Design parameters analysis of a solar/gas adsorption chiller for air conditioning

APF Leite, MM Martins, DB Riffel, FA Belo, F Meunier1 Solar Energy Laboratory, Federal University of Paraba, 58051-900 Joo Pessoa-PB, Brazil 1 Laboratoire du Froid, Conservatoire National des Arts et Mtiers, 75141, Paris cedex 03, France Abstract - This paper presents the thermal analysis of an adsorption chiller as the main component of a 20 kW air conditioning central unit, which runs mainly on solar energy, with a complementary heat provided by gas. The proposed system is basically composed of a cold water storage tank produced by an activated carbon-methanol adsorption chiller, a hot water storage tank and a fan-coil that is a heat exchanger between the cold water and the air to be conditioned. The system's functioning is based on 2 adsorbers, operating in alternated turns, having a multitubular configuration as a component of a shell-and-tubes liquid-adsorbent heat exchanger. The heat transfer coefficient on the shell side was evaluated by the Tinkers method, which is a simple calculation method, for different durations of the adsorption cycle and inlet water temperatures. For a design inlet temperature of 105oC, the mass flow rate during the regenerating period was of 0.38 kg/s, and the heat transfer coefficient over the tubes of the adsorber was of 690 W/m2K. The relationship between the inlet water temperature and the heat transfer coefficient on the adsorber shell side was also evaluated, as well as the influence of the regeneration period on this last parameter. Keywords: adsorption chiller, solar energy, air conditioning. 1. Introduction The use of solar energy for cooling applications is attractive provided the stranger the insolation, the greater needs for cooling. The energy needed for a sorption cooling system is essentially thermal, and may come from different sources, such as: process heat, residual vapor or solar energy. One of the main advantages of such a system in relation to the conventional vapor compression system lies on its minimum use of electric energy and on its low cost of maintenance. Because of its functioning simplicity, the adsorption technology applicable to refrigerating systems differs significantly from that of absorption. In adsorption there occurs an interaction between a solid and a fluid the transportation of the latter being a dependable thermal gradient, for it does not require the use of pumps. Moreover, the adsorption cycle depends on fewer electromechanical components (heat exchanger, valves). Conversely, adsorption refrigeration has exhibited performance coefficients lower than those obtained by liquid absorption. A comparative study between the liquid, chemical reaction and adsorption cooling systems was published by Meunier [1]. In all these systems, the mechanical energy consumption is kept to a minimum or null. They run primarily on thermal energy, and solar energy could be viable, especially in regions with great solar irradiation availability. In most areas of the Northeastern Brazil, the annual average solar power is over 6 kW/m2day that represents an excellent potential for cooling applications. Many farm and fishing products are lost in this region, mainly because of unsatisfactory refrigeration, or otherwise, these products have their final value decreased for lack of economical frigorific preservation. This paper puts forwards the characterization and design parameters, for different operation conditions, of a 20 kW air conditioning unit based on both the adsorption process and solar energy, for cooling a set of rooms that comprises an area of 110 m2.

2. Ideal thermodynamic cycle The adsorption refrigeration cycle consists of two well-defined stages: one is described as the adsorber cooling, with its consequent adsorption process, when the evaporation of the working fluid (the adsorbate) takes place. The other stage consists of the solid medium (the adsorbent) regeneration, when the adsorbate is desorbed and condensed. The ideal thermodynamic cycle can be represented by two isosters (isolines with constant adsorbed phase concentration, a) and two intercalated isobars, as shown in Figure 1.

3. Chillers description and operation A schematic representation of the central air conditioning unit is shown in Figure 2. The system is formed by 3 basic components: a water-cooling unit (the chiller), a tank of cooled water, and an air-water heat exchanger (the fan-coil). The adsorption chiller is made up of the following devices: 2 (wateradsorber) heat exchangers, 1 tank of hot water (replenished by solar energy and gas combustion), 2 air condensers, 1 evaporator, and accessories, such as valves and circulation pumps. The adsorbers are multi-tubular and their configuration is the same as that for the tubes of a shell-and-tube heat exchanger. The adsorbers (I and II), working by turns, are responsible for cooling the water in the thermal storage tank. They form, with the storage tanks plus the solar and gas heater, the so-called primary cooling system, or the adsorption chiller. The conditioned air is obtained by the exchange of heat between the stored cold water and the entering air through the fan-coil. When the adsorber I receives methanol vapour from the evaporator, placed at the bottom of the storage tank, at the same time the adsorber II goes through the regeneration mode, which is characterized by the desorption process with the consequent condensation of methanol in an air condenser. To release the heat of adsorption (from the adsorber I), a secondary water circuit, including a sky radiator and a storage tank, is used. A hydraulic network feeds this circuit. The water is cooled at nighttime by irradiative exchanges with the sky, and it circulates around the tubes to improve the adsorption process. The regeneration (of the adsorber II) is produced by the water heated by highly efficient solar collectors and, in a complementary way, by a gas heater. The water flows in the adsorbers will be managed by electrovalves (shown in Fig. 2) and micro controllers. The entering air/cold water exchanger (the fan-coil) is the so-called secondary cooling system, and is responsible for moving the necessary amount of cooled air so as to provide thermal comfort conditions inside the rooms.

