The Effect of Using a Heat Recovery Absorber on the Performance and Operating Cost of the Solar Ammonia Absorption Cycles

Abstract

Economic analysis of ordinary and evacuated tubular type flat-plate collectors have been carried out for operating absorption cycles with and without heat recovery absorber. Water-ammonia, NaSCN–NH3 and LiNO3–NH3 have been selected as the working fluids in the cycles. Use of a heat recovery absorber, in addition to the primary absorber in the conventional absorption cycles, lead to improvement in the system performances by about 20–30 percent in the H2O–NH3 and 33–36 percent in the NaSCN–NH3 and LiNO3–NH3 mixtures. Subsequently, there is a considerable amount of reduction in the cost of the solar collector required to operate them. For the set of operating conditions, in this theoretical study, the cost reduces to about 25 percent in the H2O–NH3 and 30 percent in the NaSCN and LiNO3–NH3 cycles.