Design of silica gel/water adsorption chiller powered by solar energy for air conditioning applications

The design and thermo-economic studies for a silica gel/water solar adsorption cooling system are presented in this paper using Simulink to perform a numerical analysis of refrigeration systems employing a pair of silica gel and water. A case study for modelling the adsorption system with several cooling load capacities ranging from 10 to 100 Ton of Refrigeration (TR) was also presented. The simulation output results include the desorber temperature, the temperatures of hot water and chilled cooling, the temperatures of two adsorption/desorption beds, condenser and evaporator, the refrigerant and silica gel mass, area, and cost of all parts in the system, mass flow rate and thermal power. Results showed that the cost of the system and the mass of the silica gel were 20,708.4$ and 2266 kg, respectively for 10 TR cooling load, while for 100 TR cooling capacity, it was 189,169.6$ and 22,667 kg, respectively. Results also showed that when the cooling load increased from 10 TR to 100 TR, the area of the condenser, evaporator, bed, and collector increased, and the mass flow rate of the collector, condenser cooling water, chilled water, and the cooling circuit increased with a percentage increase of 9 times.