Modeling, simulation and optimization of a solar collector driven water heating and absorption cooling plant

A cogeneration system consisting of a solar collector, a gas burner, a thermal storage reservoir, a hot water heat exchanger, and an absorption refrigerator is devised to simultaneously produce heating (hot water heat exchanger) and cooling (absorption refrigerator system). A simplified mathematical model, which combines fundamental and empirical correlations, and principles of classical thermodynamics, mass and heat transfer, is developed. The proposed model is then utilized to simulate numerically the system transient and steady state response under different operating and design conditions. A system global optimization for maximum performance (or minimum exergy destruction) in the search for minimum pull-down and pull-up times, and maximum system second law efficiency is performed with low computational time. Appropriate dimensionless groups are identified an