel composite adsorbent has been developed using inexpensive graphite powder.•The synthesised composites are mesoporous, with a mean pore size of 20–60 Å.•93% activated carbon + 5% graphite powder + 2 % PVA have good thermal conductivity.•The developed adsorbents have high crystallinity and thermal stability. In this research, novel composite adsorbent samples consisting of extremely porous carbon black from coconut shell, graphite powder, and polyvinyl alcohol binder were developed and characterized. The thermal conductivity, pore size distribution, pore volume, and specific surface area of synthesized composite adsorbent samples were investigated. The composite A (93% activated carbon + 5% graphite powder + 2 % PVA) has the largest pore volume of 0.3468 cm3/g and a specific surface area of 732 m2/g. It has a 11% greater thermal conductivity than its parent material, while maintaining the same mass transfer properties. Adding graphite powder (GP) to composite adsorbents beyond 5%, also increases their thermal conductivity significantly but compromising the adsorption capacity. Additionally, the maximum uptake of composite A is 0.37 g/g. The composite adsorbents exhibit thermal stability, as evidenced by X-ray diffraction analysis. The proposed composite adsorbents have improved thermophysical characteristics compared to pure and activated carbon-based composites for attaining the peak performance (Coefficient of performance and specific cooling power) of the adsorption cooling system.