Solar Driven Absorption Chiller for Medium Temperature Food Refrigeration, a Study for Application in Indonesia

Indonesia has abundant renewable energy resources. In 2005 this country, however, only consumed 0.38% renewable energy of the total energy consumption. Most of the energy sources of the country are from fossil fuels which result in high CO2 emissions. Solar energy systems would be as an option to reduce the CO2 emissions of this country. This paper studied the application of solar energy to provide cooling for medium temperature food refrigeration based on Indonesian weather conditions. The paper additionally analyzed the environmental impact relating to CO2 emissions, and investigated the economical aspect. CFD-Fluent software was applied on modeling the modification of the absorption chiller generator to enable it to operate with heat from solar radiation, while F-Chart and Microsoft Excel spreadsheet were used to analyze the solar system and the economical viability of the technology. The results showed that the optimum modification of the absorption chiller was to use a jacket for heat addition. CFD modeling with Fluent using Diphyl THT as the heat transfer fluid (HTF) indicated that the system would function optimally at fluid temperature input of 180°C, whereas the optimum average temperature of the chiller generator would be 170 °C. The proposed technology was found economically less viable for food refrigeration compared to the vapor compression cycle using R-404A but it could provide a significant impact on the environment by a reduction of 37% CO2 emissions.