A novel composite solid desiccant material is proposed in this study to enhance thermal conductivity and
adsorption performance of silica gel. This desiccant material is fabricated by combining silica gel with
expanded natural graphite treated with sulfuric acid (ENG-TSA) as a host matrix. The performance of this
composite material with respect to different densities and different silica gel ratios was investigated.
Experimental results showed that the highest thermal conductivity of consolidated composite adsorbents
is 19.1Wm1 K1. This is an increase of more than 270 times as compared to that of pure silica gel. Analysis
on pore parameters demonstrated that the compression of simple mixture of ENG-TSA with silica gel
does not destroy the morphology of silica gel. In addition, both non-equilibrium and equilibrium adsorption
performance of composite silica gel and pure silica gel were evaluated. Non-equilibrium adsorption
performance indicated prominent enhancement of heat transfer, whilst equilibrium adsorption performance
indicated a reasonable mass transfer.