Compound adsorbent of macro-porous silica gel/LiCI-methanol and micro-porous silica gel-water were used as working pairs in two adsorption cooling systems respectively. The adsorption performance was experimentally investigated and compared. The experiment results are that mass recovery process can improve cooling capacity significantly while heat recovery process can improve coefficient of performance (COP) more significantly. The silica gel/LiCI-methanol cooling system has higher adsorption capacity and working pressure. When the hot water inlet temperature, cooling water inlet temperature and chilled water outlet temperature are about 85 degrees C, 31 degrees C and 15 degrees C, the specific cooling power (SCP) of silica gel/Lid-methanol cooling system is higher by 59.5% than that of silica gel-water cooling system. The silica gel/LiCI-methanol cooling system can also work for cold storage. When the hot water inlet temperature, cooling water inlet temperature and chilled water outlet temperature are about 88 degrees C, 25 degrees C and -4 degrees C, the cooling capacity and COP are 1.0 kW and 0.13. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.