INTRODUCTION

Refrigerators are cyclic device having a working fluid known as refrigerant in refrigeration
cycles. In the mean time it is capable of transferring heat from a low temperature medium to a
high temperature medium. Air-conditioning is a particularly attractive application for solar
energy because of the near coincidence of peak cooling loads with the available solar power.
Nowadays solar refrigeration applications has becomes economically attractive since there is
increasing in awareness on renewable energy and the availability of inexpensive thermal energy
sources at a relatively low price. By principle, solar energy could supply all the present and
future energy needs of the world on the continuing basis. This makes it one of the most
promising of the unconventional energy sources. Unlike fossil fuels it is an environmental clean
source of energy, free and available in adequate quantities in almost all parts of the world. In
addition, there is a demand for cooling in many parts of the world where there is no appropriate
electricity supply and conventional fuels are difficult to obtain or unreasonably expensive.
Absorption refrigeration system involves the absorption of a refrigerant by a transport
medium. The absorption refrigeration system was also referred as a heat driven system since
most of the operation in the system is associated with providing heat to drives off the vapour
from the high pressure liquid. This system utilizes low grade form of heat energy to produce cold
on compression of vapour compression system. In vapour absorption system compressor is
replaced by absorber pump and generator. For a solar absorption cooling system it is the matter
of heat is taken from the sun to heating up the mixture of refrigerant and absorbent in generator
by implementing the refrigeration system with solar collector. The solar-powered cooling system
generally comprises of three main parts to make up whole system which is the solar energy
conversion system, the refrigeration system, and the space to be cooled.
The vapour absorption system is almost similar like the vapour compression system
except that the compressor has been replaced by an absorption mechanism. Basically, a
refrigeration cycle for vapour absorption system is operated with several components working
together such as the evaporator, absorber, generator, condenser and expansion valve. Their
general major role/function was discussed and showed in the table 1 and figure 1.
Component

Function

Evaporator

-Receive refrigerant in liquid phase at low pressure

-Absorb heat from the surrounding area
-refrigerant exited evaporator at vapour phase since it was
heated by the surrounding heat.
-Receive refrigerant vapour from evaporator

Absorber

-During mixing of absorbent and refrigerant vapour, heat is

released (exothermic process/heat is released).
-The pressurisation is achieved by dissolving the refrigerant in
Generator

the absorbent.
-Received high concentration solution (mixture of absorbent
and refrigerant) at high pressure from the pump.
-Heat energy is supplied to the generator to separate the
mixture(using rectifier) refrigerant vapour goes to the
condenser and the absorbent goes to the throttling valve
-High pressure refrigerant in vapour phase will enter the
condenser

Condenser

-Lean mixture will moved to the expansion valve

-Receive refrigerant in vapour phase at high temperature
-change refrigerant from vapor phase to liquid phase as
condensation occur.

Throttling valve

-Heat is rejected to the surrounding

Control the lean mixture pressure

Expansion valve

Control refrigerant pressure and flow rate

Solar panel

Provide heat to generator

Table 1: Component involve in vapour absorption system and their function

Figure 1 : Diagram for vapour absorption refrigeration system

The main objective is to raise the temperature of the refrigerant from lower evaporator
pressure to slightly much higher condenser pressure. Here low pressure refrigerant vapour is
dissolved in liquid absorber creating exothermic reaction. The rich solution of refrigerant was
pumped to the generator where it been heated up and separated from solution by heating process.
The refrigerant vapour passing through the condenser to go through condensation process in
which the heat was rejected to the surrounding environment and the vapour phase change liquid
phase. After condensation in condenser, refrigerant is throttled by expansion valve and then it
evaporates in evaporator by absorbing the heat from surrounding environment thus providing the
refrigeration effect.

Coefficient Of Performance (COP)/Efficiency Of The System

The performance coefficient of an absorption refrigeration system is represented as
coefficient of performance (COP). It is defined as the ratio of the heat transfer rate into the
evaporator to the heat transfer rate into the generator and can be calculated as a function of the
temperatures. One may compared the coefficient of performance (COP) of absorption systems
with different working fluids refrigerant/absorbent pair or when using different type of solar
collector. It shows how much heat can be removed from a cold region (Qe) for each unit of
energy used (Qg).

