SOLAR VAPOUR ABSORPTION SYSTEM

Absorption systems are similar to vapor compression air-conditioning systems but differ in the
pressurization stage. In general, an absorbent, on the low-pressure side, absorbs an
evaporating refrigerant. The most usual combinations of fluids include lithium bromide– water
(LiBr-H2O), where water vapor is the refrigerant, and ammonia-water (NH3-H2O) systems,
where ammonia is the refrigerant. The pressurization is achieved by dissolving the refrigerant
in the absorbent, in the absorber section (Figure 6.22). Subsequently, the solution is pumped
to a high pressure with an ordinary liquid pump. The addition of heat in the generator is used
to separate the low-boiling refrigerant from the solution. In this way, the refrigerant vapor is
compressed without the need for large amounts of mechanical energy that the vapor
compression air-conditioning systems demand. The remainder of the system consists of a
condenser, expansion valve, and evaporator, which function in a similar way as in a vapor
compression air-conditioning system.

A more detailed schematic presentation of the LiBr-water absorption system is shown on a

pressure-temperature diagram in Figure 6.24.

The main components of an absorption refrigeration system are the generator, absorber,
condenser, and evaporator. In the model shown, QG is the heat input rate from the heat
source to the generator, QC and QA are the heat rejection rates from condenser and absorber

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to the heat sinks, respectively, and QE is the heat input rate from the cooling load to the
evaporator.

With reference to the numbering system shown in Figure 6.23, at point 1, the solution is rich
in refrigerant and a pump (1–2) forces the liquid through a heat exchanger to the generator.
The temperature of the solution in the heat exchanger is increased (2–3). In the generator,
thermal energy is added and refrigerant boils off the solution. The refrigerant vapor (7) flows
to the condenser, where heat is rejected as the refrigerant condenses. The condensed liquid
(8) flows through a flow restrictor to the evaporator (9). In the evaporator, the heat from the
load evaporates the refrigerant, which flows back to the absorber (10). A small portion of the
refrigerant leaves the evaporator as liquid spillover (11). At the generator exit (4), the steam
consists of absorbent-refrigerant solution, which is cooled in the heat exchanger. From points
6 to 1, the solution absorbs refrigerant vapor from the evaporator and rejects heat through a
heat exchanger.

The temperature of heat source required is given by

𝑇𝐻 = {[(𝑇𝐶/𝑇𝐸) × 𝑇𝐴] + 20} in oc.

Where, TC is the condenser temperature, TE is the evaporator temperature and TA is the

absorber temperature.

The absorption cooling systems are classified according to the number of effects as well as the
number of lifts. Effects refer to the number of times high-temperature input heat is used by
the absorption machine. In general, increasing the number of effects is meant to increase the

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COP using higher driving temperature levels. Lifts refer to the number of absorber/desorber
pairs to increase successively the refrigerant concentration in the solution and thus to reduce
the required heat input temperature level. There are many designs and different
configurations of the multi- effect, multi-lift, and combinations of both absorption cooling
systems.

AMMONIA-WATER ABSORPTION SYSTEMS

The temperature of the heat source is 80 to 170°C. An ammonia-water refrigeration system

uses natural substances, which do not cause ozone depletion as working fluids. For all these
reasons, this technology has been classified as environmentally friendly. The NH3-H2O system
is more complicated than the LiBr-H2O system, since it needs a rectifying column to assure
that no water vapor enters the evaporator, where it could freeze. The NH3-H2O system
requires generator temperatures in the range of 125°C to 170°C with an air-cooled absorber
and condenser and 80 to 120°C when water cooling is used. These temperatures cannot be
obtained with flat-plate collectors. The coefficient of performance, is defined as the heat load
in the evaporator per unit of heat load in the generator.

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The single-stage ammonia-water absorption refrigeration system cycle consists of four main
components—condenser, evaporator, absorber, and generator—as shown in Figure 6.27.
Other auxiliary components include expansion valves, pump, rectifier, and heat exchanger.
Low-pressure, weak solution is pumped from the absorber to the generator through the
solution heat exchanger operating at high pressure. The generator separates the binary
solution of water and ammonia by causing the ammonia to vaporize and the rectifier purifies
the ammonia vapor. High-pressure ammonia gas is passed through the expansion valve to the
evaporator as low-pressure liquid ammonia. The high-pressure transport fluid (water) from
the generator is returned to the absorber through the solution heat exchanger and the
expansion valve. The low-pressure liquid ammonia in the evaporator is used to cool the space
to be refrigerated. During the cooling process, the liquid ammonia vaporizes and the transport
fluid (water) absorbs the vapor to form a strong ammonia solution in the absorber.

