Sorption thermal battery with solar powered absorption chiller for various building cooling applications

In the proposed sorption thermal energy storage (STES) system, the thermal energy storage (TES) tanks are integrated with solar assisted-absorption chiller (AC) to perform extended operation while matching the incompatibility of time gap between the renewable energy heat source and cooling demand of the building. In this study, the operating characteristics of sorption thermal battery (STB) at discharging process and storage capacity of STES charging process are studied. The feasibility study is conducted for four different types of buildings (hotel, hospital, single-family house, and office) to investigate the optimized discharging cooling capacity of STB and the optimized TES ratio. Under the condition of the 200 kWh of the building cooling load and cooling area of 181.63 m2, the most effectively meeting the demand is shown in the hotel, in which STES responds to 78.1 % of the cooling demand with 7.5 kW discharging cooling capacity of STB and 55 % charging the storage capacity of the STES system. The optimum energy storage density is 68.2 kWh/m3 and coefficient of performance is estimated of 0.41. The optimized STES can meet the cooling demand as much as 67.4 % for the hospital and 26.9 % for the single-family house. The office doesn't require to apply the STES due to the absence of the cooling load at discharging period.