Experiment investigation on a LiBr-H2O concentration difference cold storage system driven by vapor compression heat pump

•A LiBr-H2O concentration difference cold storage system was proposed.•The system performance of hybrid cycles was investigated experimentally.•The energy balance between the subsystems was analyzed. Solar-powered LiBr absorption cooling system is of potential in the application of air-conditioning. A LiBr-H2O concentration difference cold storage system driven by vapor compression heat pump was proposed. This cold storage process is not affected by the environmental conditions, since the main energy input is low price electricity at night. The experimental results show that the energy storage density (ESD) can reach 77.8 kWh/m3 and the energy storage coefficient of performance (ESCOP) is 2.81 with low heat loss. The ESCOP means the energy stored in the cold storage process divided by the total electricity consumption in the absorption and heat pump subsystem. The heat transfer in the condenser of the absorption subsystem approximately equals that in the evaporator of the heat pump, and the electricity consumption of the circulating pump in the absorption subsystem is low. Therefore, the value of ESCOP should be slightly lower than the COP of the heat pump system but for higher than 1. These results indicate the feasibility of improving the system efficiency, the operation cost, and long term operation of the solar air conditioning system by coupling the absorption and vapor compression cooling cycles. Finally, the influence of working parameters on the system performance is discussed based on the experimental and simulation analyses. The energy balance between the absorption cycle and the heat pump cycle in the cold storage system is analyzed. It is found that the coefficient of performance of the heat pump (COPele,HP) and ESCOP increase with a low initial LiBr-H2O solution concentration. The ESCOP decreases by 34.4% when the initial concentration increases from 52% to 57%. The average ESD increases to 140.2 kWh/m3 with a concentration difference of 8%. Based on the experiment results, the payback period of the proposed system is estimated as 2.4 years comparing with the traditional LiBr-H2O absorption system.