Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 20322041

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Year round test of a solar adsorption ice maker in Kunming, China

H.L. Luo a, Y.J. Dai a, R.Z. Wang
a

a,*

, Runsheng Tang b, M. Li

Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, PR China b Solar Energy Research Institute, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming 650092, PR China Received 22 June 2004; accepted 24 October 2004 Available online 13 December 2004

Abstract A solar adsorption ice maker with activated carbonmethanol adsorption pair was developed for a practical application. Its main features include utilization of a water cooled condenser and removing all valves in the refrigerant circuit except the one that is necessary for refrigerant charging. Year round performance tests of the solar ice maker were performed in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China. Test results show that the COP (coecient of performance) of the solar ice maker is about 0.0830.127, and its daily ice production varies within the range of 3.26.5 kg/m2 under the climatic conditions of daily solar radiation on the surface of the adsorbent bed being about 1523 MJ/m2 and the daily average ambient temperature being within 7.721.1 C. The suitable daily solar radiation under which the solar ice maker can run eectively in Kunming is above 16 MJ/m2. 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Solar ice maker; Adsorption; Performance test

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 21 6293 3838; fax: +86 21 6293 3250. E-mail address: rzwang@mail.sjtu.edu.cn (R.Z. Wang).

0196-8904/$ - see front matter 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2004.10.019

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Nomenclature COP I(t) Ac Mw Mi Tw Ti Ta Tct Tcb Qt Qref hsl Cpw Cpi coecient of performance solar radiation intensity on surface of adsorbent bed (W/m2) solar collecting area (m2) mass of water (kg) mass of ice (kg) water temperature inside evaporator tank (C) ice temperature (C) adsorbent temperature (C) top water temperature in condenser tank (C) bottom water temperature in condenser tank (C) total incident solar energy (J) useful cooling output (J) latent heat of water solidication (J/kg) isobaric specic heat of water (J/kg C) isobaric specic heat of ice (J/kg C)

1. Introduction Yunnan, located at the southwest of China, is one of the less developed regions, and grid electricity is not available or is far from sucient in some remote or sparsely populated areas. The electrically powered vapor compression refrigeration systems may not be of much use for essential applications in such areas, so it is necessary to develop alternative refrigeration systems. On the other hand, Yunnan Province has abundant solar energy resources, and 90% of the areas receive annual solar radiation exceeding 5400 MJ/m2 with more than 2100 sunshine hours. Therefore, the use of solar refrigeration systems in these areas may provide a practical way for cold storage of food and vaccine. In the past two decades, a number of studies have been reported on solar adsorption refrigeration systems. Pons et al. [1] experimentally investigated a solar adsorption ice maker with 6 m2 collector areas, which could produce 3035 kg ice per day under solar radiation of about 22 MJ/m2 day. Critoph [2] comprehensively studied the performance limitations of adsorption cycles for solar cooling. Headley et al. [3] presented an adsorption refrigerator powered by a compound parabolic concentrating solar collector with the net solar coecient of performance (COP) being of the order of 0.02. Recently, Boubakri et al. [4] studied the limits of ice production by means of adsorptive collector condenser technology. Anyanwu and Ezekwe [5] designed, constructed and tested a solar adsorption refrigerator in the tropical climate. In China, some experimental solar adsorption refrigeration devices have also been demonstrated [6]. All these studies reveal that, in general, the solar adsorption refrigeration system is feasible for areas with abundant solar resources. Our previous work on solar ice makers also demonstrated the feasibility of such systems [7,8]. Nevertheless, our experiments were done under indoor conditions with iodinetungsten lamps instead of solar radiation, so the test results in such cases are not accurate indications of a practical

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solar ice maker. Moreover, some problems still existed in our previously developed prototype, such as poor condensation eect and somewhat high cost. For practical applications of a solar refrigeration system, it is necessary to investigate its performance under given climate conditions. In this study, a solar adsorption ice maker with 1.2 m2 solar collecting area was developed on the basis of our previously developed prototype for a practical application. Year round performance tests of this solar ice maker were performed in Kunming, Yunnan province of China.

