Short communication

Study of a new solar adsorption refrigerator powered by a parabolic trough collector

A. El Fadar
a
, A. Mimet
a,
*
, A. Azzabakh
a
, M. Prez-Garca
b
, J. Castaing
c
a
Energetic Laboratory, Sciences Faculty, BP 2121, 93000 Tetouan, Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Morocco
b
Dpto. de Fisica Aplicada Universidad de Almeria, Espaa
c
Laboratoire Thermique, Energtique et Procds (LaTEP), Avenue de lUniversit, BP 1155, 64013 Pau Cedex, France
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 11 July 2007
Accepted 10 June 2008
Available online xxxx
Keywords:
Solar energy
Adsorption
Simulation
Refrigeration
Heat pipe
Parabolic trough collector
a b s t r a c t
This paper presents the study of solar adsorption cooling machine, where the reactor is heated by a par-
abolic trough collector (PTC) and is coupled with a heat pipe (HP). This reactor contains a porous medium
constituted of activated carbon, reacting by adsorption with ammonia.
We have developed a model, based on the equilibrium equations of the refrigerant, adsorption isotherms,
heat and mass transfer within the adsorbent bed and energy balance in the hybrid system components.
From real climatic data, the model computes the performances of the machine. In comparison with other
systems powered by at plate or evacuated tube collectors, the predicted results, have illustrated the
ability of the proposed system to achieve a high performance due to high efciency of PTC, and high ux
density of heat pipe.
2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
The negative environmental consequences related to conven-
tional vapor compression refrigeration machines, have renewed
interest in adsorption refrigeration systems whose refrigerants
present the advantages of being absolutely benign for the environ-
ment, i.e., these refrigerants satisfy the Montreal protocol on ozone
layer depletion and the Kyoto protocol on global warming [1].
Additionally, solar adsorption refrigeration systems are attrac-
tive, mostly in remote areas without grid-connected electricity,
since solar radiation is freely available, and the demand of refriger-
ation increases particularly in the sunny regions.
Some units of solar adsorption refrigerators have been commer-
cialized using activated carbonmethanol system manufactured by
BLM Co. of France and zeolitewater system manufactured by
Zeopower Co. of USA. These units were technically successful, but
their costs are not competitive with the conventional vapor com-
pression system [2].
In addition to their high costs, adsorption systems have some
other drawbacks, such low specic cooling power and low coef-
cient of performance, due to the weak heat transfer within the
adsorbers. In order to overcome these disadvantages, several works
have been carried out.
To contribute to these researches, this paper presents a study of
an activated carbon-ammonia adsorption system powered by solar
energy, using the coupling of a water-stainless steel heat pipe and
a parabolic trough collector.
The solar power technology using the PTC has been used in var-
ious applications, such as electricity generation, desalination, heat-
ing, etc. Parabolic trough solar technology is the most-veried solar
technology trough deployment and construction testing [3]. Also
Bird and Drost [4] have recommended that the PTC concept should
receive the highest priority for commercial development for low
temperature (65177 C) solar process heat applications.
Even so, solar adsorption cooling systems are usually carried
out with at plate and evacuated tube collectors, whereas little
attention has been paid to concentrating collectors.
Besides, the use of heat pipe in solar collector is attractive, be-
cause it presents some advantages, such as construction simplicity,
perfect adjustability, easier control and high heat transfer ability in
low temperature differences, ability to operate as a thermal diode
and as a thermal switch [5]. In addition, it does not need moving
parts or external pumping.
2. System description
As shown in Fig. 1, the proposed refrigerator comprises a solar
collector, a condenser, an evaporator, refrigerant valves and a
cylindrical adsorber containing the activated carbon-ammonia.
The adsorption and desorption of the refrigerant are generated
by alternate cooling and heating of the reactor.
The evaporator end of the heat pipe is placed at the focused line
of the PTC, and the condenser is inserted in the adsorbent bed. The
1359-4311/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2008.06.012
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +212 39 97 24 23; fax: +212 39 99 45 00.
E-mail address: mimet@fst.ac.ma (A. Mimet).
Applied Thermal Engineering xxx (2008) xxxxxx
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reective surface of PTC focuses the solar direct radiation on the
linear absorber. Then, solar radiation is converted to thermal en-
ergy, which is absorbed at the HP evaporator section. This heat
vaporizes the working uid (water) in this section. The resulting
difference in pressure drives vapour from the evaporator to the
condenser where it is condensed, and then the latent heat of vapor-
ization is released to the heat sink (adsorbent bed). The capillary
pressure, generated by the wick, drives the condensed liquid to
the evaporator for re-evaporation.
3. Mathematical modelling
Under some reasonable assumptions, the energy balance equa-
tions per unit length of the aperture, conned to the concentrator
components, can be written as follows:
3.1. Glass tube
q
g
C
g
A
g
oT
g
ot
ca
g
bWI
b
t pD
gi
U
ab-g
T
ab
T
g
pD
go
U
gamb
T
g
T
amb

