Journal Browser
Search
Fabrication and analysis of solar operated vapour absorption refrigeration system using methanol water
Furqan Ahmad
Saqlain Abbas
Taha Ejaz
Zulkarnain Abbas
Zahid Hussain
Muhammad Rizwan
Thermal Science and Engineering 2025, 8(1), 8601; https://doi.org/10.24294/tse8601
Submitted:14 Nov 2024
Accepted:26 Dec 2024
Published:14 Jan 2025
Abstract

This study investigates the performance assessment of methanol and water as working fluid in a solar-powered vapour absorption refrigeration system. This research clarifies the system's performance across a spectrum of operating conditions. Furthermore, the HAP software was utilized to determine and scrutinize the cooling load, facilitating a comparative analysis between software-based results and theoretical calculations. To empirically substantiate the findings, this research investigates methanol-water as a superior refrigerant compared to traditional ammonia- water and LiBr-water systems. Through experimental analysis and its comparison with previous research, the methanol-water refrigeration system demonstrated higher cooling efficiency and better environmental compatibility. The system's performance was evaluated under varying conditions, showing that methanol-water has a 1% higher coefficient of performance (COP) compared to ammonia-water systems, proving its superior effectiveness in solar-powered applications. This empirical model acts as a pivotal tool for understanding the dynamic relationship between methanol concentration (40%, 50%, 60%) and system performance. The results show that temperature of the evaporator (5–15 ℃), condenser (30 ℃–50 ℃), and absorber (25 ℃–50 ℃) are constant, the coefficient of performance (COP) increases with increase in generator temperature. Furthermore, increasing the evaporator temperature while keeping constant temperatures for the generator (70 ℃–100 ℃), condenser, and absorber improves the COP. The resulting data provides profound insights into optimizing refrigerant concentrations for improved efficiency.

References

1.  Rajendra Kumar S. Design and Analysis of Absorption Refrigeration System Using H2O+[EMIM][TFA] [PhD thesis]. National Institute of Technology, Rourkela; 2015.

2.  Guo Y, Ding Y, Li J, et al. The performance of [Emim]Br/H2O as a working pair in the absorption refrigeration system. Next Energy. 2024; 2: 100038. doi: 10.1016/j.nxener.2023.100038

3.  Franchini G, Notarbartolo E, Padovan LE, et al. Modeling, Design and Construction of a Micro-scale Absorption Chiller. Energy Procedia. 2015; 82: 577-583. doi: 10.1016/j.egypro.2015.11.874

4.  Aman S, Devesh Shukla AM, Chauhan K. COP derivation and thermodynamic calculation of ammonia-water vapor absorption refrigeration system. International journal of mechanical engineering and technology. 2015.

5.  Razmi A, Soltani M, M. Kashkooli F, et al. Energy and exergy analysis of an environmentally-friendly hybrid absorption/recompression refrigeration system. Energy Conversion and Management. 2018; 164: 59-69. doi: 10.1016/j.enconman.2018.02.084

6.  Sierra FZ, Best R, Holland FA. Experiments on an absorption refrigeration system powered by a solar pond. Heat Recovery Systems and CHP; 1993.

7.  Porumb R, Porumb B, Balan M. Numerical Investigation on Solar Absorption Chiller with LiBr-H 2 O Operating Conditions and Performances. Energy Procedia. 2017; 112: 108-117. doi: 10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.1071

8.  Abdulateef JM, Sopian K, Alghoul MA, et al. Solar Absorption Refrigeration System Using New Working Fluid Pairs. The ACM Digital Library; 2008.

9.  Moreno-Quintanar G, Rivera W, Best R. Comparison of the experimental evaluation of a solar intermittent refrigeration system for ice production operating with the mixtures NH3/LiNO3 and NH3/LiNO3/H2O. Renewable Energy. 2012; 38(1): 62-68. doi: 10.1016/j.renene.2011.07.009

10.Agrouaz Y, Bouhal T, Allouhi A, et al. Energy and parametric analysis of solar absorption cooling systems in various Moroccan climates. Case Studies in Thermal Engineering. 2017; 9: 28-39. doi: 10.1016/j.csite.2016.11.002

11.Ghyadh NA, Hammadi SH, Shahad HAK. Using solar collector unit in a methanol-water vapor absorption cooling system under iraqi environmental conditions. Case Studies in Thermal Engineering. 2020; 22: 100749. doi: 10.1016/j.csite.2020.100749

12.Jain V, Singhal A, Sachdeva G, et al. Advanced exergy analysis and risk estimation of novel NH3-H2O and H2O-LiBr integrated vapor absorption refrigeration system. Energy Conversion and Management. 2020; 224: 113348. doi: 10.1016/j.enconman.2020.113348

13.Anand S, Gupta A, Anand Y, et al. Use of process steam in vapor absorption refrigeration system for cooling and heating applications: An exergy analysis. Cogent Engineering. 2016; 3(1): 1160639. doi: 10.1080/23311916.2016.1160639

© 2025 by the EnPress Publisher, LLC. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.

Copyright © by EnPress Publisher. All rights reserved.

TOP