Concentrated solar energy system and cold thermal energy storage (process development and energy analysis)

The storage of refrigeration produced in the refrigeration cycle during unnecessary hours and its use during busy hours can be a good way to reduce the cost of energy consumption in the industrial. In this study, a hybrid solar driven refrigeration system using cold thermal energy storage is introduced and investigated. Water-ammonia absorption refrigeration system at a temperature of -23.5 degrees C is used as refrigeration system. The cycle modified for use in an integrated structure. Solar dish collectors are applied for supplying the required duty in the absorption refrigeration system generator. This integrated process is capable to produce 373.7 kW of refrigeration. Indeed, in this system, a portion of the produced refrigeration is directly used in the refrigerator during the day and another portion is stored in a phase-change material (PCM) system. Moreover, the amount of stored refrigeration in the low-temperature PCM during the night is injected into the refrigerator. In this paper, TRNSYS, HYSYS, and MATLAB software utilized for simulating of the integrated system based on the weather data of the coastal city of Bandar Abbas, Iran. Exergy analyses of the process demonstrate that solar collectors with 77.33% and HX3 with 5.07% have the most exergy destruction rate.