For the solar-driven systems, the performance can be written as the product of the COP and the
solar collector efficiency (c). Besides, it can be defined as a ratio of the refrigeration effect and
the solar energy input (I) for the thermal-driven systems, which is called system thermal ratio
(STR).

The cooling capacity of a refrigeration system is the rate of heat removal from refrigerated space
which expressed as tons of refrigeration.

COMPARISON BETWEEN THE OLD TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENTS WITH THE

LATEST TECHNOLOGY:
Generally, we can divide the development of the solar vapour absorption refrigerant
system in three main components which are in term of cooling technology systems, type of
refrigerant-absorbent mixture and thermal absorption technology. There are many reasons that
are influence the development toward achieving the better technology such as lowering the cost
of components and improving their performance. Cooling technologies as example we can see
the improvement from the single effect to double effect solar absorption and addition of hot
water storage and refrigerant storage and other improvements from time to time along with the
need towards increasing of higher coefficient of performance (COP) for a refrigeration system.
The vapour absorption refrigerant system previously utilize ammonia/water and
water/lithium bromide as refrigerant/ absorbent pairs while currently the study was done to
implement the application of propane as refrigerant along with lubricating oil. While the
water/lithium bromide absorption system is commonly used for air conditioning applications, the
ammonia/water system can be used for applications where temperatures lower than zero are
needed for freezing purposes. Propane on the other hand is a natural refrigerant that has zero
ozone depletion potential. However, propane is classified as highly flammable refrigerant and the
extent of system charge will be increased in an absorption system, leading to concerns over
safety. Water/lithium bromide has the downside of crystallization at high concentration and
corrosion to metals. The generator temperature needed for Water/Lithium Bromide and can only
be met by compound parabolic collectors (CPC) and evacuated tube solar collectors which tend
to have high capital cost.
The ammonia/water absorption system has great miscibility of ammonia and water, which
means large rectification columns are required to generate the ammonia, which adds to the
complexity of the system and the high temperature demand of the generation process. On the
other hand, ammonia is a toxic refrigerant and has the additional drawbacks of corrosiveness and
explosiveness. Preliminary experiment has been conducted to examine the solubility of propane
in various lubricating oils. The variation of the vapour pressure was taken as a measure of the
degree of solubility. As the amount of refrigerant dissolved in the oil increases, its vapour

pressure reduces and the difference between the vapour pressure of pure refrigerant and that of
the refrigerant/oil mixture increases.
Improvements such as reduced collector area, improved system performance, and
reduced collector cost for the thermal technology on the other hand will lower the cost of solar
components. Several solar thermal technologies have been reviewed. The evolutionary of solar
thermal technologies is mainly influenced by the latest system available at a time concern. Either
it is flat-plate, evacuated tube, dish/parabolic type, thermoelectric, solar pond or the modification
from any of it, all serve the same objective which is function as solar collector to provide heat
from the sun to the generator however at different efficiency/performance. For the sake of
making a comparison the representatives from different time based technology was selected
which are flat-plate collector, evacuated tube collector and solar pond. Even though solar energy
is an unsteady heat source however, with the development of technologies in continuous
absorption cooling system having higher system performance that end up solve the unsteady
problem.

1.0

Cooling Technology Development

The basis priciple of solar absorption is single effect system as shown in figure 1. Here

the solar energy is gained through the collector and is accumulated in the storage tank. Then, the
hot water in the storage tank is supplied to the generator to boil water vapor from the refregerant
solution. The water vapor is then cooled down in the condenser and then passed to the evaporator
where it again is evaporated at low pressure which then provide cooling to the required space.
The water vapour then leave the evaporator and being absorb by the absorber which influence by
the strong solution from the generator through the heat exchanger in order to preheat the weak
solution entering the generator. Cooling water from the cooling tower removes the heat by
mixing and condensation. Since the temperature of the absorber has a higher influence on the
efficiency of the system than the condensing temperature, the heat-rejection (cooling water)
fluid, is allowed to flow through the absorber first and then to the condenser. An auxiliary energy
source is provided, so that the hot water is supplied to the generator when solar energy is not
sufficient to heat the water to the required temperature level need by the generator.

