Experimental study of the absorption refrigeration using ocean thermal energy and its under-lying prospects

Abstract

The construction of a maritime cold chain network with islands as node is an important avenue for the economic development of the island, in which efficient refrigeration technology is essential to the development of the marine industry. Motivated by the substantial resources of tropical ocean, an absorption-compression refrigeration device is constructed and its technical feasibility is firstly demonstrated by experiment, achieving a refrigerating capacity of 6.8 kW and 10.2 kW at the evaporation temperature of −24.5 °C and −18 °C, respectively. The pressure rise by the compressor has been reduced by 185 kPa when compared to traditional vapor-compression refrigeration. The energy-saving potential of different refrigeration methods is also summarized, with the proposed refrigeration achieving the highest level of energy-efficient ratio, EER = 6.57. Especially, the proposed refrigeration can be cascaded with power generation, desalination, chilled-soil agriculture, and aquaculture to realize the gradient utilization of ocean thermal energy and hence improve the overall economy. This work opens up a new path for promoting and developing the use of ocean thermal energy for blue ocean economy in tropical oceans with bathymetry depths of 300 m or higher.