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Influence of the design parameters on the

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ARTICLE in RENEWABLE ENERGY FEBRUARY 2016
Impact Factor: 3.48 DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2015.07.099

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Renewable Energy 86 (2016) 238e250

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

Inuence of the design parameters on the overall performance of a

solar adsorption refrigerator
G.J.V.N. Brites a, *, J.J. Costa a, V.A.F. Costa b
a
b

ADAI-LAETA, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Coimbra, P 3030-788, Coimbra, Portugal

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Aveiro, P 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 23 December 2014
Received in revised form
10 May 2015
Accepted 31 July 2015
Available online xxx

This paper describes a parametric improvement study of a solar adsorption refrigerator, using a at plate
collector with silica-gel and water as the adsorption pair. Based on a set of experimental results obtained
with a prototype, used mainly for model validation purposes, a numerical study is conducted to determine the inuence of the most relevant parameters and to improve the overall performance.
The main parameters considered in this study are: the mass of silica-gel, the number of metallic ns in
the silica-gel bed, the orientation of the solar collector (azimuth angle), the improvement of the collector's cooling during the night, the thermal contact resistance between silica-gel and the collector
plate, the condenser surface area, the evaporation surface area, the radiant properties of the collector
plate, and the thermal insulation of the refrigerated cabinet. The inuence of each individual parameter
is analyzed, and its optimum value is determined. The refrigeration system with all the individually
obtained optimum parameters has an overall performance considerably higher than that corresponding
to the analyzed prototype, providing useful information for a better integrated understanding of the solar
adsorption refrigeration systems, and for a better design of such systems looking for their maximum
overall performance.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Solar refrigeration
Adsorption refrigeration cycle
Silica-gel/water pair
Parametric analysis

1. Introduction
Solar adsorption refrigeration has been the subject of great interest in recent years by the scientic community. Many prototypes
have already been built and tested, some were successfully tested
in desert areas, characterized by strong solar radiation and very
high ambient temperatures during the day and warm nights, and
others were tested in moderate climates. Research in this area
comes from diversied countries as France, China, Brazil, Nigeria,
Morocco, Egypt, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Portugal and others
[1,2]. An adsorption refrigerator requires a mass of an adsorbent
material, the adsorbate, capable of being adsorbed by the chosen
adsorbent, a solar collector where the adsorbent is placed, a
condenser and an evaporator (v.d. Fig. 2). The most commonly used
adsorbenteadsorbate pairs are silica-gel and water, zeolite and
water, and activated carbon and methanol. Other pairs were
already investigated, namely compound adsorbents using an
adsorbent matrix impregnated with hydrophilic salts like lithium

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: goncalo.brites@uc.pt (G.J.V.N. Brites).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2015.07.099
0960-1481/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

chloride, calcium chloride, strontium chloride, and others [3,4].

Because of the relatively high triple-point temperature of water,
adsorption refrigerators using water as the refrigerant are not
suited for ice production, while using methanol as the refrigerant
can make the evaporator temperature drop well below the freezing
point of water, making ice production possible. When the typical
adsorbenteadsorbate pairs are used, pressure inside the system is
substantially below the atmospheric pressure, requiring careful
execution of the piping connections and weldings. The smallest
pore is sufcient to allow a small ow of air into the system,
deteriorating the solar refrigerator cycle or even precluding its
operation. Despite the efforts in the development of this technology, the performance of the most recent solar adsorption refrigerators is still quite low, with a solar COP (dened by Equation
(1)) not attaining 0.2 [5,6].
The theoretical adsorption cycle of the solar refrigerator is
schematically represented in Fig. 1. The cycle starts at point A, at
sunrise, and evolves to point B as heat is being supplied to the
adsorbent. This is the warming phase, in which the adsorbent
temperature gradually increases, as well as the system pressure,
but the water content in the silica-gel remains constant (isosteric

G.J.V.N. Brites et al. / Renewable Energy 86 (2016) 238e250

239

There are other systems working under the same principle but
with different operating conditions, the adsorption chillers, whose
COP is calculated considering only the heat directly supplied to the
system in order to regenerate the adsorbent:

COPcycle Qevap Qregen

(3)

These systems can use waste heat, operate in a semi-continuous

process as long as heat is supplied, and have a higher COP [7e10].
An optimization study about chillers can be found in Ref. [11].
Another performance parameter that better allows the comparison with other similar systems is the Specic Cooling Power
(SCP), dened as the ratio between Qevap and the total mass of
adsorbent:

SCP Qevap mads

Fig. 1. Schematic representation of the adsorption cycle in the Clapeyron diagram,

including the heat exchanges. AeB: warming phase; BeC: desorption phase (regeneration of the adsorbent); CeD: cooling phase; DeA: adsorption phase.

