Selective water sorbents for multiple applications, 7. Heat conductivity of CaCl2?SiO2 composites

In this communication we present experimental data on the low temperature heat conductivity of a consolidated bed made of the CaCl₂/SiO₂ composite material measured by the “hot wire method”. The conductivity appears to increase strongly with a raise of the sorbed water amount and reaches 0.53 W/m K at a high water content when the bed is completely saturated with the salt solution. λ values obtained appear to be much higher than those for zeolite 4A, which is a competitor solid adsorbent proposed for sorption cooling and heating machines. Finally, the influence of the thermal conductivity on the specific power of sorption heat pump based on the “CaCl₂/SiO₂-water” pair is briefly discussed.