Figure 2: Single Effect Solar Vapour Absorption Cycle

The fluid propertie of the refregerant solution can be explain from the figure 3 below. Figure 3
indicate the graph of pressure versus temperature for the solution overall single effect absorption
cooling cycle.

Figure 3: Process diagram of a Single-effect solar absorption air-conditioning system

cycle
From the graph, it shows that from the he Line 1 to 7 the weak solution from the absorber
at point 1 is pumped through the heat exchanger to the generator, while point 7 indicates the
properties of the solution at the outlet of the heat exchanger. During the process, the
concentration of the weak solution is held constant. Line 7 to 2 on the other hand is the process
where the sensible heating of the weak solution in the generator, and 2 to 3 indicates the boiling
of water vapor from the solution at the constant condensing pressure PC (although the boiling
pressure is little higher than the condensing pressure, the diference is negligible). During this
process, the weak solution becomes strong solution.
Line 3 to 8 symbolizes the strong solution passing to the absorber through the heat
exchanger, in which it preheats the weak solution that flow from the absorber to the generator.
During this process, the concentration of the strong solution is constant. The line 8,4 and 1
indicates the idealized process of absorption of water vapor from the evaporator by the strong

solution in the absorber. Meanwhile, the line 2 to 5 shows the condensation of water vapor in the
condenser by the cooling water from the cooling tower, at constant condensing pressure PC.
Line 5 to 6 on the other hand shows the flow of condensed water from the condenser to the
evaporator and line 6 to 1 indicates the evaporation of the water in the evaporator due to the
prevailing low pressure PE. Also the water absorbs the heat from the space to be cooled. The
water vapor from the evaporator is in turn absorbed by the strong solution in the absorber, thus
completing the cycle of refrigeration.
The main parameter that governs the performance of the chiller is the chilled water
temperature. This is because, as the chilled water temperature decreases, the evaporator
temperature decreases, thereby decreasing the pressure in the evaporator which finally results in
an increased concentration of the solution. These results have high possibility of crystallization
of the solution. Also, with the decrease in evaporating temperature, the coefficient of
performance (COP) of the chiller would decrease. For water-cooled air-conditioning systems, the
climatic conditions and the availability of the cooling water determine the cooling-water
temperature. From the point of view of improving the COP, it is better to use cooling water of
low temperature. The normal cooling water temperature is about 25 to 28 oC. It should also be
mentioned that, if the cooling-water temperature is well below the temperature range, there is a
possibility for crystallization of the solution.

1.1

Development in cooling technology (current technology)

One of the improvements that would make the absorption machine more suitable for solar
operation is refrigerant storage. Basically, the idea is to provide, in association with the
condenser, a storage volume where the refrigerant can be accumulated during the hours of high
solar insolation. Then, this stored liquid refrigerant can be expanded at other times to meet the
required loads. Storage is also needed in the absorber to accommodate not only the refrigerant
but also sufficient absorbent to keep the concentration within allowable limits.
The single effect solar absorption then improved by the addition of hot water storage to
achieved the efficient operation. One storage would provide 70 to 75% of the total heat required
at the lowest temperature which can be utilized effectively at the part-load conditions. Typical

temperature may be from 50 to 70C depending on the building load pattern and the expected
pattern of ambient temperature. The remaining 25 to 30% of the storage volume would be in a
smaller tank with more insolation in order to store the heat collected. Still higher temperatures
may be used in this storage if it can be pressurized to prevent boiling and if collectors are used
which are capable of operating at higher temperature levels with good efficiency.
The technology then were enhance to the double effect absorption chiller and tripple
effect absorption chiller. Basically a double effect absorption chiller is where the weak solution is
circulated in series.

