Optimization of solar-driven of a small absorption air conditioning system

Abstract EN

This research deals with the optimum design of an absorption cooling system with cooling capacity of 2 ton refrigeration driven by solar energy and using Lithium Bromide as absorbent and Water as refrigerant.

The present system uses water for cooling the absorber, condenser and for heat transfer in the evaporator.

A mathematical model is built to simulate a solar collector system and absorption system, in addition to design flat plate solar collector, f-chart method is used to find the optimum required solar collector area to air condition a space in the establishment with eight hour per working day.

The coefficient of performance (COP) has been taken as a measurement to find the optimum internal operation conditions, by examining the performance of absorption system with varying temperatures to the generator, absorber, condenser, evaporator and effectiveness of a solution heat exchanger to obtain the optimum values of these operation conditions and also obtain maximum value of the COP.

The result show that the collector area has a large effect on the actual useful heat gain and auxiliary heat to the system, and a collector area 26m2 is enough to operate absorption system more than eight hours by using a water storage tank with a capacity of 1.5 m3 and depending on weather data of Mosul city.

The results also show that the generator temperature had a great effect on the absorption and solar collector systems.