A solar adsorber with glass tube insulation used in a solar adsorption cooling system is proposed and investigated. The adsorber is a metal tube packed with activated carbon methanol pair surrounded by a vacuum tube glazing. A mathematical model, which accounts for the heat and mass transfer of sorption (adsorption and desorption) processes as well as the effects of non-equilibrium and non-uniform temperature and pressure distribution, is developed and experimentally validated. Based on the model simulation, the influence of different physical variables on the performance of the adsorber and their variations are simulated and discussed. It has been found that the thermal efficiency of the solar adsorber is about 30% and the solar adsorber configuration used in this study is one of the good configurations that can be used for adsorption refrigeration. The mathematical model is capable of predicting the performance of the solar adsorber. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.