Complex Compounds

For more than 20 years, Rocky Research has been a pioneer in the field of sorption refrigeration utilizing complex compounds. Our technology earned special recognition from NASA in 1999. Now, with several key patents utilizing the technology, Rocky Research is poised to provide the most practiced, effective use of sorbent complex compounds for any number of applications.

Sorption refrigeration and thermal storage systems produce refrigeration through the sorption of a refrigerant by some sorbent media. Complex compounds are one class of solid sorbent media, and they provide many advantages over other liquid and solid sorbents. Complex compound refrigeration uses fixed sorber beds containing solid complex compounds as the sorbent. Advantageous properties of complex compounds include:

• Large amounts of refrigerant can be absorbed, sometimes equal to the weight of the absorbing salt.
• Many compounds are available; vapor pressure nearly ideal for any application can be selected.
• Vapor pressure is independent of refrigerant concentration, over very broad concentration spans.
• The compounds are solid and immobile. Solution pumps are not required to circulate solutions between pressure levels, and the sorption processes are not gravity sensitive.

Complex compound sorption technology has advanced well beyond a laboratory curiosity, and is in an early stage of commercialization. Many applications of complex compound sorption are being prototyped and the economics evaluated.