heating and pressurization). At point B the pressure within the

system equals the condensation pressure (i.e. the vapor saturation
pressure at the condenser temperature); any additional heat supplied to the adsorbent will result in the desorption of the adsorbate
and the subsequent vapor condensation in the condenser. This is
the desorption or regeneration phase, at constant pressure, which
occurs until the maximum temperature of the adsorbent is achieved (point C). The cooling phase takes place between points C and
D, as the solar radiation decreases and the adsorber loses heat; the
system's pressure also decreases, keeping the concentration of
adsorbate constant (isosteric cooling and depressurization). At
point D, the system's inner pressure equals the evaporation pressure of the liquid adsorbate stored within the evaporator; further
cooling of the collector (and of the adsorber) to temperatures below
point D will cause the decrease of the pressure to slightly below the
equilibrium pressure of the liquid contained in the evaporator,
which vaporizes requiring heat at low temperature, giving rise to
the cold production phase. The so generated vapor is adsorbed by
the adsorbate, while the heat of adsorption is released to the
ambient. This is the adsorption phase (from D to A), the only stage
of the cycle in which cold is produced. This cycle operates on a daily
basis, phases AeB and BeC corresponding to the morning and part
of the afternoon, and phases CeD and DeA corresponding to the
sunset and night periods.
The overall performance of a solar adsorption refrigerator is
usually expressed by the Coefcient of Performance (COPsolar),
dened as the ratio between the cold production at the evaporator
Qevap and the total incident solar energy Qsolarduring a cycle:

COPsolar Qevap Qsolar :

(1)

Qsolar is the total radiation received in the plane of the collector.

Qevap may be calculated from the latent heat of vaporization and the
measured amount of condensed water, which, on average, equals
the mass of vaporized water, since the system is a closed system. It
is necessary to subtract the sensible heat introduced in the refrigerated box when the condensed water, at ambient temperature,
ows into the evaporator, as stated in Equation (2).



Qevap mevap $Levap  mevap $cP;liq$water $ Tcond  Tevap

(2)

(4)

The main idea of this work is to analyze the inuence of each of

the main governing parameters over the coefcient of performance, thus clarifying and quantifying the relevance of each
parameter on the performance of the system, and lead to an
improved version of the system. The study considers the analysis of
each parameter at a time, towards an improved system, and not
through an integrated and complete optimization study. Under real
conditions, the operating conditions change and it is most important to have a good picture of how each parameter affects the
performance of the system and not how to obtain an overall optimized solution for which operating conditions are difcult, if not
impossible, to be ensured.

2. Experimental set-up and results

The experimental results were obtained with a laboratory-scale
prototype of the solar refrigerator having a 1 m2 of aperture area
at plate collector, with the adsorbent placed inside the collector
case. The other components are a naturally air-cooled condenser, a
reservoir to store and measure the condensed water in each cycle,
and an evaporator placed inside a refrigerated box. The solar collector tilt is equal to the latitude of the place (40 ). Fig. 2 shows a
schematic drawing and a photo of the prototype built and tested.
The air inside the system was evacuated using a vacuum pump.
The collector is insulated laterally and underneath with 40 mm
thickness cork panels, covered with a single 5 mm thick glass at the
top. The adsorber is made of welded stainless steel plate; it has a
at shape with an internal cavity with 70 mm height, which in turn
is divided into 10 equal sections by aluminum ns each with 4 mm
thickness. The exposed upper surface of the adsorber is painted
with commercial matte-black paint spray. The inner cavity is lled
with 30 kg of silica-gel similar to type A silica-gel, which is compressed against the adsorber upper wall (collecting plate) by sets of
springs acting on perforated plates, in order to reduce the contact
thermal resistance. 15 L of water were used as the refrigerant
(adsorbate). Fig. 3 shows a schematic cross section of the adsorber,
showing the layer of silica-gel, the perforated plates, the
compression springs, and the aluminum ns that act also as separators (reinforcement) for structural stability of the front (collector)
and rear plates against the vacuum effect.
The condenser is made up of an array of 6 copper tubes connected to two manifolds, provided with a system of about 100
rectangular transversal ns on the outer surface. It was designed to
allow for a reasonable thermal performance under natural convection conditions to the ambient air. The liquid condensed in the
condenser ows into the condensate reservoir, where it is stored
and measured in volume until opening of the valve connecting the
upper part of the circuit to the evaporator. This valve is opened at

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G.J.V.N. Brites et al. / Renewable Energy 86 (2016) 238e250

Fig. 2. Schematic drawing of the solar refrigerator and a picture of the prototype built and tested.

