ENERGY ANALYSIS OF THE PERFORMANCE OF A SOLAR ADSORPTION REFRIGERATOR

Abstract

This paper presents a contribution to the study of the process of cold production by adsorption from solar energy. This study mainly includes a modeling, simulation and sizing study of an adsorption solar refrigerator using the zeolite-water couple. For this purpose, a mathematical model of heat and mass transfers in each component of the adsorption solar refrigerator was developed. The results show that the performance of the adsorption solar refrigerator depends on several parameters. For example, with a maximum solar radiation of 990W/m², the maximum temperatures of the absorber plate, zeolite and condenser are 396 K (123°C), 395 K (122°C) and 320 K (47°C), respectively. The evaporator temperature can drop to a minimum temperature of 276 K (3°C). Furthermore, the simulation showed that the climatic conditions also have a great influence on the operation of the solar refrigerator. Thus, the amounts of cold produced, the average solar flux densities and the COPs during March and December are 6.391 MJ and 4.642 MJ, 590 W/m² and 514 W/m² and 0.25 and 0.21, respectively, relative to the values of the climate parameters. Similarly, with a daily average solar flux density of 436 W/m² and 480 W/m² respectively for the months of August and October, the COPs are 0.11 and 0.15 respectively, with a total amount of cold produced of 2.12 and 3.1 MJ respectively.