Energy 36 (2011) 4109e4118

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Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

Improvement of an existing solar powered absorption cooling system by means

of dynamic simulation and experimental diagnosis
F. Palacn a, b, *, C. Monn b, S. Alonso b
a
Bioclimatic Architecture Department, National Renewable Energy Centre (CENER), C/Ciudad de la Innovacin n
7, 31621 Sarriguren, Spain
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Group of Thermal Engineering and Energy Systems (GITSE), Aragon Institute of Engineering Research (I3A), University of Zaragoza,
C/Mara de Luna s/n, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper focuses on the validation of a dynamic simulation model used to describe the performance of
Received 13 December 2010 an existing solar cooling installation located in Zaragoza (Spain). The dynamic model has been developed
Received in revised form under the simulation environment TRNSYS. The aim of this simulation model is to dispose of a tool in
13 April 2011
order to use it to evaluate different energy improvement actions in a real solar cooling installation. This
Accepted 19 April 2011
Available online 1 June 2011
solar cooling installation has been monitored and analyzed since 2007. The COP of this experimental
solar cooling system presents a great inuence from its heat rejection sink, a dry cooling tower. Once the
model was validated with the experimental data obtained from the real installation, it was used to
Keywords:
Solar energy
predict the chiller performance with a new geothermal sink, which started to operate in 2009. The
Absorption cooling present work describes the design and validation model process, as well as the comparison between the
Solar cooling model results and the monitoring ones with the geothermal heat rejection system.
Heat rejection sink 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Because of the increase of the annual mean temperatures, the
air-conditioning market has grown in a spectacular way [1].
Unfortunately most of the air conditioning devices are driven by
electricity causing overloads in the electrical system and damage to
the environment. In addition, most of this electricity supply is
produced by fossil fuels.
Solar cooling facilities show a great potential to mitigate these
problems [2]. This cooling technology has a long history in the
industrial sector, but it still lacks of enough experience in the
domestic sector. To overcome this problem, it is necessary to
analyze the current experimental solar cooling systems, identifying
the key points of their performance. To complete these analyses,
analytic studies must be done frequently by means of simulation
tools. Unfortunately the available simulations tools are not too
wide, and it is difcult for the planner to design and dimension this
kind of solar systems.
On the other hand, as any thermally driven chiller, it produces
heat that has to be rejected. Cooling towers are often employed to
* Corresponding author. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Group of
Thermal Engineering and Energy Systems (GITSE), Aragon Institute of Engineering
Research (I3A), University of Zaragoza, C/Mara de Luna s/n, 50018 Zaragoza, Spain.
Tel.: 34 948 252800; fax: 34 948 270774.
E-mail addresses: fpalacin@cener.com (F. Palacn), cmmb@unizar.es (C. Monn),
sealonso@unizar.es (S. Alonso).
reject the heat coming from the absorber and condenser circuits of
the chiller [3]. Although these kind of cooling devices are simple to
be installed and give good results in terms of cooling capacity, they
are mainly limited by outdoor conditions, and in the case of the wet
cooling tower, by posing a health risk of legionella.
Moreover, their performance is also limited by the ambient
conditions, so the COP of the chiller diminishes substantially. An
alternative to palliate this problem is the use of a geothermal sink to
re-cool the absorption chiller [4]. This kind of sink is technically
more complex than the congurations with cooling towers, but it
provides a constant low temperature during the whole year.
2. Integration of an absorption chiller in an existing solar
thermal system
In 2003 a solar thermal system was installed at the indoor sport
centre of the University of Zaragoza. The purpose of this system was
to contribute to the domestic hot water demand (DHW) of the
building. Unfortunately, the surface of the solar eld of the instal-
lation was oversized and in summer time, the solar system reached
often stagnation conditions since the lack of DHW consumption. To
solve this problem several options were analyzed and nally an
absorption chiller was integrated in the existing system in order to
use this surplus energy in the summer time (Fig. 1).
The total surface of the solar eld is 85 m2. Only 37.5 m2 are used
to supply heat to the solar air conditioning system in summer. The

0360-5442/$ e see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.energy.2011.04.035
4110 F. Palacn et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 4109e4118

