Energy Conversion and Management 42 (2001) 741753

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Optimization of a solar driven adsorption refrigeration system

K.C.A. Alam *, B.B. Saha, A. Akisawa, T. Kashiwagi
Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 2-24-16 Naka-cho, Koganei-shi, Tokyo 184 8588, Japan Received 15 December 1999; accepted 29 August 2000

Abstract This paper deals with the thermodynamic optimization of a solar driven adsorption refrigeration system. An externally irreversible but internally endoreversible model has been employed to analyse the optimum conditions for which the maximum refrigeration eect can be achieved. It is seen that a chiller attains its highest capacity if the thermal conductances of the heat exchangers are distributed properly. It is also seen that half of the total thermal conductances are allocated between the condenser and adsorber heat exchangers that release heat to the external ambient. The coecient of performance (COP) for the optimum conditions is also presented. It is observed that the COPopt increases in parallel with the dimensionless collector stagnation temperature, sst , as well as with the increase of the required refrigeration space temperature, sL , while the COPopt decreases as the ratio of collector size to the cumulative size of all four heat exchangers, B, increases. 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction From the early age of power generation, scientists and engineers have been concerned over the design of a power plant. An optimal design of a plant can reduce the overall cost and can provide its best performance. Therefore, various methodologies have been developed for the purpose of developing the plant design ever since the steam engine was invented. The thermodynamic optimization technique is one of the most widely used methodologies. This method is known as entropy generation minimization in engineering thermodynamics. A brief discussion of its development is presented by Bejan [1]. During the last two decades, many optimization studies for heat engines based on endoreversible and irreversible models have been performed by considering nite time and nite size
*

Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +81-42-388-7076. E-mail address: alam@star.cad.mech.tuat.ac.jp (K.C.A. Alam).

0196-8904/01/$ - see front matter 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 1 9 6 - 8 9 0 4 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 1 0 0 - X

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Nomenclature a constant in Eq. (7) b constant in Eq. (7) A heat transfer area Ac collector area B dimensionless collector size parameter, Eq. (20) COPopt coecient of performance for optimum condition irradiance on collector surface GT I irreversibility factor, Eq. (11) adsorber heat transfer QA QCON condenser heat transfer QEVA evaporator heat transfer heat input QH R residual vector temperature of heat transfer uid in adsorber TA TCON temperature of heat transfer uid in condenser temperature of collector TH temperature of heat transfer uid in desorber THC temperature of cold space TL temperature of heat transfer uid in evaporator TLC collector stagnation temperature Tst ambient temperature T0 U overall heat transfer coecient based on A v conductance ratio for condenser x conductance ratio for evaporator y conductance ratio for collector z conductance ratio for adsorber collector eciency gC s dimensionless temperature

constraints. External irreversibilities due to heat resistance between the heat reservoirs and an internally reversible heat engine have been discussed by Curzon and Ahlborn [2], in which two heat sources, namely hot end and cold end heat exchangers, have been taken into account. Bejan [3] investigated the optimal condition for a heat transfer irreversible (internally endoreversible) power plant considering three heat sources: the hot end, the cold end and the heat leaking sides. He showed that the eciency of a power plant could be maximized if the total investment is divided optimally between the external thermal conductance and internal thermal resistance. Later, Bejan [4] proved that the power output of a power plant could be maximized by properly balancing the size of the heat transfer equipment. In the eld of refrigeration, Bejan [5] and Bejan et al. [6] applied the optimization technique and modelled the refrigeration load based on the power input and heat rejection to the ambient. In

