raw · papers · ingested 2026-06-19
Dynamic and Economic Investigation of a Solar Thermal-Driven Two-Bed Adsorption Chiller under Perth Climatic Conditions
Source: https://doi.org/10.3390/en13041005
Read from local Zotero full-text PDF (group 5183627 / Joule Heist).
Key findings
- System: conventional two-bed silica-gel/water adsorption chiller (one adsorber/desorber pair, evaporator, condenser, four refrigerant valves V1-V4) driven by compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) solar collectors plus cooling tower; modeled dynamically for Perth, Western Australia (lat 32 °N, summer ambient 30-40 °C).
- Average cooling capacity ~11 kW at peak hour (13:00) on a typical summer day.
- Cyclic chiller COP ~0.5 and solar-system COP ~0.3.
- Payback period ~11 years; optimal CPC solar collector area ~38 m²; a three-order Fourier series adequately approximated actual solar radiation (Meteonorm v7.0 data).
- Adsorption modeled with linear driving force kinetics (dq/dt = 15·(D_so·e^(-Ea/RT)/R_p²)·(q*-q)) and a modified Freundlich adsorption-equilibrium isotherm for silica-gel/water; energy balances written for beds, condenser, and evaporator.
- Key design parameters (Table 1): sorbent bed heat-transfer area 2.415 m² with U_bed = 1724.14 W/m²K; evaporator 1.91 m², U = 2557.54 W/m²K; condenser 3.73 m², U = 4115.23 W/m²K; one collector area 2.415 m², 9 pipes per collector; hot-side mass flow 1.3 kg/s.
- Collector efficiency model η_SC = 0.75 - 2.57·(ΔT/I) - 4.67·(ΔT/I)² (Clausse et al.).
- Cited literature benchmarks: silica-gel/water chillers commonly reach COP ~0.45-0.65 and SCP ~72-337 W/kg; silica-gel/water favored for regeneration temperatures below ~70-80 °C using FPC, ETC, or CPC collectors.