Performance Investigation of Single Adsorption Refrigeration System Driven by Solar Heat Storage

The aim of this paper is to provide a global study of an adsorption refrigeration machine driven by solar heat storage and collected by parabolic trough collector. The system operates with ammonia (as refrigerant) and activated carbon (as adsorbent). A mathematical model interpreting the progression of the heat and the mass transfer at each element of the prototype has been developed. The solar irradiation and the real ambient temperature variations corresponding to a usual summer day in Tetouan (Morocco) are considered. The system performance is evaluated trough specific cooling power (SCP) as well as solar coefficient of performance (SCOP), which was estimated by a dynamic simulation cycle. The pressure, temperature and adsorbed mass profiles in the Adsorber have been calculated. The effects of significant design and operating parameters on the system performance have been investigated. The results show the capability of our system to realize an encouraging performance and to overcome the intermittence of the adsorption refrigeration machines. For a daily solar irradiation of 18 MJ.m(-2) and operating conditions of evaporation temperature T-ev = 0 degrees C, condensation temperature T-con = 30 degrees C and generation temperature T-3 = 100 degrees C, the results show that the process could achieve an SCP of 115W.kg(-1) and it could produce a daily specific cooling capacity of 3310 kJ.kg(-1), whereas its SCOP could attain 0.141.