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these studies, the authors demonstrated that the maximum refrigeration eect could be accomplished by allocating the heat exchange equipment optimally. Sun et al. [7] and Ni et al. [8] investigated the optimal performance of an endoreversible heat pump to analyse a reasonable heating load and coecient of performance (COP) bound for designing a real heat pump. Recently, El-Din [9] employed the idea of optimization for a totally irreversible refrigeration system by considering only two external heat transfer irreversibilities. In recent years, heat driven refrigeration systems have drawn considerable attention due to their lower environmental impact and large energy saving potential. Another interesting feature of this system is that the chiller/heat pump can be operated by thermal heat, such as waste heat from industries or by solar heat. From this context, Sokolov and Hersagal [10] optimized the system performance of a solar driven, year-round ejector refrigeration system. Vargas et al. [11] investigated the optimal condition for a refrigerator driven by a solar collector considering the three heat transfer irreversibilites. Later, Chen and Schouten [12] discussed the optimum performance of an irreversible absorption refrigeration cycle in which three external heat transfer irreversibilities have been considered. Recently, Chen [13] extended the idea of Chen and Schouten [12] for a two stage irreversible absorption refrigeration cycle. In any adsorption refrigeration system, there are four heat transfer reservoirs, namely the desorber, adsorber, condenser and evaporator. All of those components operate at dierent temperature levels, although the condenser and adsorber release heat to the environment. Because of the dierent operating temperatures, at least four external heat transfer irreversibilities are present in an adsorption refrigeration system, but all the authors considered only up to three heat transfer irreversibilities to optimize the refrigeration/heat pump system. In the present paper, the four irrversibilities due to the heat transfer resistances have been taken into account. The main objective of this study is to nd the optimum distribution among the heat exchanger surfaces of a solar driven adsorption chiller for which the system attains its maximum capacity and to determine the COP for the optimal conditions. 2. Theoretical model The main components of a solar driven adsorption refrigeration system are a solar collector, a desorber, an adsorber, a condenser and an evaporator, as shown in Fig. 1. In an adsorption cycle, the working uid is operated in a cycle and exchanges heat with the four heat exchangers, namely the desorber, adsorber, condenser and evaporator. During the cycle, the desorber receives the heat load, QH , from the heat source (solar collector) at temperature, TH , while the evaporator seizes the heat load, QEVA , from the refrigeration space at temperature, TL . The condenser and adsorber release heat transfers, QCON and QA , respectively, to the external ambient at temperature, T0 . In this analysis, it is assumed that there is no heat loss between the solar collector and the desorber and no work exchange occurs between the refrigerator and its environment. According to the rst law of thermodynamics, QH QEVA QCON QA 1 In this present investigation, it is also assumed that there is an external heat transfer irreversibility at each heat exchanger caused by the nite heat conductance between the working uid

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Fig. 1. Schematic of a solar driven adsorption refrigeration system.

and the four heat exchangers as shown in Fig. 2. It is always considered that the heat transfers of an irreversible cycle are aected by thermal resistances which follow the linear law. Therefore, heat transfer equations for the four heat exchangers can be written as, QH UAH TH THC QA UAA TA T0 QCON UACON TCON T0 QEVA UAEVA TL TLC The heat input QH can also be estimated by the following expression QH A C GT g C 6 where AC represents the collector area, GT is the irradiance at the collector surface and gC stands for the collector eciency. The eciency of a collector can be calculated as [9], gC a bTH T0 7 where a and b are two constants that can be calculated, as discussed by Sokolov and Hershagal [10]. Eq. (7) can be rewritten by introducing the collector stagnation temperature Tst as follows: gC bTst TH where Tst Tst TH , for which gC 0 is given by, Tst T0 aab The equation for heat input QH can be rewritten by combining Eqs. (6) and (8) as follows: QH AC GT bTst TH 10 9 8 2 3 4 5

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Fig. 2. The heat transfer irreversible model of a solar driven adsorption refrigeration system.

