Solar Power Absorption Chiller

Most of this looked smaller than mfg plant size, but there may be some leads: http://www.google.com/search?q=solar+absorption+chiller+system&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=

It takes a large solar collector area to get industrial-scale tonnage. I haven't seen recent postings by CR4 member regworth; he's trying do something like 25TR and may know some sources. I think the LiBr/water cycle has a modest regenerator temperature requirement, making it a candidate for solar. Water/NH₃ might require a solar concentrator. I've never designed or built any, so these are just basic ideas.

Hi Tornado, you are correct - we're still working our way through the preliminary research on this project for a meat processing plant and it's turned out to be a good deal more extensive than I had anticipated. I've enlisted the assistance of a good engineer here who's been quite diligent in crunching the numbers and some fairly important things to keep in mind have come from this. First, lets look at the situation on the ground:

Absorption chilling, at a cursory glance, looks like a great way to go - almost no power requirements and a couple of options for how to get there with the heat collection depending on the plant location, orientation of the roof & whether or not they have other process heat that can be captured. In our case we had a very well positioned large roof and Bali is certainly one of the more ideal locations to be for solar radiation. However, the plant really didn't have any other process heat of significance available, so we needed to consider what the best approach would be for cloudy days when solar radiation is reduced, or through the evening hours.

Considering that this facility needs 24 hours operation of refrigerated rooms, we were looking at propane as a reliable - if somewhat expensive - backup for the system. With the right set-up this would have handled partial heating requirements during cloudy day operation and taken over completely in the night time operating hours. In the event of a failure in the solar collection system of any kind, this would also ensure uninterrupted cooling in the plant, critical in meat processing.

However, something that really jumped out during our research concerned C.O.P. Currently they are running several split air-con compressors and fan coils to generate cooling in rooms that require 16 degrees C. These units carry a C.O.P. of about 3, meaning it requires about 1/3rd the power to cool the rooms as a unit would with a C.O.P rating of 1. Well, absorption chillers have a C.O.P. of slightly less than 1 - and when we ran the numbers to determine the size of system we'd require to get there with absorption, it suddenly did not look so attractive.

Yes, we could install the capacity required and yes, a lithium bromide system would do the job quite nicely for the rooms that only require 16C, however the upfront costs for the size of system required were starting to look prohibitive. This is about the time we began scratching our heads and asking ourselves if there was anything out there than may be better suited to the application and would allow the plant to roughly double their storage capacity without increasing their current 23Kva of power from the utility. We did a fairly exhaustive search, evaluated a number of options and what we're currently considering may surprise you, I know it did us.

There is a fairly new product on the market that goes by the name, Danfoss Turbocor (http://www.turbocor.com/) which is a HVAC-R compressor that uses no oil, it's one moving part running on magnetic bearings. At mid-load capacity it achieves a C.O.P. of over 10. When we saw this figure we knew we had to be explore it more fully - and that's where we're at right now - looking at the overall set-up costs as well as on-going running costs to see if this is the best way to go. With a half-load C.O.P. of about double what a conventional screw type compressor delivers, this starts to look pretty attractive by comparison.

We are not far enough along on our findings for me to post anything conclusive here - all I can say for the moment is that if it checks out, this is one of the best solutions I've seen in the 'conventional' cooling options to date. I'll make a point of visiting this forum again when we have more to report - but in the meantime you may want to check out the link I've posted and read up on it a bit yourself.

refer to wickpedia it has examples of large units already in use.

Most plant will have some waste hot water that you could use in conjunction with or instead of the solar panels. Look for machine cooling water.

There was a thread on this site about a month ago on the same subject. Do a search on CR4 for more details.

Good luck.