Fig. 1. Network of isosters and theoretical adsorption refrigeration cycle. The adsorber cooling corresponds to the isosteric process A-B, depending on the ambient conditions. This process continues until the adsorber pressure reaches its minimum value (point B), when it becomes equal to the evaporator pressure. At this point, the adsorption process starts and prolongs until its temperature reaches the minimum value (point C). Then, the adsorber is heated, corresponding to another isosteric process (CD), until its pressure reaches a maximum value (point D). Desorption starts at this point, and goes on until the adsorber temperature reaches its maximum value (point A), completing, in this way, the cycle. The energy equations for modeling the heat and mass process inside the adsorber are given in details by Leite et al. [2].

Fig. 2. Schematic layout of the air conditioning unit. Taking into account the fact that the adsorption chiller operation is predominantly based on thermal energy consumption, the main reason for using water thermal storage lies on environmental conditions. So, the use of thermo storage is justified by two view points: the availability of natural gas to provide, in a complementary way, the hot water for regenerating the adsorbent, and the night ambient conditions to improve the kinetics of adsorption. Besides, the choice of cold water, instead of ice thermal storage, was due to the fact that, for the latter, a very low evaporation temperatures are required (less than -10oC), being necessary more expensive heat exchangers than the ones used for liquid storage. 4. Solar technology The solar collectors are flat and static. The outer surface of the collectors is painted nonselective matte black, and it is irradiated on both faces, as originally proposed by Goetzberger et al. [3]. The absorbing surface is covered on both sides by transparent insulation material the TIM cover which is a honeycomb structure in polycarbonate, bordered by two glass plates. The TIM cover reduces considerably the losses from convection and radiation, with a minimum attenuation of solar incidence. The reflectors, lying underneath the tubes, have a semi cylindrical profile, and they are made of polished aluminum. A schematic outline of the solar collector is shown in Figure 3.

Non selective absorbing plate

TIM covers

Reflectors

Fig. 3. Scheme of the solar collector. Results from numerical simulations of a collector using TIM cover and thermal insulation at the bottom, have shown that the overall heat loss coefficient is about half of that for the same collector using a single glass cover [4]. These calculations were carried out by using meteorological data from Joo Pessoa (78'S, 3450'WG). As result from an experimental study, the overall heat loss coefficient in upper and lower TIM covers varied from 0.54 to 1.90 W/m2K, respectively [5].

With the proposed solar technology, we expect to obtain, at the outlet of the collector, water temperatures between 100C and 110C. The experimental results obtained by Leite et al. [6], shows that this kind of collector can reach a daily thermal efficiency of about 40%. 5. Design parameters analysis Each one of the four rooms to be kept cool has an area of 27.5 m2 and is 2.7 m high, with an occupancy period of 8 hours. The effective cooling power, which is provided by the secondary system, was taken as a design parameter. It was based on the nominal output from commercial air conditioning equipments for climatic condition such as that found in Joo Pessoa, which is about 67 W/m3. So, the required effective cooling power is of 20 kW. The air inlet temperature was fixed at 14oC, and that of the return air at 26oC. Based on the isosters of the adsorbentadsorbate pair, the maximum concentration variation of the adsorbed phase was fixed as 0.29 kg of methanol per kg of activated carbon. The duration of each adsorption cycle was established to be 2 hours, and we consider 5 cycles per day. The solar irradiation was taken as the mean total daily radiation for the hottest six months in Joo Pessoa, whose value is 21.3 MJ/m2day. The total collector area was determined considering that the solar energy provides 70% of the necessary regenerating heat. A gas heater supplies the rest. At the end of the chiller operation period, the temperature of the water in the hot storage tank was considered to be at 75C, and, at the sunrise, the entering water in the collectors was fixed at 55C. The global heat loss between the primary and the secondary cooling systems was considered as being 17%. Taking into account these parameters, we have obtained, by means of the energy equation for each component, the dimensioning of the primary cooling system, as shown in Table 1. Based on the parameters shown in Table 1, the solar collectors will supply to the storage tank hot water at a temperature of 90C. The additional energy to provide the required

regenerating temperature of the adsorber is supplied by the gas heater. In terms of daily mean power, the solar energy provides about 35 kW, while the gas heater provides 15 kW that corresponds, considering heat combustion of the available natural gas, a volume rate of 14 m3. Table 1 Parameters calculated for the primary cooling system.
Parameter Activated carbon mass in each adsorber Methanol mass in each adsorber Cold storage tank volume Solar collectors total area Temperature increase in the collectors Hot storage tank volume Value 252 kg 72 kg 10,300 l 120 m2 35oC 7,000 l

6. Thermal parameters of the adsorber The adsorber is a shell-and-tube liquidadsorbent heat exchanger. For calculating the heat transfer coefficient between the liquid (water) and the adsorbent (activated carbon), we used the Tinkers method modified by Fraas and Ozisik [7]. The choice of the geometric configuration of the heat exchanger was based on practical aspects, such as the simplicity of the manufacturing technology employed, and the required number of tubes, which depends on the amount of adsorbent they can hold. Thus, the chosen exchanger was that of a single pass, with a square arranged tube bank. Details concerning constructive aspects of the water/adsorber exchanger can be found on a previous paper [2]. 6.1 Heat transfer coefficient The heat transfer coefficient on the shell side of the adsorber (hsh) is given in a diagram [7], as a function of Reynolds number for design thermal conditions (Reh) and an adimensional number (Y+), correlating the thermal properties of the liquid to Nusselt number (Nu).

