Evaluation of a novel solar driven sorption cooling/heating system integrated with PCM storage compartment

Highlights: • A Novel Solar Collector-integrated Sorption Module for Cogeneration of Cold and Heat. • Dynamic Behavior and Performance Evaluation of the Sorption Modules in Different Modes of Operation. • Feasibility of Using Phase Change Materials in Two Different Configurations for Cold and Heat storage Using CFD. • PCM Charging/Discharging Power and Solidification/Melting Process of the PCM in an Integrated Storage Compartment. Recently the interest in solar thermal cooling has been growing for Air Conditioning (AC) applications. This paper presents an applied experimental and numerical evaluation of a novel triple-state sorption solar cooling module. The performance of a LiCl-H₂O based sorption module (SM) for cooling/heating system with integration of an external energy storage has been evaluated. The dynamic behavior of the SM, which can be driven by solar energy, is presented. Two PCM assisted configurations of the SM have been studied herein; (i) PCM assisted sorption module for cooling applications (ii) PCM assisted sorption module for heating applications. Initially, an experimental investigation was carried out to evaluate the charging/discharging process of the SM without external energy storage. Secondly, the initial experimental configuration was modeled with a PCM integrated storage compartment. The PCM storage compartment was connected to the Condenser/Evaporator (C/E) of the SM. The temporal history of the sorption module's C/E and PCM storage, the cyclic and average performance in terms of cooling/heating capacity, cooling/heating COP, and the total efficiency were experimentally and numerically investigated. Furthermore, PCM charging/discharging power rate and solidification/melting process of the PCM in the integrated storage compartment to the SM were predicted by the model.