Analysis and Simulation of an Absorption Cooling System Using a Latent Heat Storage Tank and a Tempering Valve

The energy consumption for space cooling is growing faster than for any other end-use in buildings, more than tripling between 1990 and 2016. Energy efficiency is an important topic in the drive to reduce the consumption of electricity, particularly in air conditioning. This paper presents a simulation of an absorption cooling system with a parabolic trough collector under dynamic conditions using TRaNsient SYstem Simulation (TRNSYS) software. The thermal analysis seeks to evaluate a storage tank at three different configurations: (1) sensible heat, (2) latent heat, and (3) latent heat incorporating a tempering valve. The latent heat storage tank is a rectangular heat exchanger using MgCl2 center dot 6H(2)O as the phase change material, programmed in EES software; in addition, water and synthetic organic fluid were analyzed as heating fluids. The process was analyzed while varying the solar collector area from 20 to 40 m(2) and the storage tank volume from 0.25 to 0.75 m(3). The results showed that the solar collector of configuration 1 is unable to satisfy the energy demand. Configuration 2 can satisfy the demand with water and a storage tank volume above 0.50 m(3) and 30 m(2), while configuration 3 can satisfy the demand above 0.50 m(3) and 20 m(2) with water.