The Reynolds number is given as

700

hsh [W/m.K]

Reh =

G do Fh 12 M

(1)

690

680

where G is the mass flow rate per square unit, do is the external diameter of the tubes, and Fh and M are constants; they depend on geometrical factors and the tube bank arrangement. The Y+ parameter is
Y+ = Nu 1 / 3 Pr 12 w

670

660

80

90

100 T [C]

110

120

0.14

(2)

Fig. 4. Heat transfer coefficient on the adsorber shell side as a function of the inlet water temperature. Figure 5 shows the heat transfer coefficient (hsh) as a function of the regeneration period (t), taking into account the same design thermal conditions. According to this curve, hsh and the regeneration period have an inversely proportional relationship. When t decreases from one hour until 15 minutes, hsh varied from 690 to about 1,500 W/m2K.
1500

where Pr is the Prandtl number, and and w are the absolute viscosities of the water at the mean fluid temperature and at the tube wall. Based on experimental data given by [7], we have obtained a correlation between Y+ and Reh, valid for 100 < Reh < 10,000, which is a ratio of a quadratic polynomial function to a linear function, as following
Y + (Re h ) = 0.006349 Re h + 88.29 Re h + 17116 (3) Re h + 5291
2

1250 hsh [W/m.K]

1000

This rational fitting equation was obtained with a coefficient of multiple determination R2 = 0.9939. We have calculated, with the help of Eq. (3), the hsh coefficient, for different inlet water temperatures and the constant temperature decrease through the adsorber fixed as of 30oC. The result is the curve that is shown in Figure 4. For the above established design conditions that considers an inlet water temperature T = 105oC, from Fig. (4), we obtain hsh = 690 w/m2K. According to this graph, hsh rises less than 5%, when T increases from 80oC to 120oC.

750

500 900

1800

2700

3600

t [s]

Fig. 5. Heat transfer coefficient as a function of regeneration period. 7. Final remarks In this paper, we have established and analyzed the design thermal parameters of an adsorption chiller, which comprises the primary cooling system of an air conditioning central unit. The heat transfer coefficient on the shell side of the water-adsorber exchanger has been calculated for design conditions, by means of a simple method, which is the

modified Tinkers method. For a decrease of 105oC to 75oC in water temperature through the water/adsorber exchanger, the volume flow rate was about 1,400 litres/h, and the heat transfer coefficient was 690 W/m2K. With the help of a rational equation derived from experimental data, we have determined relationships between the heat transfer coefficient and other important design parameters, such as the water inlet temperature and the regeneration period. We can infer that the adsorption cycle duration has a great influence on this thermal parameter and that it is really important to optimize the chillers performance. Accordingly, the solar coverage should be larger than 70%; that was the value considered for determining the design parameters of the installation. 8. Acknowledgements The authors gratefully acknowledge the Brazilian agency, National Council of Scientific and Technological Development CNPq, for the financial support provided to this work through Research Project Grant No. 504229/2004-4. 9. References [1] Meunier F., 1998. Solid sorption heat powered cycles for cooling and heat pumping applications. Applied Thermal Engng. 18, 715-729. [2] Leite A.P.F., Meunier F., Belo F.A., Martins M.M., Riffel D.B., 2006. Central air conditioning based on adsorption and solar energy. In: Proc. of 2nd Int. Solar Cities Congress, Oxford, UK, April 3-6. [3] Goetzberger A., Dengler J., Rommel M., Gttsche J., Wittwer V.A., 1992. A new transparently insulated, bifacially irradiated solar flat plate collector. Solar Energy 49 (5), 403-411. [4] Leite A.P.F., Daguenet M., 2000. Performance of a new solid adsorption ice maker with solar energy regeneration. Energy Conversion & Management 41, 1625-1647.

[5] Leite A.P.F., Grilo M.B., Andrade R.R.D., Belo F.A., 2004. Dimensioning, thermal analysis and experimental heat loss coefficients of an adsorptive solar icemaker. Renewable Energy 29, 1643-1663. [6] Leite A.P.F., Grilo M.B., Andrade R.R.D., Belo, F.A., Meunier F., 2005. An improved multi-tubular solar collector applied to adsorption refrigeration. In: Proc. of ISES Solar World Congress, Orlando, Florida, USA, Aug. 6-12. [7] Fraas A.P., Ozisik M.N., 1965. Heat exchanger design. John Wiley & Sons, New York, p. 146-157.