Figure 4: Schematic diagram of double effect solar absorption air-conditioning system

The components of the double effect convertible system consist of high pressure
generator, a secondary heat exchanger and a heat recovery unit and other component remain the
same as the single effect convertible system. The high pressure generator for steam is
independently located from the low-pressure generator for solar and hot water vapour from the
high-pressure generator before being condensed. A high pressure generator gives a primary effect

and a low-pressure generator a secondary effect, thus being called a double effect. Therefore, a
double effect cycle requires lower heat input to produce the same cooling effect, when compared
to a single effect system. Therefore, a double effect system results in higher COP.
Absorption technology may be extended to the multistage system. When solar energy is
not available, auxiliary heat such as fuel would be used for the absorption air- conditioning
system. In a triple-effect cycle, higher COP is obtained by adding a topping cycle to a doubleeffect machine. In order to achieve three effects (using the heat three times), the heat of
condensation from the topping-cycle refrigerant and the heat produced in the topping-cycle
absorber section are used to power the high-stage generator of the double-effect cycle. The heat
of condensation for the high-stage refrigerant is used to power the low-stage generator, just as in
a double-effect LiBr machine. The refrigerant for the system is shared by all three parts of a
triple- effect machine (topping, high stage, and low stage). Due to the high temperatures needed
to power the topping cycles, the triple-effect systems currently under development will all be
direct-fired machines. A typical generator temperature of approximately 250 oC is used for the
heat input to the topping cycle. The attainable cooling COP for a triple-effect machine is
approximately 1.5.

Figure 5: Triple effect solar absorption air-conditioning system

1.2

Latest Technology For Cooling System Solar Vapour Absorption: Modified

Domestic Electrolux Vapour Absorption Cycle

For the latest technology, we decided to set forth the research done by Ajay Sankar N R
and Dr. S. Sankar on the solar thermal absorption air Conditioner (STAAC),2015. In this paper
they modified the cooling system from domestic elextrolux vapour absorption cycle which based
on ammonia (refrigerant) and water (absorbent) as the working fluids together with hydrogen as
an auxiliary inert gas by the addition of syphon pump.
The unit consists of four main parts which the boiler or generator, condenser, evaporator
and absorber.The unit can be run on electricity. When the unit operates on electricity the heat is
supplied by a heating element inserted in the pocket. The unit charge consists of a quantity of
Lithium Bromide, water and hydrogen at a sufficient pressure to condense water at the room
temperature for which the unit is designed. When heat is supplied to the boiler system, bubbles
of water gas are produced which rise and carry with them quantities of weak lithium bromide
solution through the siphon pump. This weak solution passes into the tube, while the water vapor
passes into the vapor pipe and pass to the condenser. Air circulating over the fins of the
condenser removes heat from the water vapor to cause it to condense to liquid water in which
state it flows into the evaporator. The evaporator is supplied with hydrogen. The hydrogen passes
across the surface of the water and lowers the water vapor pressure sufficiently to allow the
liquid water to evaporate
The evaporation of the water extracts heat from the food storage space, as described
above, thereby lowers the temperature inside the refrigerator. The mixture of water and hydrogen
vapor passes from the evaporator to the absorber. The weak solution, flowing down through the
absorber comes into contact with the mixed water and hydrogen gases which readily absorbs by
the lithium bromide solution, leaving the hydrogen free to rise through the absorber coil and to
return to the evaporator. The hydrogen thus circulates continuously between the absorber and the
evaporator. The strong lithium bromide solution produced in the absorber flows down to the
absorber vessel and then to the boiler system, thus completing the full cycle of operation. The
liquid circulation of the unit is purely gravitational. Heat is generated in the absorber by the
process of absorption.

Figure 6: Modified Electrolux Absorption Unit

This heat must be dissipated into the surrounding air. Heat must also be dissipated from
the condenser in order to cool the water vapor sufficiently for it to liquefy. Free air circulation is
therefore necessary over the absorber and condenser. The whole unit operates by the heat applied
to the boiler system and it is of paramount importance that this heat is kept within the necessary
limits and is properly applied. The C.O.P of the system was obtained from the calculations is
about 0.3131.

2.0

Desirable Properties Of Refrigerant-Absorbent Mixture

Refrigerant-absorbent mixtures for vapour absorption cooling system should possess

appropriate properties for the system to perform efficiently. For example the refrigerant should
be more volatile than the absorbent in other words the boiling point of refrigerant should be
much lower than the absorbent. There must be large difference in the boiling points of refrigerant
and absorbent so that the solution in the generator only need to be heated to the temperature
required to boil-off only the refrigerant. This to ensures that only pure refrigerant circulates
through refrigerant circuit (from condenser to expansion valve finally to evaporator). The
refrigerant should exhibit high solubility with solution in the absorber. The absorbent should
have strong affinity for the refrigerant. This will minimize the amount of refrigerant to be
circulated. Operating pressures is preferably low, so that the walls of the shells and connecting
pipes no need to be thick. It should not undergo crystallization or solidification inside the system
because crystallization will block the free flow of solution in the line. The mixture should be
safe, chemically stable, non-corrosive and in-expensive.

