Adsorption heat pump and refrigeration systems are noiseless, non-corrosive and environment friendly. For these reasons the research activities in this sector are still increasing to solve the crucial points that make these systems not yet ready to compete with the well-known vapor compression system. There is an increasing interest in the development and use of adsorption chillers due to their various economic and impressive environmental benefits, enabling solar energy or waste heat to be used for applications such as district networks and cogeneration plants. In order to increase the cooling power, much effort has been devoted to enhance materials heat transfer properties. Consolidated adsorbent could be the solution. This paper provides a literature review on current progress of consolidated adsorbent for adsorption systems. A number of consolidated technologies of adsorbent are discussed. The related work at our laboratory is also discussed. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.