1
3.2. Absorber/heat pipe
q
ab
C
ab
A
ab
oT
ab
ot
csa
ab
bWI
b
tpD
o
U
ab-g
T
ab
T
g
pD
o
hT
ab
T
hp

2
where U
g-amb
and U
ab-g
are the heat transfer coefcients between
the glazing envelope and the ambient air, and between the glazing
envelope and the absorber, respectively. The convective and radia-
tive heat transfer coefcients are obtained from correlations given
in the literature [68]. h is the heat transfer coefcient between
the outer surface of absorber and the liquid-vapour interface. The
corresponding thermal resistance, R, is given by:
R 1=2pL
c

lnD
o
=D
i

k
wa

lnD
i
=D
wi

k
eff

3
Under the assumption of the metal screen wick, which is as-
sumed to be saturated with the working uid, the effective wick
thermal conductivity is evaluated by the following equation [9].
k
eff
k
l
k
l
k
w
1 e
w
k
l
k
w

k
l
k
w
1 e
w
k
l
k
w

4
Nomenclature
A cross-sectional area (m
2
)
C specic heat (J/kg K)
D
gi
inner diameter of glass tube (m)
D
go
outer diameter of glass tube (m)
D
i
container inner diameter of absorber (m)
D
o
container outer diameter of absorber (m)
D
wi
wick inner diameter of heat pipe (m)
H heat transfer coefcient (W/m
2
K)
I
b
direct component of solar radiation (W/m
2
)
L
c
collector length/evaporator section length of heat pipe
(m)
L
r
reactor length/condenser section length of heat pipe (m)
m mass (kg)
t time (h)
T temperature (K)
W aperture width of collector (m)
Greek symbols
a Absorptivity
b collector optical factor
c reectivity of the reecting surface

w
porosity of wick
q density (kg/m
3
)
s Transmitivity
Dx adsorption capacity difference between adsorption and
desorption phases (kg/kg)
k thermal conductivity (W/m K)
Subscripts
ab Absorber
AC activated carbon
amb Ambient
Con condensation
Ev Evaporation
G glass tube
Hp heat pipe
L Liquid (water)
w Wick
wa wall (stainless steel)
Abbreviations
COPs solar coefcient of performance
HP heat pipe
PTC parabolic trough collector
3
9
10
11 12
5
1
2
4
7
8
6 6
a
b
Fig. 1. Simplied scheme of the hybrid system: 1, PTC; 2, heat pipe; 3, adsorber; 4, evaporator; 5, condenser; 6, valves; 7, tank; 8, expansion valve. (b) Cross section of the
receiver assembly: 9, reective surface; 10, glazing; 11, absorber; 12, wick.
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4. Results and discussion
The assessment parameter of the performance of the adsorption
refrigerating system considered in this study is the solar coefcient
of performance (COPs). This parameter is dened by the following
formula:
COP
s

Q
c
R
sunset
sunrise
A
c
I
b
t dt
5
where A
c
is the collector aperture area and Q
c
is the cooling effect
produced in the evaporator, which it is equal to the refrigerant la-
tent heat of evaporation minus the sensible heat to cool down the
refrigerant from the condensation temperature to the evaporation
temperature:
Q
c
m
AC
Dx LT
ev