SOLAR COOLING WITH ABSORPTION REFRIGERATION

The advantage of solar absorption refrigeration system is its co2 emission is 6 % of vapour
compression system. The greatest disadvantage of a solar heating system is that a large
number of collectors need to be shaded or disconnected during summertime to reduce
overheating. A way to avoid this problem and increase the viability of the solar system is to
employ a combination of space heating and cooling and domestic hot water production
system. This is economically viable when the same collectors are used for both space heating
and cooling. Flat-plate solar collectors are commonly used in solar space heating. Good-quality
flat-plate collectors can attain temperatures suitable for LiBr-water absorption systems.
Another alternative is to use evacuated tube collectors, which can give higher temperatures;
thus ammonia-water systems can be used, which need higher temperatures to operate. A
schematic diagram of a solar-operated absorption refrigeration system is shown in Figure 6.28.
The refrigeration cycle is the same as the ones described in Section 6.4.2. The difference
between this system and the traditional fossil fuel fired units is that the energy supplied to the
generator is from the solar collector system shown on the left side of Figure 6.28. Due to the
intermittent nature of available solar energy, a hot water storage tank is needed; thus the
collected energy is first stored in the tank and used as an energy source in the generator to
heat the strong solution when needed. The storage tank of the solar heating system is used for
this purpose. When the storage tank temperature is low, the auxiliary heater is used to top it
off to the required generator temperature. Again, the same auxiliary heater of the space
heating system can be used, at a different set temperature. If the storage tank is completely
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depleted, the storage is bypassed, as in the space heating system, to avoid boosting the
storage temperature with auxiliary energy, and the auxiliary heater is used to meet the
heating load of the generator. It should be noted that the operating temperature range of the
hot water supplied to the generator of a LiBr-water absorption refrigeration system is from
70–95°C. The lower temperature limit is imposed from the fact that hot water must be at a
temperature sufficiently high (at least 70°C) to be effective for boiling the water off the
solution in the generator. Also, the temperature of the concentrated lithium bromide solution
returning to the absorber must be high enough to prevent crystallization of the lithium
bromide. An unpressurized water storage tank system is usually employed in a solar energy
system; therefore an upper limit of about 95°C is used to prevent water from boiling. For this
type of system, the optimum generator temperature was found to be 93°C

Since in an absorption-refrigeration cycle heat must be rejected from the absorber and the
condenser, a cooling water system must be employed in the cycle. Perhaps the most effective
way of providing cooling water to the system is to use a cooling tower, as shown on the right
side of Figure 6.28. Because the absorber requires a lower temperature than the condenser,
the cool water from the cooling tower is first directed to the absorber and then to the
condenser. It should be noted that the use of a cooling tower in a small residential system is
problematic with respect to both space and maintenance requirements; therefore, whenever
possible, water drawn from a well can be used. . To minimize the intermittent effects of this
arrangement, due to the absence of hot water storage, and make this system more effective,
cold storage can be used. One way of doing this is to use the absorption machine to produce
chilled water, which is then stored for cooling purposes Such a solution would have the
advantage of low rate tank heat gains (actually is a loss in this case) because of the smaller
temperature difference between the chilled water and its surroundings. An added
disadvantage, however, is that the temperature range of a cool storage is small in comparison
with that of a hot storage; therefore, larger storage volume of chilled water is needed to store
the same amount of energy than in hot water storage. Because solar heating systems always
employ a storage tank, the arrangement shown in Figure 6.28 is preferred.

ELECTROLUX REFRIGERATOR

The two-fluid ARS succeeded in replacing a compressor which requires a large amount of shaft
work by a liquid pump with a negligible energy requirement compared to the refrigeration
effect. By addition of a third fluid, the pump is removed, completely eliminating all moving
parts. This system is also called the von Platen–Munters system after its Swedish inventors It is
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also called diffusion absorption solar cooling system or Platen–Munters system .The most
commonly used fluids are ammonia (as refrigerant), water (as absorbent), and hydrogen, a
neutral gas used to support a portion of the total pressure in part of the system. Hydrogen is
called the carrier gas. The unit consists of four main parts: the generator, condenser,
evaporator, and absorber. The unit charge consists of a quantity of ammonia, water, and
hydrogen at a sufficient pressure to condense ammonia at the room temperature for which
the unit is designed. This method of absorption refrigeration is presently used in domestic
systems where the COP is less important than quiet trouble-free operation. In the system, the
cold ammonia vapor with hydrogen is circulated by natural convection to the absorber, where
the ammonia vapor comes in contact with the weak solution from the separator. At the low
temperature of the ammonia and hydrogen, absorption of the ammonia occurs and hence
hydrogen alone rises to the evaporator, while the strong solution flows down by gravity to the
generator. The generator temperature varies typically between 120 and180 oC, and the
practical COP varies between 0.2 and 0.3 with cooling capacity of 25–100 W.
Gutie´ rrez presented a study on the thermal performance of a solar refrigerator that was
developed from a commercial absorption diffusion type. The refrigerator that had a flat plate
collector substituted for its burner and ammonia–water solution and hydrogen was used in
the system. Since there is no hot thermal storage to operate the system continuously, cooling
occurs during daytime only. The heat is rejected by natural air convection. A series of
experiments was performed in which the system was solar powered and also operated in a
solar simulator, in order to know the effects of the ambient temperature on the behavior of
the apparatus. According to experimentation and testing results, it was found that under good
insolation conditions, the refrigerator maintains freezing temperatures during 5h a day,
provided that the ambient temperature does not exceed 28 oC.

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 ELECTROLUX REFRIGERATOR SYSTEM

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