Effect of Solar Collector Area and Storage Tank Capacity on the Performance of the Absorption Chiller

Mohamed Ahmed

Abstract


Recently, solar cooling has taken great attention as the demand for cooling complies with the availability of solar radiation. While solar radiation is variable throughout the day, the need to use a suitable storage system is an important issue. In this study, the effect of different design parameters such as the solar collector surface area and the storage tank capacity for the solar absorption cooling system were studied. The effects of the previous parameters on the operation period of 30 kW absorption chiller (AC) were investigated. Also, the effect of the inlet temperature of the hot water into the absorption chiller on the fraction of the chiller nominal capacity was studied. The TRNSYS simulation program was implemented to simulate the thermal performance of the solar absorption cooling systems in the summer period in Cairo, Egypt (30º N). The theoretical results of the simulation proved that increasing the solar collector surface area from 20 to 120 m2 increased the operating period of the absorption chiller from 2.9 to 11.5 h for June while increasing the storage tank capacity from 2 to 4 m3 reduced the outlet hot water temperature from the storage tank. Also increasing the inlet hot water temperature to the absorption chiller from 90 to 120 ºC has improved the fraction of nominal capacity for the chiller, this improvement depends on the setting temperature of the outlet chilled water, as the fraction increased from 90 to 99 % at chilled water setpoint temperature of 12 ºC.

Keywords


Solar collector; storage tank; adsorption chiller; simulation; TRNSYS

Full Text:

PDF

References


A. Elsafty and A. J. Al-Daini, “Economical comparison between a solar-powered vapour absorption air-conditioning system and a vapour compression system in the Middle Eastâ€, Renewable Energy, Vol. 25, No. 4, pp. 569-583, 2002.

A. Allouhi, T. Kousksou, A. Jamil, Y. Agrouaz, T. Bouhal, R. Saidur, and A. Benbassou, “Performance evaluation of solar adsorption cooling systems for vaccine preservation in Sub-Saharan Africaâ€, Applied Energy, Vol. 170, pp. 232-241, May 2016.

M. H. Ahmed, H. H. El-Ghetany, A. A. Abdel Aziz, and A. E. Zohir “Modeling and Performance Prediction of an Adsorption Cooling System with Single Bedâ€, International Journal of Renewable Energy Research, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 2156–2166, 2018.

D. S. Kim and C. A. Infante Ferreira, “Solar refrigeration options – a state of the art reviewâ€, International journal of refrigeration, Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 3-15, January 2008.

Y. Agrouaz, T. Bouhal, A. Allouhi, T. Kousksou, A. Jamil, and Y. Zeraouli, “Energy and parametric analysis of solar absorption cooling systems in various Moroccan climatesâ€, Case Studies in Thermal Engineering, Vol. 9, pp. 28-39, March 2017.

M. S. Ahmed, A. Waheed, T. Talha, M. Wajahat, and F. Sarfraz, “Configuration based modeling and performance analysis of single effect solar absorption cooling system in TRNSYSâ€, Energy Convers. Manag., Vol. 157, pp. 351–363, February 2018.

B. M. Goortani, F. Babaei, A. A. Alemrajabi, and M. Mostajaboddavati, “Direct Effects of Solar Irradiance on a Concentrated Solar Powered Water-Ammonia Absorption Refrigeratorâ€, International Journal of Renewable Energy Research, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 384–392, 2019.

C. Stanciu, D. Stanciu, and A. T. Gheorghian, “Thermal analysis of a solar powered absorption cooling system with fully mixed thermal storage at startupâ€, Energies, MDPI AG, doi:10.3390/en10010072, Vol. 10, No.1, 72, January 2017,

A. A. Al-Ugla, M. A. I. El-Shaarawi, and S. A. M. Said, “Alternative designs for a 24-hours operating solar-powered LiBr–water absorption air-conditioning technologyâ€, International Journal of Refrigeration, Vol. 53, pp. 90-100, May 2015.

K. P. Singh and O. Singh, “Numerical Investigation of Solar Energy Driven Diffusion Absorption Refrigeration Cycleâ€, International Journal of Renewable Energy Research, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 1729–1739, 2018.

C. Naranjo-Mendoza, D. R. Rousse, G. Quesada, “Modeling of a solar absorption cooling system for Guayaquil, Ecuadorâ€, 2nd International Conference on Renewable Energy Research and Application (ICRERA), Madrid, Spain, pp. 853-856, 20-23 October 2013.

M. H. Ahmed, M. Rady, A. M. Amin, and F.M. Montagnio, F. Paredes, “Comparison of thermal and optical performance of Linear Fresnel and Parabolic Trough Concentratorâ€, International Conference on Renewable Energy Research and Application (ICRERA), Palremo, Italy, pp. 626-629, 22-25 November. 2015.

A. Messadi and Y. Timoumi, “Modeling of the Parabolic Trough Solar Field with Molten Salt for the Region of Tozeur in Tunisiaâ€, International Conference on Renewable Energy Research and Application (ICRERA), Paris, France, pp. 993-997, 14-19 October 2018.

M. H. Ahmed, A. Giaconia, and A. M. A. Amin, “Effect of solar collector type on the absorption system performanceâ€, International Conference on Renewable Energy Research and Application (ICRERA), San Diego, USA, 5-8 November 2017.

S. Fischer, W. Heidemann, H. Müller-Steinhagen, B. Perers, P. Bergquist, and B. HellstrÓ§m, “Collector test method under quasi-dynamic conditions according to the European Standard EN 12975-2â€, Solar Energy, Vol. 76, No. 1-3, pp. 117–123, January–March 2004.

M. H. Ahmed, A. M. A. Amin, and H. E. Fath, “Modeling of Solar Power Plant for Electricity Generation and Water Desalinationâ€, Journal of Solar Energy Engineering, Vol. 14, 011015, February 2019.




DOI (PDF): https://doi.org/10.20508/ijrer.v10i1.10391.g7853

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Online ISSN: 1309-0127

Publisher: Gazi University

IJRER is cited in SCOPUS, EBSCO, WEB of SCIENCE (Clarivate Analytics);

IJRER has been cited in Emerging Sources Citation Index from 2016 in web of science.

WEB of SCIENCE in 2025; 

h=35,

Average citation per item=6.59

Last three Years Impact Factor=(1947+1753+1586)/(146+201+78)=5286/425=12.43

Category Quartile:Q4