Based on the previous work of the authors [K.C. Leong, Y. Liu, Numerical study of a combined heat and mass recovery adsorption cooling cycle, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 47 (2004) 4761-4770], a numerical study of the effects of system design and operation parameters on the performance of a combined heat and mass recovery adsorption cycle is presented in this paper. The effects of bed dimensions, bed thermal conductivity, heat exchange fluid velocity, driven temperature and the degree of the heat recovery on the system performance are investigated. It is found that an increase in the driven temperature results in the increase of both the coefficient of performance (COP) and specific cooling power (SCP) of the adsorption cycle. On the other hand, the system performance can be severely deteriorated for velocities of the heat exchange fluid smaller than a critical value. An increase in the bed thickness will result in an increase in COP and a decrease in the SCP. The results of our simulations will provide useful guidelines for the design of this type of advanced adsorption cooling cycle. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.