2.1

Old Technology: Vapour Absorption By Using Water/Ammonia As

Refrigerant-Absorbent
Ammonia gas is used as refrigerant and water will acts as absorbing media/transport
medium. Normally the temperature for this sort of system is below 0 oC (32 F) and suitable for
freezing purposes. The cooled NH3 solution is passed through throttle valve and the pressure and
temperature of refrigerant are reduced below the temperature to be maintained in the evaporator.
The main power consumption of vapour absorption refrigeration system is a generator thus the
power is supplied by solar energy is required at this component.

Figure 7: water/ammonia absorption refrigeration cycle

Both NH3 (refrigerant) and water (absorbent) are highly stable for a wide range of
operating temperature and pressure. NH3 has a high latent heat of vaporization, which is
necessary for efficient performance of the system. It can be used for low temperature
applications since the freezing point of NH3 is -77C. However, both NH3 and water are volatile,
thus, the cycle requires a rectifier to separate water that normally evaporates with NH3.Without a
rectifier, the water would accumulate in the evaporator and offset the system performance.
Ammonia/Air mixtures are barely inflammable but may be explosive in the case of high
percentages of ammonia.
Low temperature and low pressure, weak Ammonia vapour leaves the evaporator and
enters the absorber, where it dissolves and reacts with water to form NH 3H2O becomes strong
solution. This is an exothermic reaction thus heat is released during the process. The amount of
NH3 that can be dissolved in H2O is inversely proportional to the temperature. It is necessary to
cool the absorber to maintain its temperature as low s possible, to maximize the amount of NH 3
dissolved in water. The liquid NH3 + H2O solution which rich in NH3 is then pumped to the

generator. Heat is transferred to the solution from a source to vaporize some of the solution. The
water vapour which is rich in ammonia passes through a rectifier which separate the water and
returns it to the generator, only dehydrated ammonia gets enters into the condenser. The high
pressure pure NH3 vapour then continues its journey through the rest of the cycle. The hot NH 3 +
H2O solution which is weak in NH 3 then passes through a regenerator where it transfer some
heat to the rich solution leaving the pump and is throttled to the absorber pressure. Ammonia
vapour was produced in the generator at high pressure from strong solution of NH 3 by using
solar as heating source.
Unlike LiBR/water system water/ammonia pair system required a rectifier to separate
ammonia and water vapour at the generator outlet is required. There are restrictions on the inbuilding applications of the water/ammonia cooling units because of the hazards associated with
the use of ammonia. The coefficient of the performance for the H 2O-NH3 systems is lower than
for the LiBr-H2O system. Generally, the H2O-NH3 system operates at 10-15% lower solar
fraction than the LiBr-H2O systems.

2.2

Current Technology: Vapour Absorption By Using Lithium Bromide And

Water As Refrigerant-Absorbent
Water is used as refrigerant and lithium bromide act as absorbing media. However, the
temperature range for water as a refrigerant may somehow limits the application to slightly low
temperature above 0oC (32oF), thus make it appropriate for the air conditioning application.
Having the non-volatility absorbent characteristic of Li-Br thus the need of a rectifier is
eliminated and extremely high heat of vaporization of water as a refrigerant. As water is the
refrigerant, the system must be operated under vacuum conditions. At high concentrations, the
solution is prone to crystallization. One way to prevent this to happen is to add one or more extra
salts (ZnCl2). The addition of the third component into the basic water-lithium bromide solution
pushes the crystallization limit away from the normal operating zone. Hence the strong solution
can be cooled in the heat exchanger to near absorber temperature without salt crystallization,
thus improving the performance of the system.

