Thermodynamic Analysis of the Effect of Operational Conditions on the Performance of Solar Adsorption Cooling System

The solar adsorption cooling (SAC) system driven by a flat-type solar collector was investigated in this study. The adsorber is heated by solar energy and contains activated carbon-methanol as a working pair. The modulation is based on the first law of thermodynamics to determine all forms of energy interactions at each phase of the thermodynamic cycle of the SAC system. Some assumptions are taken into consideration to develop the model. The Dubinin–Astakhov model was used to calculate the adsorbate mass in the adsorbent. Additionally, REFPROP-NIST (V 8.0, 2007) was used to determine the thermodynamic properties of the adsorbate. A numerical simulation program was developed in FORTRAN to solve the model using the Simpson method. The model is validated with published research. The results obtained from the simulation of the model were analyzed and presented to explain the effects of different operating conditions on the performance of the adsorption cycle. The system’s total heat input \({{Q}_{{{\text{in}}}}}\) is found to be 3377.35 kJ, while its total cold production \({{Q}_{{{\text{ev}}}}}\) is 1640.29 kJ, corresponding to a total daily ice produced of 3.65 kg. Furthermore, the system achieved a cycle \({\text{CO}}{{{\text{P}}}_{{{\text{th}}}}}\) of 0.4857. A large amount (61%) of the total heat input is used in the desorption process; about 10% is utilized by the adsorbate, the adsorbent uses 25%, and the adsorber’s metal cover uses the remaining 4%. Also, an analysis of the results indicates that the thermal performance coefficient (\({\text{CO}}{{{\text{P}}}_{{{\text{th}}}}})\) decreases with increased ambient and condensation temperatures. Furthermore, an increase in the evaporation temperature leads to an increase in the thermal performance coefficient.