Solar Heat for Industrial Processes (SHIP) is a growing-interest concept in the context of the reduction of both energy consumption and greenhouse gases emissions. As industry often needs cooling power at negative temperatures, solar-fuelled NH3/H2O absorption systems can be employed for this task. In the context of the FriendSHIP European project, different innovative solutions are investigated for cooling production at -20°C and -40°C from 100-250°C solar heat. The first proposition concerns a GAX (Generator-Absorber heat eXchange) cycle based on Plate Heat Exchangers (PHE). This innovative design improves heat and mass transfers, thus performance. In addition, manufacturing costs decrease, as the needed components are standardized and available in the market. Two variants are simulated on EES (Engineer Equation Solver) for -20°C and -40°C cooling production. Other absorption cycles are modified to fit PHEs, in particular the pressure-staged cycle, the vapour-exchange cycle and the Semi-GAX cycle. They all are two-stage cycles and are simulated for -40°C cooling production only. The numerical comparison allows identifying the best solutions for the SHIP integration, giving an overview on the operating temperature ranges for each cycle. In particular, the following results are obtained. At ambient temperature TAMB = 20°C and below, the GAX cycle is the most performing one. It shows a maximum Coefficient of Performance (COP) of 0.53 for a cold production TE,OUT = -20°C (+27% compared to the single-stage cycle), and a COP of 0.36 at TE,OUT = -40°C (+60% than the single-stage cycle). For TAMB > 30°C, the pressure-staged cycle with GAX is the preferable one, as it can be operated with COP>0.15 at TAMB up to 50°C. The Semi-GAX cycle seems the most adapted to operation at low heat source temperature, being able to operate down to 80°C with COP>0.20.

1.
K. Sharma
Ashish
et al, “
Solar industrial process heating: A review
”,
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
78
(
2017
)
124
137
.
2.
K.
Soteris
, “
The potential of solar industrial process heat applications
”,
Applied Energy
74
(
2003
),
337
361
.
3.
Erickson
,
D.C.
,
Tang
,
J.
,
1996
. Evaluation of Double-lift Cycles for Waste Heat Powered Refrigeration.
ISHPC
,
Montreal, Canada
, pp.
161
168
.
4.
D.
Triché
, “
Étude numérique et expérimentale des transferts couplés de masse et de chaleur dans l’absorbeur d’une machine à absorption ammoniac-eau
”, Ph.D. thesis,
Université de Grenoble Alpes
,
2016
.
5.
Herold
K. E.
,
Radermacher
R.
,
Klein
S. A.
,
Absorption chillers and heat pumps
, (
Ed. CRC Press
,
Boca Ranton, United States
,
1996
).
6.
E.
Altenkirch
,
B.
Tenckhoff
, Deutsches Reich Patent No. 278076 (
1911
), “
Absorption Heat Pumps for the Continuous Production of Heat and/or Refrigeration and/or Work
”.
7.
G.
Alefeld
and
R.
Radermacher
,
Heat Conversion Systems
, (
Ed. CRC Press
,
Boca Raton, United States
,
1994
).
8.
M.
Guerra
, European Patent No. EP2466229 A1 (
2012
), “
Self-adapting multi-stage absorption heat pump
”.
9.
M.
Wirtz
,
B.
Stutz
,
H.T.
Phan
,
F.
Boudehenn
, “
Numerical modeling of falling-film plate generator and rectifier designed for NH3-H2O absorption machines
”,
Heat and Mass Transfer
(
2021
).
This content is only available via PDF.