2. Description of the solar ice maker Similar to our previously developed prototype [7], a plate adsorbent bed is adopted in the newly developed unit, and activated carbon-methanol is chosen as the adsorption pair. Also noted is that there are no valves in the refrigerant circuit except the one that is necessary for refrigerant charging, and the condensation heat exchanger is immersed in a water tank. A schematic diagram of the solar ice maker is shown in Fig. 1. It consists of three main components, namely an adsorbent bed, a condenser and an evaporator. The adsorption refrigeration cycle is a succession of two periods, rst, a period of heating desorptioncondensation then a period of coolingadsorptionevaporation. In the morning of a sunny day, the adsorbent bed absorbs solar energy. As time goes on, the adsorbent temperature rises. The refrigerant desorbs from the adsorbent with the increase of adsorbent temperature. The desorbed refrigerant vapor is condensed via the condenser and enters the evaporator in a liquid state directly. This desorption process lasts until the temperature of the adsorbent reaches the
Activated carbon Glass cover Selective coating Metal shell Connecting tube Insulation Pressure gauge Water cooled condenser Valve

Fins

Water/ice

Insulation Bracket Methanol Evaporator

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the solar ice maker.

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Copper tube Water tank Water

2035

Fins with holes

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the water cooled condenser.

maximum. Thereafter, the adsorbent temperature begins to decrease. During the night, the refrigerant vapor from the evaporator is adsorbed by the adsorbent, and the cooling eect is, thus, produced in the evaporator. The adsorbent bed (Fig. 1), made of a at plate stainless steel box with the dimensions of 1.2 m 1.0 m 0.055 m, is the key component of the solar ice maker. The top surface of the stainless steel box is coated with a lm of solar selective coating. The bottom and four sides of the stainless steel box are insulated by 0.03 m thickness polyurethane foam. Twenty-four kilograms of activated carbon is enclosed in the stainless steel box. In order to enhance the heat transfer eect between the solar collecting surface and the activated carbon, 12 stainless steel ns are xed in the stainless steel box. As shown in Fig. 2, the condenser consists of a condensation heat exchanger and a water tank. It is placed in the space between the adsorbent bed and the evaporator in order that the solar ice maker becomes more compact and the condensed refrigerant can ow into the evaporator by gravity easily. The condensation heat exchanger, made of B 19 mm copper tubes and aluminum ns, is immersed in a water tank with a volume of 50 l. The total heat transfer area of the condensation heat exchanger is about 1.8 m2, and each n has twelve B 18 mm holes to enhance natural convection heat transfer in the water tank. The evaporator is manufactured with 1.5 mm stainless steel plates, and has a total heat exchanging area of about 0.4 m2 (Fig. 1). To prevent deformation caused by the pressure dierence between the inside and outside of the evaporator, four stainless steel ribs are xed in it. The evaporator is immersed in a water tank, which is placed inside an insulated box. During the adsorption process, ice is formed in the water tank.

3. Experimental setup and instrumentation By connecting the adsorbent bed, the condenser and the evaporator with B 19 mm copper tubes, the solar ice maker is built. However, the solar ice maker must be evacuated to ush out the air and moisture that may degrade the working process of the adsorption pair. In order to facilitate evacuating the solar ice maker and charging it with refrigerant, an additional valve is installed below the condenser (Fig. 1). Furthermore, a pressure gauge with a reading accuracy of 0.5 kPa is installed to show the pressure in the adsorbent bed. The adsorbent bed is inclined at an angle of 25 towards the South. A photograph of the experimental setup is shown in Fig. 3.

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Fig. 3. Photograph of the solar ice maker.

IEEE-488 bus Computer

Pyranometer Multimeter/data acquisition system Temperature sensors

Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of the test apparatus.

To ush out the air and moisture as much as possible, the adsorbent is heated by iodinetungsten lamps to a temperature of about 120 C for 10 h. Meanwhile, the solar ice maker is evacuated using a vacuum pump. After the system is subjected to 72 h of observation and its intactness is certain, about 8000 ml of methanol is charged into the solar ice maker. In order to collect the data necessary to evaluate the performance of the solar ice maker, a series of sensors and instruments are employed. A pyranometer (TBQ-2 type) with an accuracy of 2% is used to measure the solar radiation on the top surface of the adsorbent bed. Nine platinum resistance temperature sensors (pt100) are employed to monitor the ambient temperature, the adsorbent temperature and the water temperatures inside both the condenser and evaporator tanks. All these temperature sensors are calibrated, and the accuracy of the measured temperatures is estimated to be within 0.2 C. The pyranometer and all temperature sensors are connected to a Keithley 2700 multimeter/data acquisition system. An IEEE-488 bus is used as a communication port between the Keithley 2700 multimeter/data acquisition system and a computer. A schematic diagram of the test apparatus is shown in Fig. 4.