Solar cooling has tremendous potential and is emerging as a permanent solution to the environment problem.The solar powered cooling system generally comprises three main parts. The solar conversion equipment, the refrigeration system, and the cooled object/services. A number of possible paths from solar energy to the cooling services are avaible in any of text books.Solar energy can be concentrated by parabolic mirrors, which then focus on a receiver containing a liquid medium such as thermal oil or water. The basic principle underlying these "concentrating collectors" is that the area intercepting the solar radiation is greater, sometimes hundreds of times greater, than the absorber area. This difference in size means that the rays striking the receiver are highly concentrated. This concentrated solar radiation heats the medium in the receiver up to several hundreds degrees Celsius, which brings the liquid beyond the boiling point into steam. Direct solar radiation is captured by trough-shaped mirrors known as parabolic trough Concentrator systems. The mirrors are sited along a north south axis and move during the day from east to west, guided by computers to continuously track the path of the sun. The mirrors themselves consist of transparent and silver-coated glass. The radiation, intensified by a factor of 100, is absorbed by black absorber tubes located along the focal line of the trough. Synthetic thermal oil or water circulate through the tubes and are heated up to 300°C. This heat can in turn be used to run absorbtion system.It is reported in the Institution of Mechanical Engineer's journal (July 2008 issue) that in Turkey engineers have started manufacturing solar energy based cooling system especially for Middle East countries where up to 80% of electricity consumption goes on operating air conditioning systems. The systems are meant for larger buildings such as hospitals and hotels. The system consists of arrays of solar parabolic trough collectors on rooftops or near buildings, which track the sun throughout the day. The concentrated solar energy heats water to 250 C. The steam produced is used in a double-effect absorption chiller, which allows the steam energy to be used for cooling.

As usual, the logical (both environmental and economic) reasoning behind solar cooling will always be best served by an intense program of insulation of the envelope.

I find that concept to be zealously disregarded by many well-intentioned people. Energy use reduction, in addition to reducing manufactured product footprint = sound technological progress. Balancing those two sometimes involves high tech solutions, sometimes not.

Solar cooling is a stretch, because the load is dynamic, seasonal and large.

GA!

Here is an extract regarding building insulation material's footprint showing how "green" it is. Info from "NAIMA the association for North American manufacturers of fiber glass, rock wool, and slag wool insulation products. "

Fiber glass insulation is manufactured using a combination of recycled glass, up to 40 percent depending on the manufacturer and the specific plant, as well as the base material of glass, which is sand. Sand, due to the fact that it is constantly being produced through wind, erosion and other natural forces, is a rapidly renewable and widely available resource.

Slag wool insulation is manufactured from blast furnace slag, which is a byproduct of steel manufacturing. This secondary material would be sent to the landfill if not for its reclamation by manufacturers of products like slag wool insulation and rock wool insulation which also uses some slag material.

A typical pound of fiber glass, rock wool or slag wool insulation will save more than 12 times the amount of energy used to produce in its first year of use alone. To find out more about the environmental benefits of fiber glass and rock and slag wool insulation, visit www.naima.org today.

Wow, great data!

I think you were supporting my previous post, but I' m not sure, because I usually couch "green" in quotes to signify a false implication.

Painting a poorly insulated home with "green" paints is an example. If the green paint is competitively priced, equal life product, it is green for this homeowner. If it is not, the less expensive, longer lasting paint should be used, and the money should be used to improve energy efficiency. Of course that is a broad definition which is not to be literally interpreted, as every situation is different. It is just my attempt to describe the "green" revolution. BTW, I am a solar professional.

I agree with your 100%

Common sense dictates that many of the "green" technologies (like any other technologies) are not applicable in every cases. Using them blindly because some marketing person classified them as green is a mistake.

Example: Photovoltaic solar energy is usually a loosing adventure when cheap electricity is available but can be very good when it replaces a diesel generator.

Passive solar heating combined with proper insulation and ventilation systems are usually a winning strategy but can be a looser if taken to the extreme.

As you wrote, a "green" connotation does not replace good engineering practices.

Regards,

Marco

I am involved with building a new office building and they are very concerned with being Green. It is a Leed Platinum Building, not that that really means anything. But the engineer has come up with some very innovative ideas. One of them is solar panels. He is using the Vacuum tube type of solar collectors. The primary goal with the solar collectors was to supplemental heat in the winter, but as he was researching the Vacuum tubes he found out that they will destroy themselves in the summer if you don't dissipate the heat. So he has had to come up with a way to use that heat in the summer. He has settled on Absorption chillers. The design now has two 3 ton chillers to cool the server rooms during the summer. And during the winter the panels provide domestic hot water. I wish I could tell you what chillers he specified but I do not do the piping so I never saw who the manufacture was. I will see if I can find who the manufacture was and if I do I will post who they are. Good luck with your project.

