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RAC Chapter II

Vapor absorption refrigeration systems use a liquid as the transport medium to absorb and carry the refrigerant around the system, with the most common using ammonia as the refrigerant absorbed into water, while vapor compression systems are replaced. Absorption systems operate through an absorber, pump, generator, regenerator, valve, and rectifier using heat to separate the refrigerant from the absorbent liquid and circulate it for cooling before reabsorption. Absorption refrigeration systems have advantages over vapor compression in requiring less work input and being more environmentally friendly, though they are less efficient and more complex overall.

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47 views

RAC Chapter II

Vapor absorption refrigeration systems use a liquid as the transport medium to absorb and carry the refrigerant around the system, with the most common using ammonia as the refrigerant absorbed into water, while vapor compression systems are replaced. Absorption systems operate through an absorber, pump, generator, regenerator, valve, and rectifier using heat to separate the refrigerant from the absorbent liquid and circulate it for cooling before reabsorption. Absorption refrigeration systems have advantages over vapor compression in requiring less work input and being more environmentally friendly, though they are less efficient and more complex overall.

Uploaded by

Yonas Alayu
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Chapter II

Vapor absorption refrigeration system


Introduction
Vapor Absorption refrigeration system (VARS)
• Economically attractive; used when there is a source of inexpensive thermal energy at a
temperature of 100 to 200°C.
Heat/thermal sources
• Geothermal energy, solar energy, and waste heat from cogeneration or process steam
plants…etc.
• Absorption refrigeration systems involve the absorption of a refrigerant by a transport
medium.
Most widely used:
• ammonia–water system (NH3–H2O) : (ammonia (NH3) serves as the refrigerant and
water (H2O) as the transport medium.)
• water–lithium bromide and water–lithium chloride systems, where water serves as the
refrigerant. (limited air-conditioning applications, freezing)
From VCRC Compressor; replaced
by complex absorption mechanism
consists of;
-absorber,
-a pump,
-a generator
-a regenerator,
-a valve,
-and a rectifier Refrigerant circuit

Solution circuit
Operation
• Ammonia vapor leaves the evaporator and enters the absorber, where it dissolves and reacts
with water to form NH3 + H2O.
• This is an exothermic reaction: heat is released during this process.
• The amount of NH3 that can be dissolved in H2O is inversely proportional to the
temperature.
• Necessary to cool the absorber to keep its temperature as low as possible and maximize the
amount of NH3 dissolved in water.
• The liquid NH3 + H2O solution, which is rich in NH3, is then pumped to the generator.
• Heat is transferred to the solution from a source to vaporize some of the solution.
• The vapor, which is rich in NH3, passes through a rectifier, which separates the water and
returns it to the generator.
• The high-pressure pure NH3 vapor then continues its journey through the rest of the cycle.
• The hot NH3 + H2O solution, which is weak in NH3, then passes through a regenerator,
where it transfers some heat to the rich solution leaving the pump and is throttled to the
absorber pressure.
Compared with vapor-compression systems

Disadvantages
Advantages
• more expensive.
one major advantage:
• more complex and occupy more
• work input for absorption refrigeration
space.
systems is very small.
• less efficient thus requiring much
• A liquid is compressed instead of a
larger cooling towers to reject the
vapor.
waste heat.
• less specific volume.
• difficult to service b/c they are less
common.
• Environment friendly.

 Primarily used in large commercial and industrial installations.


• COP of absorption refrigeration systems:

• Neglecting pump work, Wpump, in.


• COP of actual absorption refrigeration
systems is usually less than 1 (0.65-0.7).
• Air-conditioning systems based on
absorption refrigeration, called absorption
chillers.
• The absorption chillers are typically rated
at an input temperature of 116°C.
• Maximum COP of an absorption refrigeration
system is determined by assuming that the entire
cycle is totally reversible (i.e., the cycle involves no
irreversibilities and any heat transfer is through
a differential temperature difference).

• The refrigeration system would be reversible


if the heat from the source (Qgen) were
transferred to a Carnot heat engine, and the
work output of this heat engine
(W=nth,rev*Qgen) is supplied to a Carnot
refrigerator to remove heat from the
refrigerated space.
• Overall COP of an absorption refrigeration system
under reversible conditions:

Where, TL, T0, and Ts are the thermodynamic


temperatures of the refrigerated space, the
environment, and the heat source, respectively.

Actual absorption refrigeration system


Any absorption refrigeration system that receives
heat from a source at Ts and removes heat from
the refrigerated space at TL while operating in an
environment at T0 has a lower COP than the one
determined by the above equation.
Single effect water lithium
bromide (LiBr2) absorption
chiller
Double effect water lithium
bromide (LiBr2) absorption
chiller

>105oC
Example 1
• A refrigerator uses refrigerant-134a as the
working fluid and operates on an ideal
vapor-compression refrigeration cycle
between 0.14 and 0.8 MPa. If the mass
flow rate of the refrigerant is 0.05 kg/s,
determine (a) the rate of heat removal
from the refrigerated space and the power
input to the compressor, (b) the rate of
heat rejection to the environment, and (c)
the COP of the refrigerator.
Example 2

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