Normalized Thermodynamic Model for Intermittent Energy Systems and Application to Solar-Powered Adsorption Cooling Systems

Abstract

A new normalized model is developed to quantify and explore trends in coincidence of supply and demand in generic intermittent energy systems as key design and operating parameters are varied. This novel model is applied to seasonal-transient simulations for a solar-thermal powered adsorption system with and without heat recovery to investigate the coincidence between the solar-supplied cooling power and cooling load in terms of seasonal solar and loss fractions. Additionally, the system's basic performance trends are investigated as a number of parameters are varied. Results for the conditions explored include the following. The solar fraction increases and the loss fraction decreases with increases in storage capacity, and both fractions decrease with increases in maximum bed temperature. The required evacuated tube collector area is smaller than the flat plate collector area while the required mass of adsorbent is independent of collector and adsorption cycle types. Simulation results also show the effects of operating conditions and several design parameters on the system's COP.