Abstract :
A solar/gas cooling plant at the Engineering School of Seville (Spain) was tested during the period 2008–2009. The system is composed
of a double-effect LiBr + water absorption chiller of 174 kW nominal cooling capacity, powered by: (1) a pressurized hot water
flow delivered by mean of a 352 m2 solar field of a linear concentrating Fresnel collector and (2) a direct-fired natural gas burner. The
objective of the project is to indentify design improvements for future plants and to serve as a guideline. We focused our attention on the
solar collector size and dirtiness, climatology, piping heat losses, operation control and coupling between solar collector and chiller. The
daily average Fresnel collector efficiency was 0.35 with a maximum of 0.4. The absorption chiller operated with a daily average coefficient
of performance of 1.1–1.25, where the solar energy represented the 75% of generator’s total heat input, and the solar cooling ratio (quotient
between useful cooling and insolation incident on the solar field) was 0.44.
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