Energetic Analysis and Assessment of a Single-Effect LiBr–H2O Absorption Refrigeration System

The total energy requirement is increasingly high, particularly for residential and commercial buildings. For that purpose, the use of heat-driven cooling technologies presents a good alternative to deal with the current situation. In this paper, a comprehensive energy modeling and simulation based on the first law of thermodynamics has been performed numerically using Engineering Equation Solver (EES) software. With a capacity of cooling of 16 kW, this study evaluates a single-effect absorption refrigeration system (ARS) where the most common absorbent-refrigerant pair of LiBr–H2O is used as a working fluid. Mass and energy balances are established for the different components of the system to perform the calculation, which leads us to determine the different parameters of the absorption chiller at a different states. The effects of the main operating parameters such as the exit temperature of the various components of the system on the energetic performance of the absorption chiller (heat load, coefficient of performance (COP), solution heat exchanger effectiveness, solution pump mass flow rate …) are investigated parametrically. Obtained results revealed the correlation between the main operating conditions and the absorption cooling system efficiency. Another significant result has been reported, which indicates that the absorber temperature is a key factor controlling the energetic efficiency of the absorption chiller.