Abstract Composite adsorbents, comprising activated carbon and expanded natural graphite, have been developed, and their thermal conductivity, permeability and adsorption performance were tested. The thermal conductivity varied with the ratio of activated carbon to expanded natural graphite. Thermal conductivity increased as the ratio of expanded graphite increased. Considering that the density of activated carbon for the composite adsorbent should not be lower than 200 kg/m3, otherwise the volumetric cooling capacity would be unacceptably low, the highest thermal conductivity obtained from experiments was 2.47 W m−1 K−1. The permeability was also measured, and the best result obtained was 4.378 × 10−12 m2. In order to evaluate the influence of heat and mass transfer on adsorption performance, the adsorption rate was tested using a Rubotherm magnetic suspension balance, and results showed that for the freezing conditions lower than −10 °C the performance of granular activated carbon was better than that of solidified adsorbent because of the reduced mass transfer of ammonia at low saturated pressure. The adsorption performance of consolidated adsorbents increased rapidly when the evaporating temperature was higher than −10 °C. When the evaporating temperature was 8 °C, the adsorption rate of consolidated adsorbent was improved by 29% if compared with that of granular adsorbent.