Nomenclature Dry chiller operation with the dry cooling tower

el electrical
A solar collector area (m2) Exp experimental scenario
COP coefcient of performance (e) evap evaporator
cp specic heat capacity of water (4.18 kJ kg1 K1) gen generator
I irradiation on the collector surface (W m2) Geo chiller operation with the geothermal heat rejection
q ow rate (l min1) system
T temperature (
C) GeoHE geothermal horizontal heat exchanger
t day (day) hx heat exchanger
UA overall loss coefcient (W K1) i inlet
W power (kW) initial intial
h efciency (e) mean mean surface temperature (average air temperature)
now current day of the year
Subscripts o outlet
a thermal diffusivity of the ground (soil) s solar
amp Amplitude of surface temperature (maximum air shift day of the year corresponding to the minimum surface
temperature minus minimum air temperature) temperature
c cooling Sim simulation scenario
ch chilling sc solar collector
dbo dry bulb outdoor th thermal
depth depth below surface well water well

air conditioning system enables the refrigeration of a gymnasium.
Solar radiation is absorbed and transformed into thermal energy to
feed the absorption machine.
The system consists of a commercial 4.5 kW air-cooled, single
effect, LiBr-H2O absorption chiller. It has a rotary drum in which the
single effect absorption cycle is carried out by a drum rotating at
400 rpm. The rotation favours the mass and heat transfer of the
absorption cycle. Inside the drum, the generator, the condenser, the
evaporator and the absorber are placed.
In addition, the secondary loop includes a hot water tank and an
auxiliary boiler, but they are not in use. In this way, the absorption
chiller will only work when the solar eld can provide it enough
thermal energy.
In the gymnasium, two 6.21 kW fan coils transfer the chilling
power from the evaporator of the absorption machine to the
ambient air.
And nally, a dry cooling tower was installed to reject the heat
from the condenser and the absorber of the chiller to the outdoor air.

Fig. 1. Initial scheme of the solar thermal installation.

 F. Palacn et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 4109e4118 4111

Table 1 Table 2
Main measurement sensors of the monitoring system. Experimental mean values of the chiller in 2007 and 2008.

Measurement element Reference Frequency E Year Wch (kW) Wgen (kW) Wc (kW) COP (e) Tdbo (
C)
measurement 2007 5.7 9.7 15.4 0.57 27.7
Outdoor temperature Siemens QFA 3160 5 min 0.8
C 2008 4.4 8.0 12.5 0.51 31.2
Radiation probe Quimisur IQ-5.0 5 min 2%
Energy counter Siemens 2WR5 20 s 2e4%
Temperature probe Siemens QAE 21, 20 s 0.8
C
(Water) Siemens QAD 22 4. Installation model and experimental validation

During the analyzed period of the experimental installation,

a model of the installation was developed with the reference
The installation is completely monitored. The monitoring energy simulation software package, TRNSYS [12]. The aim of the
system was designed perform the energy balances of the different model was to develop a tool which could represent the energy
components of the installation [5]. There is a PLC unit and a web behaviour of the real system. In this way, the tool could estimate
controller, which form the controlling and recording system. In the potential of possible modications in the installation, as the
Table 1 the accuracy of the main sensors of the monitoring system improvement of the heat rejection system.
can be seen. In order to ensure the quality of the experimental
measurements, the accuracy of these sensors were checked each
4.1. Model of the installation
year before the beginning of the cooling season by means external
calibrated devices [6].
The model of the initial installation was created according to the
Since the solar cooling installation started to work, it has been
existing components of the solar cooling system. The description of
operated in several experimental scenarios in which the size of the
the simulation model is explained in [13].
solar surface [7], the rotation velocity of the absorption process [7]
Firstly, since the model has to show the real behaviour of the
drum of the chiller or the heat rejection system [8,9] have been
installation, and the performance of the solar cooling chiller
modied or changed in order to optimize the whole installation.
depends strongly on the climatic conditions [14], the monitored
The experimental results of each scenario and their performance
climatic data were implemented in the dynamic model of the
conclusions can be found in the quoted literature.
installation.
To simulate the rotary absorption chiller performance, TRNSYS
standard type 107 was used. This type requires a data le which
3. First results of the experimental analysis of the solar
contains the key points of the absorption chiller performance. Since
cooling installation
the default standard data le of the type 107 does not approach to
operation of the 4.5 kW rotary chiller installed in the University of
During the rst two years, the installation operated with the
Zaragoza, a new data le was created. To develop it, the monitored
initial dry cooling tower. After the analysis of these two years, the
values of the experimental installation obtained during the chiller
main conclusion was that there was a strong inuence of the heat
steady state operation in 2008 were used. In order to adjust these
rejection temperature and the outdoor temperature on the chiller
data to the format requirements of the data le, a multi-regression
COP (Fig. 2). Similar conclusions were also quoted by other authors
t from the experimental steady state values of the chiller was
[10,11].
adjusted [15]. The results of the method are shown in Fig. 3.
The studies carried out in these two years were focused on the
The multiple correlation coefcient of this regression algorithm
analysis of the steady state performance of the chiller. Table 2
was 0.91, showing a good t between the experimental data and
shows the steady state mean values of the chiller in both years. In
the method results, as it can be seen in Fig. 3.
2008, the cooling capacity was lower because the outdoor
temperature was higher than in 2007, so the COP was lower too.
In order to evaluate several possibilities to improve the perfor- 4.2. Validation of the model
mance of the chiller a dynamic simulation model of the solar
cooling installation was developed. To validate the model, the results of the simulation model have
to be compared with the experimental scenario. The validation