4. Performance index For the solar ice maker, the total incident solar energy on the surface of the adsorbent bed, Qt , is calculated by

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Qt A c

Z I t dt

The useful cooling output, Qref, is calculated by Qref mw C pw DT w mi hsl mi C pi DT i 2 where DTw and DTi are the temperature changes of the water and ice in the evaporator tank during the adsorption process, respectively. The solar cooling coecient of performance of the solar ice maker, COPsolar, is dened by COPsolar Q R ref Ac I t dt 3

5. Experimental results and discussion 5.1. Performance evaluation in a typical day The solar ice maker is placed on the roof of a laboratory building of the Solar Energy Research Institute, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming (lat., 2501 0 N; long., 10241 0 E). A typical one day test presented here started at 9:00 a.m. (local time, which is about 70 min earlier than the solar time) on 30 April 2003 and ended at 8:15 a.m. the next morning. Fig. 5 shows the time variations of a series of parameters in an adsorption refrigeration cycle, namely, the average temperature of the adsorbent, Ta, the ambient temperature, Tam, the average water temperature inside the evaporator tank, Tw, and the solar radiation intensity, I(t). It can be seen from Fig. 5 that Ta reaches its maximum (about 95 C) at about 1:30 p.m. and remains almost constant from 1:30 p.m. to about 2:50 p.m. During this period, the solar heat gain is mainly used to drive the desorption process. From about 3:40 p.m. to about 6:30 p.m., Ta decreases gently with the decline of solar radiation intensity. The adsorption process starts at about 6:30 p.m. Thereafter, Ta decreases more slowly due to the release of adsorption heat and approaches the ambient temperature at about 6:00 a.m.
100

Tw
Temperature (0C)
80 60 40 20 0 8:35 11:55 15:15 18:35 21:55 1:15 4:35 7:55

1000 800 600 400 200 0

Tam Ta I(t)
Solar radiation (W/m2)

Local time

Fig. 5. Variations of Tam, Ta, Tw and I(t) with time.

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the next morning. This indicates that the solar ice maker can dissipate the adsorption heat and sensible heat of the adsorbent bed during the adsorption process eectively. Tw drops to 2.7 C at about 1:10 a.m., and then, it jumps to about 0 C. This phenomenon may be attributed to the sudden release of the latent heat of water solidication. It is deduced that the water begins to freeze at this moment. From 1:10 a.m. to about 4:50 a.m., Tw remains almost constant. Thereafter, Tw decreases slowly and reaches its minimum 4.7 C at about 6:20 a.m. Fig. 6 describes the recorded adsorption cycle refrigeration cycle in a Clapeyron diagram. It is seen in Fig. 6 that the pressure in the solar ice maker increases with the increase of adsorbent temperature during the period of heatingdesorptioncondensation. Because there are no valves in the refrigerant circuit, the refrigerant vapor is condensed as soon as it is desorbed from the adsorbent. Moreover, the water temperature inside the condenser tank changes due to the ambient temperature uctuation and the release of condensation heat. Hence, the condensation process does not follow an isobaric path. The condensation pressure reaches its maximum of about 41 kPa at about 1:00 p.m. and remains almost constant from about 1:00 p.m. to about 2:20 p.m. After the peak, the pressure in the solar ice maker begins to drop. During the adsorption process, the evaporation pressure also changes due to the variations of temperature inside the evaporator tank. Obviously, the recorded adsorption refrigeration cycle is somewhat dierent from the ideal cycle as described in the literatures [4,9]. The dashed line in Fig. 6 represents the ideal cycle formed by two isosters and two isobars. Also observed is that the pressure inside the solar ice maker at the end of the test is about 2 kPa lower than that at the beginning. This is a result of the fact that the ice produced during the night is not removed from the evaporator tank, which makes the saturation vapor pressure of the methanol in the evaporator decrease. Fig. 7 shows the time variations of the ambient temperature, Tam, and the water temperatures in the condenser tank, Tct, and Tcb. Here, Tct is the top water temperature and Tcb is the bottom water temperature. During the second half of the desorption process, Tct is about 25 C higher than Tam due to the contribution of the condensation heat released by the desorbed methanol vapor. However, Tcb is maintained below the ambient temperature during the entire desorption process, indicating that the water in the condenser tank is enough to cool eectively the desorbed
11.0

Heating-desorption-condensation
10.5 10.0

LnP (Pa)

9.5 9.0 8.5

Cooling-adsorption-evaporation
8.0 -0.0035-0.0034-0.0033-0.0032-0.0031-0.0030-0.0029-0.0028-0.0027

-1/T (1/K)

Fig. 6. The recorded adsorption refrigeration cycle in Clapeyron diagram.

