DOUBLE-EFFECT SOLAR ABSORPTION THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE

Abstract

Solar radiation is a clean and renewable form of energy, which is required to be the main source of natural processes. Solar absorption refrigeration system (SARS) uses free source of energy when compared to the conventional electrical sources. This paper presents the SARS that is designed using meteorological data from Kuala Terengganu on 2004. The area which is located at 5°10’N latitude and 103°06’E longitude does experience a relative “dry season†from April through June, while the heaviest precipitation is seen at the end of the year, in November and December. The purpose of this project is to determine the performance of double-effect absorption chiller using solar energy through simulation approach. Initially, three types of solar collector were chosen but evacuated tube was selected as the main work due to its high efficiency. Solar energy is absorbed by the evacuated tube solar collector and then transferred to the hot water storage tank. High-pressure generator is driven by hot water storage system. The modeling and simulation of SARS is carried out using Matlab software package. Using equilibrium low-pressure generator temperature approach, the results show that minimum reference temperature of 130oC is required to run the absorption chiller because the coefficient of performance (COP) will drop sharply below this temperature. Apart from that, the maximum COP of 1.2 is achieved at high-pressure generator temperature of 15oC. 5 m3 of hot water storage tank is required to achieve continuous operation of absorption chiller. The solar collector area was designed based on the solar fraction ranging from 50% to 90% monthly. The operational system for 100kW of refrigeration load in a year consists of 250 m2 evacuated tube solar collector sloped at 2o .