0,70
Lineal (2007) Lineal (2008)

0,65

0,60
COP (-)

0,55

0,50

0,45

0,40
22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38

Fig. 2. Inuence of the dry bulb outdoor temperature on the COP. Fig. 3. Results of the absorption chiller model.
4112 F. Palacn et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 4109e4118

Table 3 the real installation in relation to the inuence of the outdoor

Comparison of the experimental and simulation results. temperature.
Parameter Experimental Simulation value Deviation (%) Once the validation process was performed, it could be
(scenario) value (2008) (dry cooling tower concluded that the installation model is valid to be used as a tool to
(kWh) model)
evaluate the performance of this solar cooling system [16].
Wcollector 6230.50 6468.29 3.68
Wsolar_hx 2217.40 2190.84 1.21
Wgenerator 1491.90 1564.02 4.61 5. Design and potential of the new heat rejection system
Wevaporator 795.50 740.31 7.45
Welectric_system 554.80 565.90 1.96
As a consequence of the results showed in Fig. 2 and in Table 1,
several studies were performed. The aim of these studies was to
nd an alternative heat rejection sink to improve the performance
procedure of the installation model consists of three levels. The rst of the absorption machine [17].
one compares the values of several main parameters of the chiller Two options were proposed in order to nd an alternative heat
performance: the solar yield, the solar heat transferred by the solar rejection system, a wet cooling tower and a geothermal system.
heat exchanger, the generator energy, the chilling energy delivered With both of them, the performance of the installation should be
by the evaporator and the electrical consumption. As it can be seen improved.
in Table 3, the deviation between the simulation and the experi- The rst option, a wet cooling tower, was ruled out due to the
mental results of these ve parameters belonging to the year 2008 legionella risks. Besides, the performance of the wet cooling tower
is lower than 8%. operation would have been limited by outdoor temperature and
In the second level of the validation process the daily opera- humidity conditions too. Furthermore, the water consumption has
tional temperatures of both scenarios are compared (Figs. 4 and 5). to be taken into account.
The deviation of the simulation values compared to the real The second option was using a geothermal system as a heat
values are lower than 5% in the central part of the day, belonging to rejection sink. At this point, two further options for the geothermal
the steady state period. Therefore the simulation results showed system were examined: open cycles and closed cycles. Technical and
a good quantitative and qualitative agreement with the real economic feasibility studies were performed in order to compare
measurements. three different geothermal systems [17]: closed geothermal circuit
The model can also be validated by repeating this procedure for with vertical heat exchangers, closed geothermal circuit with hori-
the chiller capacities and COP (Figs. 6 and 7). The comparison of zontal heat exchangers and open geothermal circuit using a water
both scenarios shows the best values during the steady state period, tank close to the building. Finally, the heat rejection system chosen
because the absorption chiller was developed from the steady was the open circuit one due to the existence of water wells placed
states values of those days in which the chiller has worked. close to the sport centre. With this geothermal system, the perfor-
Finally the last stage of the validation procedure veries the mance of the heat rejection system will not depend on the outdoor
inuence of some operational parameters of the installation on temperature.
other performance parameters. These inuences have to be eval- The new circuit installed uses a buried water tank of about
uated using the steady state values of the compared parameter. 25 m3, located in the surroundings of the solar cooling installation
Therefore, for each analyzed day, a steady state period was dened. and it is used as an irrigation tank. The tank is supplied by an
For example, Fig. 8 presents the inuence of the outdoor temper- underground well.
ature on the chiller capacities and the COP. Daily, the water tank is renewed in summer, because it is used to
In this case the simulation results agree closely with the real irrigate the sports ground of the sport activities centre. Therefore,
data. The results of the model in Fig. 8 show a similar tendency with the water temperature of the tank will keep constant values,

