Energy, exergy and exergoeconomic analyses of a solar refrigeration cycle using nanofluid

In this paper, energy, exergy and exergoeconomic analyses of a solar absorption refrigeration cycle with energy storage are conducted. In this cycle, nanofluid is used as the heat transfer fluid (HTF) in a flat plate collector to improve the performance of the cycle. Based on the results of the analyses, the type of nanofluid and working conditions that lead to lower cost of cooling effect and higher COP and exergy efficiency of the cycle are found. The results show that utilisation of CuO and Al2O3 nanofluids with 5% volume fraction increases the COP of the solar cycle by 17.98% and 14.51%, respectively, whereas the exergy-based cost rate of cooling decreases by 10.25% and 5.48%, respectively. Utilisation of the CuO nanofluid as the HTF is found to be more favourable for improving the performance of the cycle and decreasing the exergy-based cost of cooling.