Abstract: An adsorption ice maker for fishing vessels driven by exhausted heat of diesel engine, which used a compound adsorbent(calcium chloride and activated carbon) and ammonia as working pair, was studied.In order to solve the problem of corrosion caused by direct cooling of adsorber by seawater directly, the theory of compound alternating separate heat pipe was adopted.A small test apparatus for the adsorption ice maker was built and the quantity of compound adsorbent in each adsorber was 2.35 kg.The results showed that the cooling power and COP could be improved about 103.8% and 100% respectively by the heat and mass recovery.The SCP of ice making is about 281.9—712.8 W•kg^-1 with heat and mass recovery, which is about 1.4—3.5 times larger than the experimental data on adsorption in and out of China.