Fig. 4. Validation of daily operational temperatures. Experimental values.

 F. Palacn et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 4109e4118 4113

Fig. 5. Validation of daily operational temperatures. Simulation values.

solving the possible problems of thermal saturation of the water
due to the rejection of the absorption cycle heat. The new
geothermal installation is showed in Fig. 9.
The new heat rejection system extracts the heat produced by the
absorption cycle by means of a 20 kW plate heat exchanger. There is
a by-pass that leads the water directly to the plate heat exchanger,
avoiding the dry cooling tower. The overall length of the new circuit
is 190.5 m, of which, 90.5 m have been divided into three pipes with
a smaller diameter. The aim of the geothermal system conguration
is to increase the heat exchange surface between the pipes and the
ground.
With this conguration, the heat rejection can take place in two
different sinks of the heat rejection system. On the one hand, the
absorption chiller can reject its cycle heat to the initial heat rejec-
tion device, the dry cooling tower, since it has not been removed
from the installation. On the other hand, the new geothermal
system allows rejecting the residual heat into the water well and in
the horizontal heat exchanger placed in the supply pipe.
Therefore the solar cooling system is equipped with a hybrid
system to reject the absorption heat.
To evaluate the potential of the solar cooling installation oper-
ating with the new system, the geothermal system was included in
the initial TRNSYS model of the installation, and its component
dened with the adequate types included in the TRNSYS libraries
(Fig. 10).
A new at plate heat exchanger with its characteristics
according to the manufacturer was dened with the type 5b.
As it has been mentioned, the geothermal system has a water
tank and a horizontal geothermal exchanger formed by three
buried pipes. These pipes were modelled with a simple buried pipe
model, described by the Type 31. The thermal conductivity of the
ground was estimated in 1.1 W/mK. The vertical temperature
distribution of the ground is modelled with the help of the type 77,
which calculates it from the mean ground surface temperature of

20 1,00
Wgen_Exp_Dry Wc_Exp_Dry
18 Wevap_Exp_Dry COP_Exp_Dry 0,90

16 0,80

14 0,70

12 0,60
W (kW)

COP (-)

10 0,50

8 0,40

6 0,30

4 0,20

2 0,10

0 0,00
10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00
time (h)

Fig. 6. Validation of the chiller capacities and COPs. Experimental values.

4114 F. Palacn et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 4109e4118

16 1,00
Wgen_Sim_Dry Wc_Sim_Dry Wevap_Sim_Dry COP_Sim_Dry
0,90
14
0,80
12
0,70
10
0,60

COP (-)
W (kW)

8 0,50

0,40
6
0,30
4
0,20
2
0,10

0 0,00
10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00
time (h)

Fig. 7. Validation of the chiller capacities and COPs. Simulation values.

