Renewable energy powered evacuated tube collector refrigerator system

This article presents a numerical study of an Evacuated Tube Collector (ETC) based Ammonia-Water absorption refrigeration system. This system utilizes solar energy as an energy source and does not depend on conventional energy sources for its operation. The present system involves the use of hot water as an energy carrier for generator in an absorption system. The analysis system is based on computational model being developed and the thermodynamic properties of working fluids have been used from the computer code. The variation of performance parameters such as heat load of different components, exergy loss, COP<Subscript>COOLING</Subscript>, COP<Subscript>HEATING</Subscript> and Exergy efficiency are studied with varying generator temperature. The results indicate that COP<Subscript>COOLING</Subscript> as well COP<Subscript>HEATING</Subscript> lies in the range of 0.012–0.498 and 1.012–1.498 respectively and the values obtained are based on the maximum available solar intensity of 0.9 kW/m<Superscript>2</Superscript> which corresponds to the collector area of about 431.7 m<Superscript>2</Superscript> and hot water in the range of 90 °C. It is concluded that the maximum exergy loss is in generator and it is lowest in condenser. The ETC based absorption refrigeration system can be powered by renewable energy sources and does not employ ozone depleting substances. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014