As one of the largest installers of evacuated tubes on the east coast, I can say with no reservations that the tubes will not destroy themselves if overheated. They do pose challenges, easily solved, that must be addressed, so that the system will operate effectively for long periods of time with very little attention. This robust operation must be part of a system design to move heat away from the tubes, and finding the most valuable place to capitalize on that heat is the goal of any solar thermal design process. Experience is a big plus.

Good luck with your project!

Appreciate all the inputs, I just recently joined CR4 and glad to see that many are sustainability-conscious here...

-I agree that there is a long list of "low hanging fruits" that can easily be done to improve energy and environmental footprints like plugging the leaks, bringing systems/equipment into best/original condition and many loss analysis/operations/SOP improvements...

-I agree that there is also a long list of "low capital re-applicable footprint reduction/savings projects like heat recovery systems, economizers, high efficiency motors/lighting, and so on,,,just need to do feasibility studies which are technically and economically fair to pursue,,,

-for "greenfield sites", the LEED guidelines are very useful in achieving green building/manufacturing facility (to a certain extent) with criteria covering building envelop, high efficiency utility systems, construction/production and even employee footprints,,,

-the huge challenge that I am amazed is on renewable energy/zero carbon footprint opportunities. Although, we have wind, geothermal, biomass, solar, etc. etc., many of these are not feasible for manufacturing facilities on a direct/within boundary installation,

- I am looking into opportunities for these renewable energy systems that are possibly for rollout into manufacturing facilities. As for solar power absorption chillers, one vendor mentioned that 1TR refrigeration requires at least 20^m2 of solar panels (which then translate into huge capital and space) with max unit capacity of AC at 30TR. I guess, at least for a start the admin/office cooling would be a good "ceremonial installation".

It is also interesting to see here the solar AC in MEA, double absortion effect for LiBr solutions,

and the solar installations elsewhere...Any idea on the financial drivers for the installation (is there incentives that makes them feasible???)...

thanks thanks again

This is an interesting update. I have used Danfoss products satisfactorily in the past, so I look forward to visiting the link you gave.

Non-concentrated solar collection is relatively low-temperature, and hence Carnot-inefficient. If one can get past the initial expense of large heat-exchange areas, it's gravy thereafter, but the hurdle is usually too high.

Yes, if you can figure that one out and lock the patent I would think you will retire comfortably and very financially viable, to say the least. Let me know what you think about the Danfoss machine once you've reviewed their literature? Cheers.

hi sir


we are a chinese factory, we have produce solar air conditioner for more than five years, and we have a lot experience to produce of lithium bromide chiller, we have sold some chiller in european ， we also have sold some solar air conditioner in european, so if you want to check out our chiller you can connect with me.

1)This type of absorption chiller is to use hot water to make cool.
2)Powered by solar,saving electricity,green.

Small-scale absorption chiller,this type of absorption chiller is to use hot water(from solar collector or other) to make cool.As manufacture of absorption chiller,we can supply chiller only or integrated unit which not only includes absorption chiller,but cooling water tower,chilled water pump,vaccum pump and hot water three-way valve.Normally,its stardard technical parameters as following,but we would like to supply customerized service if you need.

1)Cooling capacity:11.5Kw to 350Kw /3.3US RT to 99US RT

2)Refrierator:water

3)Absorb: lithium bromide solution

4)Inhabitor: lithium chromate or lithium molydate

5)Inlet temp of hot water:90°c-95°c

6)Inlet & outlet temp of chilled water:15°c/1.0°c or 12°c/7°c

7)Power consumption for absorbtion chiller only: from 0.15Kw to 1.1Kw

8)Power consumption for intergrated unit: from 1.0Kw to 21.2Kw

9)COP: 0.7-1.35

10) Designed life span:20years

for the solar air conditioner:

1、we used solar to collect heat, and warm up water to more than 72℃,and we use the absorption chiller to for cooling,just like you did;

2、we also have a factury to produce solar collector, we have another factory to produce absorption chiller;

3、 we have a lot of project was operate , in our factory we just used solar air conditoner;

4、we have small type absorption chiller ,from 11.5KWto 290kw,we also have 2900kw chiller;

Finally,thanks a lot for your attention and time,let sun enjoy us cooling&warming
Yours sincerely

Many thanks chen

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