The Einstein-Szilard Refrigerator: An Experimental Exploration (OR-16-019)

The eighty-year-old single pressure absorption refrigeration system invented by Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard is attractive as it has no mechanical moving parts and can be driven by heat alone. The literature on the refrigeration system is scarce and only theoretical analyses are available. In this paper, adversities of the primitive design and the operation of the refrigerator prototype are discussed. The prototype is able to achieve temperatures between 8°C and 14°C. Five pairs of heat inputs between 53 W and 111 W are studied. Cooling capacities decrease (from 34 W to 15 W) when the generator heat input increases, but cooling capacities increase (from 17 W to 30 W) when the bubble pump heat input increases. The highest COP is 0.25 when the heat inputs to generator is 53 W and to bubble pump is 89 W. The ideal cooling capacity and COP are 40 W and 0.28, respectively.