16 1,00
Wgen_Exp_Dry Wc_Exp_Dry Wref_Exp_Dry Wgen_Sim_Dry According to the effect of the new sink on the daily performance,
15
Wc_Sim_Dry Wref_Sim_Dry COP_Exp_Dry COP_Sim_Dry 0,90 Fig. 12 compares the temperatures of the initial experimental
14
0,80 scenario with the daily temperatures of the geothermal simulation
13
0,70
scenario.
12
In the new scenario the evaporator outlet temperature reaches
11 0,60
lower values due to the better heat rejection capacity. The temper-
W (kW)

COP (-)

10
9
0,50 atures of the heat rejection loop are around 20
Ce22
C instead of
8 0,40 35
Ce40
C. It can be concluded that the average temperature of the
7
absorption cycle is lower, so its performance increases.
0,30
6
In Fig. 13 the comparison between the chiller capacities and its
0,20
5
COPs in a typical operation day can be seen. The improvement of
4
0,10 these chiller parameters is clearly evident. The chilling capacity
3 0,00 presents higher values than in previous scenarios, and the chiller
27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 requires less heat power to provide it, so the COP increases. In other
words, since the temperatures difference in the generator is higher
Fig. 8. Validation of the chiller capacities and COP against the Tdbo. than in the initial scenario, the generator power increases so there
is more energy available to produce chilled water. Additionally as
the average temperature of the absorption cycle is suitable, the
the year, the amplitude of the ground surface temperature of the evaporator temperatures difference is higher too, and so, the
year, the time difference between the beginning of the calendar chilling capacity improves, achieving a better COP.
year and the occurrence of the minimum surface temperature, and In Fig. 14, besides the improvements of the chiller performance,
the thermal diffusivity of the soil, according to the Kasuda equation it can be seen that the negative inuence of the outdoor temper-
[18] (Fig. 11). ature has been removed because the chilling capacity and the COP
The rst results of the new model showed that the new rejection does not decrease when the outdoor temperature increases.
sink would increase the chilling capacity and the COP up to 17% The capacities values of the chiller have been improved too. In
more than the current real ones. Besides, the negative inuence of the case of the COP the improvement is around 15% and the chilling
the outdoor temperature on both parameters is removed. capacity increases up to 38% (Table 4).

Fig. 9. Scheme of the new heat rejection system.

 F. Palacn et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 4109e4118
Fig. 10. Trnsys model of the solar cooling installation.
6. Results of the experimental geothermal scenario
In 2009 and 2010, the rotary absorption chiller operated with
the geothermal heat rejection system. To enlarge the knowledge of
the chiller performance, two ows were tested on the geothermal
loop, 95 l/min and 49 l/min. The aim of these tests was to evaluate
the inuence of the ows on the heat rejected, in the geothermal
exchanger and in the performance of the chiller.
Unfortunately, the experimental results were not as good as the
expected ones. The improvement of performance of the chiller was
partial. Although the alternative heat rejection system performance
does not show any inuence from the outdoor temperature, the
obtained results were lower than the expected ones. The expla-
nation to this fact is related to the operation temperature of the
water well. The temperature of the water tank in the rst year of
operation (2009) was 25
C, instead of 17
C. This temperature
difference is owing to the situation of the water tank. Whereas the
water well is deeply underground, the ceiling of the water tank is
close to the surface of the ground, so its temperature can be
inuenced by the solar radiation and by the outdoor temperature
[19]. Unfortunately, the geothermal system was designed with the
temperature provided by the historic data of the wells placed in the
surroundings of the system [21].
Fig. 15 shows the chilling capacity and the COP of the chiller
operating with the initial dry cooling tower and with the two different
ows in the geothermal system [20]. As it can been seen in Fig. 15, the
chilling capacity and the COP show approximately constant values
when the outdoor temperature increases. Despite this fact, when the
outdoor temperature is below 31
Ce33
C, the chilling capacity and
the COP of the absorption chiller are higher when it operates with the
dry cooling tower. In this point, a hybrid heat rejection control system
could be implemented in order to manage the use of the optimal heat
rejection sink in every moment [22].
Fig. 11. Kasuda equation.
4115
Fig. 16 shows the temperatures of the geothermal system when
the ow rate is 95 l/min. The inlet temperature of the horizontal
heat exchanger is increased by the residual heat of the absorption
chiller. After the heat rejection in the geothermal exchanger, the
ow reaches the water well. Finally the water is pumped from the
low level of the water well to the at plate heat exchanger in order
to cool the water of the heat rejection cycle of the absorption chiller.
As it can be seen in Fig. 16, the temperature of the water ow used
to cool the absorption cycle is around 25
C.
On the other hand the daily increase of the water tank
temperature is lower than 1
C. Therefore, the heat rejection sink is
suitable to be used as a constant temperature sink.
Another parameter to be studied in Fig. 16 is the heat rejected by
the horizontal buried heat exchanger. The mean temperature
difference of the ow between its inlet and the outlet temperature
in the operation period was approximately 1.1
C. That means that
the average heat rejection capacity in the horizontal geothermal
exchanger is 7.15 kW, approximately the 55% of the total heat
rejection capacity of the geothermal system. The high efciency of
the buried heat exchanger is due to the high thermal conductivity
of the ground, since it is irrigated every day. Fig. 17 shows the heat
rejection capacities in the geothermal horizontal exchanger and the
total heat rejection of the geothermal system.
In the case of the geothermal system operating with the lower
ow rate (49 l/min), the heat rejection capacity of the horizontal
exchanger and the whole geothermal system decreases. The heat
rejection capacity of the geothermal system in this situation is
11.09 kW, and the buried exchanger rejects only 4.6 kW.
Finally, the mean values of the performance of the absorption
chiller when it operates with the geothermal system are shown in
Table 5.
Although with the new heat rejection system the improvement
of the chiller performance did not reach the expected results, the
4116 F. Palacn et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 4109e4118