A series of irreversibilities, for example heat transfer, throttling, mixing and internal dissipation of the working uid, which are responsible for entropy generation are always present in a real heat driven refrigerator [12]. According to the second law of thermodynamics, one may write, QCON aTCON QA aTA I P1 QH aTHC QEVA aTLC 11

where I is an irreversibility factor. When I b 1, the refrigerator operates totally irreversibly, when I 1, the refrigerator is known as internally endoreversible. In this analysis, it is assumed that the refrigerator is externally irreversible, but internally endoreversible, i.e. I 1. The proportionality factors UA in Eqs. (2)(5) are known as the thermal conductances for the respective heat exchangers, which are dened as the product of the overall heat transfer coecient U and the heat transfer area A of the respective heat exchangers. The total thermal conductance of the four heat exchangers is assumed xed, UA UAH UAA UACON UAEVA 12

In terms of non-dimensional forms, the heat transfer rate Eqs. (2)(5) and Eqs. (1) and (11) can be written as follows: QH Bsst sH 13

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QH y sH sHC QA zsA 1 QCON 1 x y zsCON 1 QEVA xsL sLC QH QEVA QCON QA QH QEVA QCON QA sHC sLC sCON sA where the following group of non-dimensional transformations is imposed: sH TH TLC TL Y sLC Y sL T0 T0 T0 TCON TA THC sCON Y sA Y sHC T0 T0 T0 QH QEVA QCON QH Y QEVA Y QCON Y UAT0 UAT0 UAT0

14 15 16 17 18 19

QA

QA Y UAT0

bAC GT X UA 20

Here, B is the parameter which describes the size of the collector relative to the cumulative size of the four heat exchangers, and x, y and z are conductance allocation ratios, dened as UAEVA UAH UAA Y y Y z 21 UA UA UA According to the constraint property of thermal conductance UA in Eq. (12), the thermal conductance distribution ratio for the condenser can be written as, x m UACON 1xyz UA 22

3. Optimization techniques The main objective of the present analysis is to nd the optimum allocation among the heat exchanger inventory of a heat driven adsorption refrigerator for which the maximum refrigerator load (QEVA ) can be achieved. It can be shown from Eqs. (13)(19) that QEVA is a function of B, sst , sH , sA , sCON , sL , x, y and z. In this analysis, the temperature dierence of the heat transfer uid in the condenser and adsorber is assumed very small (%0.02). This assumption is reasonable because the heat transfer uid in both the condenser and adsorber exchange heat with the heat sink at equal temperature. To maximize the refrigeration load, QEVA , one needs to solve the non-linear set of Eqs. (13)(19). The NewtonRaphson method with appropriate initial guesses was employed for solving the above set of non-linear equations. Newtons method has been adopted to maximize

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QEVA by optimizing sH , x, y and z and varying some selected parameters to generate the results shown in Figs. 37. The convergence criteria for both the maximization technique and solving the

Fig. 3. The eect of dimensionless stagnation temperature sst on (a) optimal dimensionless collector temperature, (b) optimal distribution of the thermal conductance among the four heat exchangers: collector, adsorber, condenser and evaporator.

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Fig. 4. The eect of dimensionless collector size B on (a) optimal dimensionless collector temperature, (b) optimal distribution of the thermal conductance among the four heat exchangers: collector, adsorber, condenser and evaporator.

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Fig. 5. The eect of dimensionless refrigeration space temperature, sL on (a) optimal dimensionless collector temperature, (b) optimal distribution of the thermal conductance among the four heat exchangers: collector, adsorber, condenser and evaporator.

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Fig. 6. COP for optimum condition against sst for dierent B.

Fig. 7. COP for optimum condition against sst for dierent sL .

non-linear set of equations is taken as jRj2 6 107 , where jRj2 stands for the Euclidian norm of the residual vector. A subroutine subprogram of Dennis and Schnabel [14] is used in this computational technique to conrm that the function attains its maximum point. The results obtained by this numerical method are presented and discussed in the following section.

