Life cycle analysis of ZEOSOL solar cooling and heating system

Abstract

Within the context of the HVAC sector decarbonization, the market of solar driven heating and cooling systems has expanded significantly over the last years. The ZEOSOL system has as its key principle the coupling of a 12.5 kWc hybrid zeolite-water adsorption chiller with a 40 m2 solar field of vacuum tube collectors. The impact assessment has been conducted using ReCiPe 2016 method, using as reference system a conventional reversible heat pump of equal cooling capacity. The analysis indicated that the ZEOSOL system has a smaller environmental footprint in terms of impact categories such as global warming and ozone depletion potential, with a 51.2% and a 37.4% decrease of the equivalent emissions in comparison with the reference respectively. This is mainly due to the significant reduction in electricity consumption, given its high solar fraction, in contrast with the grid driven conventional system. On the other hand, the examined system performs worse in impact categories such as eco-toxicity and mineral resources scarcity, as a result of the use of large masses of copper based materials, mainly for pipelines and the solar field. On the contrary, the conventional system uses significantly less materials and therefore has better performance in the influenced categories.