120 Table 4
Tgen,i_Sim_GEO Tgen,o_Sim_GEO Tc,i_Sim_GEO
110 Improvement of the chiller performance operating with the geothermal system.
Tc,o_Sim_GEO Tevap,i_Sim_GEO Tevap,o_Sim_GEO
100 Scenario Wgen (kW) Wch (kW) Wc kW) COP (e) Tdbo (oC)
90 Dry cooling tower model 8.08 4.41 12.89 0.52 31.2
80 Geothermal model 9.91 6.14 16.45 0.60 31.2
Improvement (%) 22.64 38.22 27.61 15.38 e
70
T (C)

60

50
40 20 1,00
30 Lineal (Wchill_qwell=49l/min) Lineal (Wchill_qwell=95l/min)
18 0,90
20 Lineal (Wchill_drycooler) Lineal (COP_drycooler)
16 0,80
10 Lineal (COP_qwell=49l/min) Lineal (COP_qwell=95l/min)
14 0,70
0
10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00
12 0,60
time (h)

COP (-)
W (kW)
10 0,50
Fig. 12. Simulation results of the capacities and COPs of the chiller in the geothermal
8 0,40
scenario.
6 0,30

4 0,20
COP of the chiller when the geothermal system operates with the
2 0,10
high ow rate (95 l/min) has been improved slightly compared to
the COP of the year 2008. 0 0,00
20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40

7. Diagnosis of the experimental results by means of the Fig. 15. Obtained values of chilling capacity and COP.
simulation model

Unfortunately, these results were not as good as the simulation

models predicted. The operational temperature of the water tank 28
TWaterTank TGeoHE,i TGeoHE,o TWaterTank,o
20 1,00
Wgen_Sim_Geo Wc_Sim_Geo Wevap_Sim_Geo COP_Sim_Geo 27
18 0,90

16 0,80
26

14 0,70
25
T (C)

12 0,60
COP (-)
W (kW)

10 0,50 24

8 0,40
23
6 0,30

4 0,20 22

2 0,10
21
0 0,00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00
10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00
time (h)
time (h)

Fig. 16. Temperatures of the geothermal system.

Fig. 13. Simulation results of the capacities and COPs of the chiller in the geothermal
scenario.

20 1,00
Wgen_Exp_Dry Wc_Exp_Dry Wevap_Exp_Dry 20
Wgen_Sim_GEO Wc_Sim_GEO Wevap_Sim_GEO 0,90 WGeoHE WGeoSystem
18
COP_Exp_Dry COP_Sim_GEO 18
0,80
16 16
0,70
14 14
0,60
COP (-)

12 12
W (kW)

W (kW)

0,50
10 10
0,40
8
8
0,30
6
6
0,20
4
4 0,10
2
2 0,00
26 28 30 32 34 36 38 0
10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00
time (h)
Fig. 14. Improvement of the chiller capacities and COP against the Tdboin the
geothermal scenario. Fig. 17. Scheme of the new heat rejection system.
 F. Palacn et al. / Energy 36 (2011) 4109e4118 4117

