Investigation of a Solar Thermal Driven Refrigerated Warehouse in Tripoli-Libya using TRNSYS

This paper, illustrates a design and simulation of a solar powered absorption refrigeration system preserves food above freezing point. The main system is modified from a commercial conventional system located at Tajoura, Libya. The target is to design and operate the system at high solar fraction and efficiency. The simulation is performed by TRNSYS to evaluate the annual thermal performance of the solar system that consists of 50-kW absorption chiller producing cold for three refrigerated rooms. The model could be classified into two main parts; refrigeration load model and solar powered refrigeration system model. The results demonstrated that the optimum system achieves 51% solar fraction consists of 48 m2 of high performance evacuated tubes solar collectors and 5000-litre thermal storage tank, in order to power a 50-kW absorption chiller that offers cold for three refrigerated rooms of vegetables.