This study aims at improving the performance of a waste heat driven adsorption chiller by applying a novel composite adsorbent which is synthesized from activated carbon impregnated by soaking in sodium silicate solution and then in calcium chloride solution. Modeling is performed to analyze the influence of the hot water inlet temperature, cooling water inlet temperature, chilled water inlet temperatures, and adsorption/desorption cycle time on the specific cooling power (SCP) and coefficient of performance (COP) of the chiller system with the composite adsorbent. The simulation calculation indicates a COP value of 0.65 with a driving source temperature of 85 degrees C in combination with coolant inlet and chilled water inlet temperature of 30 degrees C and 14 degrees C, respectively. The most optimum adsorption-desorption cycle time is approximately 360 s based on the performance from COP and SCP. The delivered chilled water temperature is about 9 degrees C under these operating conditions, achieving a SCP of 380 W/kg. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.