Performance evaluation of a solar adsorption cooling system under Mediterranean climatic conditions for cold stores applications

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering at El-Mattaria, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt. Energy and Renewable Energy Engineering Program, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Egyptian Chinese University.

2 Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering at El-Mattaria, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt.

3 Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering and Technology-Cairo Campus, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT), Egypt.

Abstract

Today, energy and environmental issues have become major global concerns. Refrigeration and air conditioning systems account for a large share of world energy consumption. Reducing this energy consumption will not only reduce the energy crisis, but also reduce global warming by reducing carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation. Compared with traditional refrigeration systems, the use of solar-assisted vapor adsorption refrigeration systems can not only reduce energy consumption, but also reduce the impact of the system on the environment. In this paper, a simulation study of a solar-assisted adsorption cooling system for refrigeration applications is carried out under Al Arish (31°N, 33.8°E) climatic conditions representing Mediterranean climate conditions in Egypt. The reported results revealed that the highest cold storage load occurred in August, while the highest COP of 0.54 and solar fraction of 0.86 occurred in May and June, respectively. In fact, based on annual system performance, the system consumes 5 x 107 kJ of energy through the auxiliary heater and harvests 1.8 x 108 kJ of solar energy to remove 1x 108 kJ of cold storage cooling load.

Keywords