Integrated life cycle assessment and emergy analysis of liquid dehumidification absorption refrigeration driven by solar energy

Abstract

The cascade utilization of solar energy is significant in alleviating energy and environmental problems. A novel solar-driven liquid dehumidification cascade absorption refrigeration (SLDAR) system applied to hot summer and cold winter areas of China is proposed in this paper. In order to evaluate the environmental and economic sustainability of the system, an integrating life cycle assessment and emergy analysis (LCA-EmA) method is developed. Parameter sensitivity analysis is conducted to determine the effects of solar radiation intensity, air temperature and relative humidity on the sustainability of the system. The results reveal that the total potential environmental impact of the system is 7.29E+03, of which the construction stage accounted for the most part of 65.36%. The total emergy input of the system is 1.61E+17 sej/yr, the operation stage accounted for the highest proportion of 73.29%. According to the integrated LCA-EmA, the emergy sustainability index of the system is 3.89, which reduces by 29.01% than the result of the emergy analysis. The parameter sensitivity analysis states that the system has higher resource use efficiency and emergy yield ratio in higher solar radiation intensity. And the emergy sustainability index of the system increases first and then decreases as the air temperature increases. The environmental load rate increases by 15.19% and the emergy sustainability index decreases by 44.50% as the increase of relative humidity. This study proves the feasibility and sustainability of the solar-driven cascade system.