22 1,00 were compared with the experimental ones, showing a good

Wgen_Exp_GEO Wc_Exp_GEO Wevap_Exp_GEO
20 Wgen_Sim_GEO Wc_Sim_GEO Wevap_Sim_GEO 0,90 agreement.
18 COP_Exp_GEO COP_Sim_GEO The absorption chiller was modelled using a multi-regression t,
0,80
showing deviations lower that 10% between its results and the real
16
0,70 ones.
14
0,60 After the validation of the dynamic model, it was used to eval-

COP (-)
W (kW)

12
10
8 Initially, the solar cooling installation operated with a dry
6
4
2 0,10
0 0,00
24 26 28 30 32 34 36
Fig. 18. Improvement potential of the geothermal experimental scenario comparing to
the simulations values.
Table 5
Experimental mean values of the chiller with the geothermal system.
Flow rate (l/min) Wg (kW) Wch (kW) Wc (kW)
49 7.1 3.5 10.5
95 7.6 4.2 12.2
was higher than 17
C, value obtained from the historical registers
of the water well nearby. The operational value of this temperature
ascends to 25
C. For this reason, the at plate heat exchanger of the
geothermal system must be redesign in order to be able to reject
the appropriate heat of the absorption chiller. Although the chiller
operated below their capabilities, with the geothermal system, the
negative inuence of the outdoor temperature on the COP and on
the chilling capacity was removed (Fig.17). Taking into account the
problem of the operational temperature of the water well, the
geothermal TRNSYS model has been used to estimate the features
of the new at heat exchanger. The UA of the initial heat exchanger
was 2007.8 W/K, however the new UA value of the resigned heat
exchanger should be at least 3.5 times higher. Therefore the UA
value used in the geothermal model was 7217.51 W/K.
It is expected that in 2011 this new heat exchanger starts to
operate and the results of the solar cooling installations achieves
the simulation ones.
The results of the model simulation can be seen in Fig. 18, which
shows the experimental results in 2009 against the results of the
geothermal model.
It can be seen that each experimental parameter has a similar
tendency according to its simulation pair. In this case, when the
outdoor temperature increases, the operational parameters do not
decrease as in the initial scenario, they keep constant values, or
they even increase slightly.
The effect of the mistaken at heat exchanger design is noticed
in the values of the experimental parameters. For example, the
chilling capacity is always lower than its nominal value. However,
the simulations results show a constant value of 6 kW. Similar
conclusion can be drawn from the COP analysis. The experimental
COP achieves a value of 0.51, but it could increase up to 0.6 with the
new heat rejection system.
8. Conclusions
In the present work a dynamic model of a real solar cooling
installation has been presented. The model was developed from the
experimental data of the real system, and to validate it, its results
uate the performance of the chiller when it worked with a new heat
0,50
rejection system.
0,40
0,30 cooling tower to evacuate the absorption cycle heat. The rst
0,20 conclusions of the analyses carried out on the solar system showed
a great inuence of the outdoor temperature on the chiller COP.
Because of this, an open geothermal cycle was designed and
installed as a new heat rejection system.
38
With the new circuit, the COP dependence from the outdoor
temperature is removed, and therefore, a constant COP is obtained
varying this temperature. With the help of the TRNSYS model, the
performance of the solar cooling system was estimated. The model
results showed an important improvement of the chiller perfor-
mance, so the geothermal system was installed and started to work
in 2009.
COP (e) The experimental results of the chiller in 2009 with this new
0.47 scenario were not as good as the model predicted. Although the
0.52 negative inuence of the outdoor temperature on the chiller
performance was removed, the experimental values were lower
than the estimated ones. The main reason of this mismatch was the
high values of the water well operational temperature. Therefore,
the size of the at plate heat exchanger of the geothermal side was
redesigned in order to improve the absorption cycle heat rejected
to the geothermal loop. The geothermal TRNSYS model has been
used to diagnose and to estimate the features of the new at heat
exchanger. It is expected that in 2011 this new heat exchanger starts
to operate.
In any case, the mean value of the chiller COP operating with the
geothermal sink has been improved compared with the mean value
of the year 2008.
At this point, and since the initially dry cooling tower was not
removed from the system, the possibility of using a hybrid system
(air/water cooled) to reject the heat produced in the absorption
cycle has been considered.
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