Figure 8: lithium bromide/water absorption refrigeration cycle

Typically similar with water/ammonia vapour absorption refrigeration system cycle

having working fluid LiBr/water it consists of generator, absorber, a condenser, an evaporator,
two heat exchanger, circulating pumps and solar collector. Similarly, the cycle working condition
is between two pressure levels which is the low pressure at the evaporator-absorber and high
pressure at condenser-generator. The emitted vapours in the generator are constituted by pure
water when in Li-Br salt remain in the solution. In the evaporator, heat input of the cold bath is
used in the boiling the liquid water. The produced vapours are absorbed in the absorber by the
rich concentration Li-Br solution (kg of LiBr/kg of the solution). This latter becomes poor
concentration which is less than one Li-Br solution before reaching the generator. Once in the
generator the solution receives the heat which allowed to bring the water to its boiling point. The
solution enriched in Li-Br returns to the absorber via a detender. The vapours of refrigerant fluid
(H2O) to high pressure are sent in the condenser while the liquid leaving it returns to the
evaporator.

2.3

Latest Technology: Vapour Absorption By Using Propane And Alkylated Benzene

As Refrigerant-Absorbent

Figure 9: Schematic diagram of the vapour absorption system

This system are taken from the research done by R.K. Al-Dadah , G. Jackson and
Ahmed Rezk on the paper Solar powered vapor absorption system using propane and alkylated
benzene AB300 oil on 2011.
The absorber vessel has two inlets that were positioned to produce a counter flow
between vapour and liquid. The lower of the two inlets introduces the low pressure vapour from
the evaporator while the other upper inlet introduces the weak refrigerant in oil solution from the
generator. Below the weak refrigerant in oil solution entry point of the absorber section, there is a
perforated baffle plate with sleeve tubes. This will allow a homogeneous flow along the heat pipe
in a thin laminar falling film. While the refrigerant vapour flows up, the falling oil film mixes
with the vapour to form a stronger solution of refrigerant. The heat of absorption is absorbed by
the evaporation of the heat pipe fluid and transported to preheat the strong refrigerant in oil

solution in the pre-generator before flowing into the main generator. This solution is collected in
a well inside the vessel where it floods the suction of the circulation pump. The pump pumps the
strong refrigerant in oil solution from the absorber to the pre-generator. The pump increases the
pressure from the required operating pressure of the absorber to the required operating pressure
of the generator.
The absorber was fitted with sight glasses that would allow the observation of the fluid
mixture movement during the operation of the system. The strong refrigerant in oil solution
leaving the absorber while, the weak refrigerant in oil solution entering it. The generator was
designed to simulate the output conditions of a flat plate solar collector. The hot water heating
coil in the generator is 6.25 mm copper coil with 28 turns on a 140 mm pitch circle diameter, to
facilitate heat transfer along the length of the vessel. As the hot water flows through the coil, it
heats the strong refrigerant solution and causes the generation of the refrigerant. The weak
refrigerant in oil solution exits at the lower end of the generator, while the generated refrigerant
vapour rises and exits at the top of the vessel. The hot water exits the generator and returns to the
hot water tank. A circulating pump was connected in series to the tank to circulate the hot water
through the generator. Customary solar collectors operate at a prescribed flow. To prevent
excessive heat losses from the generator shell, a thermal insulation was used to insulate the body
of the generator. Two thermocouples were installed at the hot water inlet and outlet to the
generator. This allowed the measurement of the heat input to the generator. The evaporator was
fitted in an air circulating duct where the air was heated and humidified before flowing over the
evaporator.

3.0

Development On Thermal Absorption Technology: Comparison Between Flat Plate

Collectors, Evacuated Tube Collectors And Solar Pond

In designing the solar powered absorption air-conditioning system, lowering the required
generating temperature is very important as it may somehow influences the collector effciency
effectively. Systems thus benefit from collecting and storing heat at lower temperatures at which
it can be effectively used. Although focusing collectors can also be used in the system, they can
only absorb the direct-beam component of solar energy. This fact must be considered thoroughly
when designing collector arrays in geographical areas where clouds frequently cover major
portions of the sky for a high percentage of the time. Besides, focusing collectors will also need
power for motion tracking. The collector is the most important component of a solar thermal
system but there is no particular type that best suited to every situation. Solar collector needs to
fulfil the technological requirements of the operating, meteorological and climatic conditions of
a specific project, as well as being appropriate in terms of design and architecture, economics
and ecology.
The efficiency of a solar collector is defined as the quotient of usable thermal energy
versus received solar energy. Besides thermal loss there alwas is optical loss as well. The
conversion factor or optical efficiency h0 indicates the percentage of the solar rays penetrating
the transparent cover of the collector (transmission) and the percentage being absorbed.
Basically, it is the product of the rate of transmission of the cover and the absorption rate of the
absorber.

