Design and performance characteristics of solar adsorption refrigeration system using parabolic trough collector: Experimental and statistical optimization technique

The current work demonstrates a developed model of a solar adsorption refrigeration system with specific requirements and specifications. The recent scheme can be employed as a refrigerator and cooler unit suitable for remote areas. The unit runs through a parabolic trough solar collector (PTC) and uses olive waste as adsorbent with methanol as adsorbate. Cooling production, COP (coefficient of performance, and COPa (cycle gross coefficient of performance) were used to assess the system performance. The system’s design optimum parameters in this study were arrived to through statistical and experimental methods. The lowest temperature attained in the refrigerated space was 4 °C and the equivalent ambient temperature was 27 °C. The temperature started to decrease steadily at 20:30 – when the actual cooling started – until it reached 4 °C at 01:30 in the next day when it rose again. The highest COPa obtained was 0.75.