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32 30

2039

Tam Tcb Tct

Temperature (0C)

28 26 24 22 20 18 16 8:35 10:15 11:55 13:35 15:15 16:55

18:35

Local time

Fig. 7. Comparisons between water temperature inside condenser tank and ambient temperature.

methanol vapor. For a solar ice maker with an air cooled condenser, the condensation temperature is usually about 36 C higher than the ambient temperature [10]. Compared with an air cooled condenser, the water cooled condenser runs more eectively. It was recorded that the daily solar radiation on the top surface of the adsorbent bed was 26.868 MJ on 30 April 2003, and 7.5 kg of ice was produced in the evaporator tank the next morning. The corresponding solar cooling coecient of performance (COPsolar) was 0.121. 5.2. Year round test From April 2003 to March 2004, a total of 83 tests were conducted under sunny days in Kunming, Yunnan Province. The statistical climate data [11], including monthly average daily radiation and monthly average temperature, are given in Fig. 8. Representative test results are presented in Table 1. As shown in Table 1, the daily ice production of this solar ice maker varies within the range of 3.26.5 kg/m2, and its COPsolar is about 0.0830.127 under the climatic conditions of the daily solar radiation on the surface of the adsorbent bed being about 1523 MJ/m2 and the daily average ambient temperature being within 7.721.1 C. The climate of Kunming is very moderate with little change in temperature throughout the year (Fig. 8). The hottest month is July with an average temperature of about 19.8 C, and the coldest is January with an average temperature of about 7.2 C. Consequently, the eects of daily average temperature on the COPsolar and ice production of the solar ice maker are inconspicuous. Moreover, the daily ice production of the solar ice maker generally increases with the increase of daily solar radiation. The maximum COPsolar, about 0.127, was obtained on 23 March 2004 during the entire period of tests. It was attributed to the intense solar radiation during the daytime and the low ambient temperature at the clear night of that day. This clear night sky considerably facilitates the adsorption process because the adsorption heat released during the adsorption process can be dissipated to the sky dome by thermal radiation eectively. Nevertheless, in most days of October and November, the COPsolar of the solar ice maker was about 0.03, and only chilled water was

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26 24 22

Solar radiation (MJ/m2)

Incident solar radiation on a horizontal surface Average temperature

18 16 14 12 10 8 6

Month

Fig. 8. Monthly representation of the average daily solar radiation on a horizontal surface and monthly average temperature of Kunming, China. Table 1 Test results of the solar ice maker Date 2003/04/30 2003/05/19 2003/06/24 2003/07/11 2003/08/03 2003/09/07 2003/10/18 2003/11/26 2003/12/09 2004/01/15 2004/02/14 2004/03/23 Solar radiation on the surface of the adsorbent bed (MJ/m2) 22.39 19.81 17.02 16.74 16.43 15.38 13.03 12.46 15.07 15.28 16.91 21.25 Daily average temperature (C) 20.9 19.2 21.1 19.7 19.1 17.5 15.2 11.6 8.4 7.7 9.9 13.4 Daily ice production (kg/m2) 6.3 4.8 3.8 3.7 3.2 3.5 0 0 3.8 4.3 5.2 6.5 COPsolar 0.121 0.105 0.098 0.097 0.083 0.099 0.027 0.029 0.095 0.114 0.123 0.127

produced in the evaporator tank. The test results show that there is almost no ice production when the daily solar radiation on the surface of the adsorbent bed is below 14 MJ/m2, and the suitable daily solar radiation under which the solar ice maker can run eectively in Kunming is above 16 MJ/m2.

6. Conclusions A at plate solar adsorption ice maker with water cooled condenser was developed successfully on the basis of our previous work. Year round performance tests of the solar ice maker were performed under the climate conditions of Kunming, Yunnan Province, China. Based on the test results, the following conclusions can be drawn:

Temperature (0C)

20

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1. Year round tests show that the COPsolar of the solar ice maker is about 0.0830.127, and its daily ice production varies within the range of 3.26.5 kg/m2 under the conditions of the daily solar radiation on the surface of the adsorbent bed being about 1523 MJ/m2 and the daily average ambient temperature being within 7.721.1 C. 2. The water in the condenser tank of the newly developed solar ice maker is enough to cool eectively the desorbed methanol vapor during the desorption process. Compared with an air cooled condenser, the water cooled condenser runs more eectively. 3. For the solar ice maker, the suitable daily solar radiation on the surface of the adsorbent bed under which it can run eectively in Kunming is above 16 MJ/m2. Its ice production generally increases with the increase of daily solar radiation. 4. The solar ice maker may provide an alternative way for cold storage of food and vaccine in Yunnan Province, China, where most areas receive an annual total solar radiation exceeding 5400 MJ/m2 with more than 2100 sunshine hours.

Acknowledgments This work was supported by the National Key Fundamental Research Program under the contract No. G2000026309; the Natural Science Foundation of Yunnan Province.

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