A New Design of an Integrated Solar Absorption Cooling System Driven by an Evacuated Tube Collector: A Case Study for Baghdad, Iraq

Adil Al-Falahi,Falah Alobaid,Bernd Epple

doi:10.3390/app10103622

Abstract

The electrical power consumption of refrigeration equipment leads to a significant influence on the supply network, especially on the hottest days during the cooling season (and this is besides the conventional electricity problem in Iraq). The aim of this work is to investigate the energy performance of a solar-driven air-conditioning system utilizing absorption technology under climate in Baghdad, Iraq. The solar fraction and the thermal performance of the solar air-conditioning system were analyzed for various months in the cooling season. It was found that the system operating in August shows the best monthly average solar fraction (of 59.4%) and coefficient of performance (COP) (of 0.52) due to the high solar potential in this month. Moreover, the seasonal integrated collector efficiency was 54%, providing a seasonal solar fraction of 58%, and the COP of the absorption chiller was 0.44, which was in limit, as reported in the literature for similar systems. A detailed parametric analysis was carried out to evaluate the thermal performance of the system and analyses, and the effect of design variables on the solar fraction of the system during the cooling season.

Highlights

There is growing demand for air conditioning in hot climate countries, and greater demand for thermal comfort by its users; it is becoming one of the most important types of energy consumption [1]
The seasonal integrated collector efficiency was 54%, providing a seasonal solar fraction of 58%, and the coefficient of performance (COP) of the absorption chiller was 0.44, which was in limit, as reported in the literature for similar systems
The results show an approximation between the measured and simulated data, where the coefficient of performance (COP) of the absorption chiller from the experimental data was 0.691 while the COP of the simulated system reached a value of 0.73

Summary

Introduction

There is growing demand for air conditioning in hot climate countries (due to increase in internal loads in buildings), and greater demand for thermal comfort by its users; it is becoming one of the most important types of energy consumption [1]. Most buildings are provided with electrically driven vapor compression chillers. In Iraq, the demand for cooling and air conditioning is more than 50%−60% of total electricity demand (48% in the residential sector) [3]; it contributes to increased CO2 emissions, which could increase by 60% by 2030, compared to the beginning of the century (even though we urgently need to reduce) [4]. Mechanical compression chillers utilize various types of halogenated organic refrigerants, such as HCFCs (hydrochlorofluorocarbons), which still contribute to the depletion of the ozone layer; this is why many of these refrigerants have been banned or are in the process of being banned

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