A New System to Produce Cooling and Power Using Solar Thermal Energy

Abstract

A new system to produce cooling and power with the energy obtained from low-temperature as a thermal resource is presented in this work. This resource can be obtained from concentrating solar thermal energy (parabolic trough). This system belongs to the broader class of low temperature, Rankine cycles, which have been shown to be one of the most effective means for utilizing low temperature resources. They have been applied to the production of mechanical power using heat from solar. The system uses thermal energy in a low-temperature boiler to partially boil working fluid mixture (ammonia-water). The theoretical study is presented, which identifies expander inlet conditions, expander efficiency, and exhaust pressure as the factors determining exhaust temperature. It is concluded that the proposed system improves the expander performance, output power, and cooling production and can be satisfied with this concept.

Keywords:

• cooling
• parabolic trough
• power
• solar resource
• thermal energy and working fluid mixture