Abstract: In order to improve the heat transfer performance and at the same time not to influence the mass transfer performance of the AC (activated carbon) adsorbent bed, six different sizes of AC grains were studied and five kinds of AC/ENG consolidated composite adsorbents were developed. Meanwhile, thermal conductivity and permeability of samples were tested with steady state method. Under the density of 600 kg/m3, all the thermal conductivities of AC grains has a constant value of 0.36 W/(m·K), while the permeability grows with the size of the grains. The highest thermal conductivity of AC/ENG consolidated composite adsorbents is 2.61 W/(m·K), however, the value drops and permeability grows with the ratio of AC increased. When AC reaches the maximal ratio, 71.4%, the thermal conductivity is 2.08 W/(m·K) which is increased by 5.6 times compared with the AC grains, and the permeability is 51.6 μm2.

Key words: adsorption, thermal conductivity, permeability, adsorbent, activated carbon, expanded graphite