Z
Tcon
Tev
C
l
dT

6
where L(T
ev
) is the latent heat of ammonia at evaporation temper-
ature, and C
l
is the specic heat of liquid ammonia.
The model equations are solved by the implicit nite difference
scheme. A numerical program, written in FORTRAN, has been
developed to compute the performance coefcients (COPs) of the
machine. In our simulation, we have used the climatic data mea-
sured in Tetouan (3535
0
N, 523
0
W), Morocco, for a clear type
day of July. The other main parameters used in simulation are gi-
ven in the Appendix (Table 1).
We represent in Figs. 2 and 3, the effect of the aperture width of
collector (W) and external radius of reactor (R
2
) on the COPs of the
machine. The analysis of the results, shows that the COPs increases,
with increase in radius of reactor, and once the radius reaches a
critical value, the COPs decreases, because the increase in adsor-
bent mass (i.e. radius) of rector induces adsorption of high quantity
of ammonia at adsorption phase and hence, desorption of high
amount of ammonia at subsequent desorption phase. This pro-
duces more cooling and, consequently, we obtain high COPs. Nev-
ertheless, beyond this critical value, the bed is heated, but the heat
absorbed is not sufcient to desorb the required amount of
ammonia.
It is also observed that, for small values of reactor radius
(R
2
< 10 cm), there is no signicant inuence of W on the COPs, be-
cause the variation of the aperture width causes only heating (sen-
sible heat) of the adsorber. As result, the performance remains
unaffected. Unlike in the case of high radii of reactor
(R
2
> 10 cm), where more energy is needed to induce desorption
of ammonia, the inuence of W is apparently signicant. It is also
shown that, for each aperture width value, there exists an opti-
mum external radius of adsorbent bed.
Table 1
Main parameters used in simulation
Symbol Parameter Value Unit
PTC
C
ab
specic heat capacity of the absorber 0.49 kJ/
kg K
C
g
specic heat capacity of glass tube 0.75 kJ/
kg K
D
gi
inner diameter of the glass tube 0.11 m
D
go
outer diameter of the glass tube 0.115 m
D
o
outer diameter of the absorber 0.056 m
L
c
collector length 1.00 m
L
r
reactor length 0.70 m
a
ab
absorptivity of the absorber 0.92
a
g
absorptivity of the glass tube 0.05
b collector optical factor 0.90

ab
emissivity of the absorber 0.90

g
emissivity of the glass tube 0.85
q
ab
density of the absorber 7850 kg/m
3
q
g
density of the glass tube 2500 kg/m
3
c reectivity of the reecting surface 0.90
s transmitivity of the glass tube 0.90
HP
D
i
container inner diameter of HP 0.048 m
D
w
wick inner diameter of HP 0.044 m

w
porosity of wick 0.73
K
l
thermal conductivity of the liquid phase of the
working uid
0.63 W/
m K
K
w
thermal conductivity of wick material 46.00 W/
m K
AC/ammonia pair
C
s
specic heat of adsorbent 0.836 kJ/
kg C
H
i
heat transfer coefcient between the wall
(stainless steel) and the adsorbent bed
33.45
a
W/
m
2
K
D
Hads
latent heat of adsorption 1600 kJ/kg
L(Tev) latent heat of ammonia at evaporation
temperature (0 C)
1262.40 kJ/kg
R
1
internal radius of adsorbent bed (m) 0.028 m
porosity of adsorbent bed 0.71
K
e
equivalent Thermal conductivity of
adsorbent bed
0.431
a
W/
m K
Operating conditions
T
ads
adsorption temperature 297 K
T
con
condensation temperature 301 K
T
ev
evaporation temperature 273 K
a
These values are evaluated experimentally by A. Mimet [10].
Fig. 2. Effect of the aperture width of collector (W) on COPs.
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
E
x
te
rn
a
l ra
d
iu
s
o
f a
d
s
o
rb
e
n
t (m
)
A
p
e
rtu
re
w
id
th
(m
)
C
O
P
s
Fig. 3. COPs variation versus aperture width of collector and external radius of
adsorbent bed.
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5. Conclusions
The objective of this study is to show the feasibility of an
adsorption refrigerating system driven by PTC solar collector,
which is coupled with an annular heat pipe for transferring heat
towards the adsorbent bed.
A theoretical model and a numerical program have been
developed, in order to evaluate the performance of the adsorp-
tion-cooling machine. The numerical results show a great sensitiv-
ity of the performance coefcient of the machine to the radius of
the adsorber and the aperture width of collector. A number of
conclusions may be drawn:
1. For a given collector conguration, there exists an optimal
dimension of the reactor (optimal radius).
2. In the ranges investigated, the optimum performance of the
system is COPs = 0.18, when the external radius of the adsorber
and aperture width of the collector are 14.5 and 70 cm, respec-
tively. Therefore, the results obtained in this work, show a
promising performance in comparison with published data.
3. This work shows that the PTCis a useful component, for improve-
ment of the solar adsorptionrefrigerationsystems. This systemis
more efcient and lighter when coupled with heat pipe.
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