3.1

Flat-Plate Solar Collector

Figure 10: Concept of flat-plate solar collector

Flat plate collector is an insulated weather proofed box containing a dark absorber plate
under one or more transparent or translucent covers. It is generally used in the solar powered
LiBr + H2O absorption air-conditioning systems, due to its low costs. It is better to use two or
three glass covers, or a convection suppressing device in the collector in order to achieve high
collected temperatures. Selective coated absorbers with single-glass covered flat-plate collectors
were also employed in many systems. A flat-plate collector consists of an absorber, a transparent
cover, a frame, and insulation. Usually an iron-poor solar safety glass is used as a transparent
cover as it transmits a great amount of the short-wave light spectrum. Simultaneously, only very
little of the heat emitted by the absorber escapes the cover (greenhouse effect). In the mean time,
the transparent cover prevents wind and breezes from carrying the collected heat away
(convection). Together with the frame, the cover protects the absorber from adverse weather
conditions. The insulation on the back of the absorber and on the side walls lessens the heat loss
through conduction. Flat collectors demonstrate a good price-performance ratio, as well as a
broad range of mounting possibilities.

3.2

Evacuated Tube Solar Collector

Figure 11: Concept of evacuated tube solar collector

The use of evacuated tubular solar collectors permits the collection of solar energy at
lower solar radiation levels. It consisted of numbers of single tubes, serially interconnected, or
tubes connected to each other via manifold, make up the solar collector. A heat pipe collector
incorporates a special fluid which begins to vaporize even at low temperatures. The steam rises
in the individual heat pipes and warms up the carrier fluid in the main pipe by means of a heat
exchanger. The condensed liquid then flows back into the base of the heat pipe. The pipes must
be angled at a specific degree above horizontal so that the process of vaporizing and condensing
functions. For evacuated tube, the greater strength and durability of cylindrical glass tubes over a
sheet of flat glass means that wind and hail would be less threat to the structural integrity of an
evacuated glass tube. Since, the lower cover temperature of the evacuated tube, the wind will
have less effect on the efficiency of the collector. However, the potential disadvantage of the
evacuated tube solar collectors is that they may not be able to withstand the high equilibrium (no
flow) temperatures they develop either during installation or later during electrical power
failures. For evacuated tube collectors, slight variation in the flow through a tube in parallel may
easily result in boiling (and thus the loss of the usefulness of the tube) because of the
exceptionally low heat loss coefficient of these collectors. Such a condition emphasizes the need
for careful design of the solar heating and cooling operation. For example, the control systems
should be able to prevent the boil of the collector fluid, destruction of the collector loop,
degradation or destruction of the solar collector or its components, and avoid the safety hazards
of high-pressure steam discharge.

3.3

Solar Pond

The possibility of using solar ponds as low-cost solar collectors combined with
conventional absorption system in a small-scale solar-cooling design is higher since the rapid
development of solar pond technology. Figure show the working principle of the mentioned
system. The lower convection zone (LCZ) of the solar pond provides the hot brine to the
generator, while the upper convection zone (UVZ) provides the low temperature water to the
condenser and absorber, so that the cooling tower is avoided. The flow rate of brine through the
system should be designed carefully and is limited to a velocity of less than 1 m/s. The
experiments from both the small and large size ponds have shown that, the lateral separation of
withdrawal and injection heat extraction flow distributors can be located at the same side of the
pond adjacent to the power plant since a small temperature drop is sufficient to vertically
separate the flows.