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4. Results and discussion It is reported that the adsorption refrigeration system can be operated by mid to lower driving heat source temperatures, TH , (60 $ 200), for producing refrigeration load temperatures, TL , between 15C and 15C [15]. In terms of non-dimensional form, these ranges can be estimated, respectively, as 1.11.5 for the driving heat temperature and 0.80.95 for the refrigeration space temperature. Therefore, the dimensionless collector stagnation temperature, sst , has been varied from 1.1 to 1.5, and the dimensionless refrigeration space temperature, sL , has been set from 0.8 to 1. Fig. 3a shows the optimal value of dimensionless collector temperature sH against the dimensionless collector stagnation temperature sst , while Fig. 3b displays the eect of the stagnation temperature sst on the optimum balance of thermal conductance of the four heat exchangers. From Fig. 3a, it is observed that the optimum collector temperature sHYopt increases with the a2 increase of stagnation temperature sst . It is worth mentioning that sHYopt is always greater than s1 st , as shown by Bejan et al. [6] and Vargas et al. [11]. From Fig. 3b, it may be seen that an increase in stagnation temperature sst leads to an increase in optimum evaporator thermal conductance and a decrease in optimum collector thermal conductance, but the optimal thermal conductance demand for the adsorber and condenser remain the same as sst increases. It is also noted from the same gure that the adsorber and condenser take half of the total thermal conductance, which is also in accord with the results of Bejan et al. [6] and Vargas et al. [11], as both condenser and adsorber release heat to the ambient. The eects of dimensionless collector size B on the optimal dimensionless collector temperature sHYopt and on the optimal demand of thermal conductance among the four heat exchangers are presented in Fig. 4a and b, respectively. One may see from Fig. 4a that the parameter B has a negligible eect on sHYopt if B is greater than 0.2. From Figs. 3a and 4a, it may be concluded that the collector stagnation temperature has more eect on the optimal collector temperature than that on the relative size of collector. It can be seen from Fig. 4b that UAEVAYopt decreases as well as UAHYopt increases marginally as B increases. The interesting conclusion is that the heat exchangers taking heat from the outside and releasing heat to the external ambient, share thermal conductance demands equally. The adsorber and condenser also share their demands almost equally. The results plotted in Fig. 5a and b illustrate the sHYopt and optimal allotment of thermal conductance among the collector, adsorber, condenser and evaporator heat exchangers against the dimensionless refrigeration load temperature sL . It is observed from Fig. 5a that sL has an almost negligible eect on sHYopt . That means the optimal collector temperature is not strongly dependent on the required refrigeration space temperature. An increase (a decrease) in the optimal thermal conductance of the evaporator (collector) has been seen in Fig. 5b with the increase of refrigeration space temperature, while the total demands for evaporator and collector are always almost 50% of the total thermal conductance. The same distribution for the optimal thermal conductance of the adsorber and condenser has been seen as it is observed for other cases. The eects of sst , B and sL on the coecient of performance COPopt QEVAYmax aQHYopt for the optimum condition of this system have been presented in Figs. 6 and 7. One may see from Fig. 6 that an increase in sst leads to an increase in COPopt . These results reect actual conditions because, in general, an increase in driving heat source temperature leads to an increase in COP [16,17]. It is also observed that the primary eect of increasing the relative size of the collector

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B causes a decrease in COPopt . From Fig. 7, it can be seen that the COPopt and sL increases simultaneously. The reason is that an increase in sL represents the increase of required refrigeration space temperature. The higher the refrigeration space temperature is, the lower is the required heat input, which leads COPopt to increase.

5. Conclusions A thermodynamic optimization of a solar driven adsorption refrigerator has been presented in this study. An internally endoreversible model has been analysed numerically to nd the optimal conditions of a solar driven adsorption chiller. The following conclusions can be drawn from this analysis. 1. The optimum sHYopt depends strongly on the collector stagnation temperature, but B and sL have negligible eects on sHYopt . 2. UAEVAYopt gains with the expense of UAHYopt as sst , sL increase as well as B decreases. 3. The combined share of the adsorber/condenser conductances is xed almost in all cases, and they share their demand equally. 4. The optimal thermal conductance of the heat exchangers that take heat from the heat source is almost equal to the thermal conductance of the heat exchangers that release heat to the external ambient. 5. The COPopt increases as sst and sL rise, but decreases as B increases. Finally, it may be concluded that the maximum refrigeration eect can be achieved from an adsorption refrigeration system by distributing the thermal conductance among the adsorber, condenser, evaporator and collector heat exchangers optimally.
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