Figure 12: Diagram of solar pond air-conditioning system

Therefore, the assumption of well mixed convection zones will not always be realized in
practice, since return flow from the condenser and absorber will form a warmer surface region
within the UCZ and a cooler fluid region within the LCZ, respectively. Fortunately, both these

effects have a favorable influence on system capacity by decreasing the heat flux to the soil and
increasing the flux to the environment. The difficulties involved with the construction of large
scale solar cooling at a competitive cost are related to the prohibitively high costs of advanced
technology high-temperature collectors. The optimum pond area at which capital cost is
minimized has been reported for a given absorption system size. The derived cost per unit kW
depends mainly on salt cost figures which are almost an order of magnitude lower than those
corresponding to a large scale cooling installation using evacuated tube solar collectors. The
comparison of solar pond with flat-plate collectors also shows that the solar pond is more
effective at higher temperatures with built-in heat storage at substantially lower cost [5]. The
disadvantages of this kind of system may be the staining of salt in the heat exchanger of the
absorption, which decreases the heat transfer from the solar pond to the system.

4.0

RESEARCH GAP IDENTIFICATION

Through various papers regarding solar absorption driven vapour absorption system it has

been noticed that are LiBr-H2O with LiBr (absorbent) and H2O (refrigerant). The main feature of
the system is that H2O being the refrigerant it cannot work below 50 C because there is a risk of
water being freeze. Thus, this system may only suitable to be applied for the purpose of airconditioning system where temperature requirement for water as secondary refrigerant is above
60 C. It has been found that the several areas that may require an attention by changing the vital
parameters of the system and observing the changes in Coefficient of Performance (COP) of the
system. The suggested methodology to be considered was as below:
a.)
b.)
c.)
d.)
e.)

Increasing evaporator temperature/pressure and measuring COP of the system.

Decreasing evaporator temperature/pressure and measuring COP of the system.
Increasing condenser temperature/pressure and measuring COP of the system
Decreasing condenser temperature/pressure and measuring COP of the system
Comparing COP throughout various seasons (summer & monsoon)

A solar powered absorption air-conditioning system is an unsteady, dynamic system thus

it is difficult to predict with any certainty the annual energy saving. This uncertainty in system
evaluation is a further obstacle to the wider application of solar cooling. In order to improve the
system design of a solar powered absorption air-conditioning system, a parametric study must be
carried out to investigate the influence of key parameters on the overall system performance. If
experiments were used to perform the parametric study, effects of one key parameter on the
overall system performance would normally require several cooling seasons and may take years
to establish a pattern to make a conclusion. Also, it is extremely difficult to keep the performance
of the system components to be constant over entire experimental period as the components
deteriorate with time. Therefore, in order to avoid extremely difficult and expensive
experimentation, researchers can develop and validate a robust dynamic model of the solar
powered absorption air-conditioning system and simulation can be done to study the system.
This will help to perform the parametric study on the model rather than the physical system
itself.
REFERENCE

[1]

S. Kaushik, S. singh (2014).Thermodynamic Analysis of Vapor Absorption Refrigeration

System and Calculation of COP. International Journal for Research in Applied Science and
Engineering Technology (IJRAS ET) Vol. 2 Issue II, ISSN: 2321-9653
[2]

S. Kalogirou, G. Florides, S. Tassou, L. Wrobel (2001).Design And Construction Of A

Lithium Bromide Water Absorption Refrigerator. Clima 2000/Napoli 2001 World Congress
Napoli (I), 15-18 September 2001.
[3]

R. Fathi, S. Ouaskit (2001). Performance of a Solar LiBr - Water Absorption

Refrigerating Systems Journes de Thermique (2001) 73-78

[4]

R. K. Al, G. Jackson, A. Rezk. (2011). Solar powered vapor absorption system using

propane and alkylated benzene AB300 oil. Applied Thermal Engineering. 31 (2011) 1936-1942
[5]

Z. F. Li, K. Sumathy. (2000). Technology development in the solar absorption air-

conditioning systems. Renewable and sustainable energy review 4(2000) 267-293

[6]

Dr V.K.Bajpai , NIT, Kurukshetra (2013). A Review Paper On Solar Energy Opearted

Vapour Absorption System Using Libr-H2o

[7]
7550

Ajay Sankar N R, Dr. S. Sankar (2015). Solar Thermal Absorption Air STAAC, 2348