Fig. 3. Schematic cross section of the adsorber, with aluminum ns (separators), silicagel layer, perforated plates and compression springs (dimensions in mm).

evaporator temperature at 0  C. The collector plate temperature

varies between a maximum temperature around 80  C, which occurs within three hours after the peak of solar radiation, and a
minimum temperature about 5  C above ambient temperature, just
before sunrise. The adsorber temperature follows the plate temperature, with a slight delay, during the day it is below the plate
temperature, and during the night it is slightly above the plate
temperature. The COPsolar is about 0.07, a value that is clearly low
when compared with results reported in some previous works
[5,6,12e20].
As the performance of the solar refrigerator is lower than expected, this suggests that a good potential for improvement exists,
which is the main purpose of this work.
3. Numerical modeling

the end of the desorption phase (i.e., late afternoon, point C in

Fig. 1) and closed at the end of adsorption (i.e., at sunrise point A in
Fig. 1).
The evaporator is a parallelepipedic stainless steel reservoir
with 15 L capacity, horizontally disposed providing an internal
evaporation surface of 0.2 m2, placed inside the refrigerated cabinet, which in turn is insulated with extruded polyethylene foam
plates with 12 cm thickness.
The solar refrigerator was tested during the months of
September and October 2011, in Coimbra, Portugal (coordinates
40.19N, 8.41W). A set of sensors was used to monitor the operation
of the refrigerator, including 7 thermocouples, a pressure sensor
and a pyranometer. The thermocouples were placed in the adsorber
(4 thermocouples, measuring the plate temperature and the temperatures inside the silica gel layer at 10, 20 and 30 mm deep away
from the plate), the condenser temperature, the evaporator temperature, the refrigerated load temperature, and the ambient air
temperature. The pressure sensor measures the pressure within the
system, and the pyranometer measures the total solar radiation
incident on the horizontal plane.
The solar refrigerator was tested with a daily cooling load consisting of 4 PET bottles of 1.5 L of water each. Every day, in the
evening, the refrigerated load was replaced by a new cooling load at
ambient temperature. The results for 4 consecutive days are shown
in Fig. 4. One can observe the expected operation of the solar
refrigerator, the temperature of the evaporator remaining always
close to 0  C e it just slightly rises when the cabinet is opened and a
new cooling load is introduced e and the refrigerated load was
cooled every day from the ambient temperature to near the

3.1. Formulation
A numerical model of the theoretical adsorption refrigeration
cycle was developed to simulate and improve the performance of
the solar refrigerator, considering two-dimensional heat transfer
within the adsorber domain. The objective is not to calculate a set of
optimal parameters, but only the calculation of reference values for
the parameters that inuence the performance of the solar refrigerator. With these values it will be possible to build a solar refrigerator with improved performance. It is important to mention that
the change in one parameter will possibly change the optimal
values of the others, making the search for an optimal set of parameters a much more extensive work. Due to the innite variations of solar radiation and ambient air temperature, it may even be
impossible to nd a single optimal set of parameters valid for all
meteorological conditions.
The numerical model is based on the energy conservation
equation inside the adsorber domain, which, in its simplied differential form, is

rcP

vT
v2 T v2 T
k

vt
vx2 vy2

!
1  rsilica DHads

dX
dt

(5)

where the properties r, cP and k are evaluated as weighted averaged

values, the weighting factors being the volume fractions of each
phase present in the adsorber; DHads is the enthalpy of adsorption
and dX/dt is the instantaneous local variation of the adsorbed water
content in the silica-gel, calculated using the LDF model [23].

G.J.V.N. Brites et al. / Renewable Energy 86 (2016) 238e250

241

Fig. 4. Experimental results for the 4 consecutive days considered.


dX 15De 

Xeq  Xt
2
dt
Rp

(6)

where X is the actual local value of the water content in the silicagel, Xeq is the equilibrium value considering actual local temperature and pressure, and De is the effective diffusivity. The adsorbed
water content in silica-gel type A in equilibrium conditions is obtained using the Toth Equation [24,25]:





K0 $exp DHads Rvapor T $P
Xeq 

 n 1=n




1 K0 Xm $exp DHads Rvapor T $P

(7)

In Equation (7), n is a parameter that depends on the adsorbent

type. The energy balance in the condenser is

dmwater;cond
dmcond cPcond Tcond
Q_
$Lcond Tcond
dt
dt

(8)

where the heat rate exchanged to the ambient air is evaluated as

Q_ Ucond $Acond Tcond  Tamb

(9)

d ln P
dT
Xconst

(10)

The heat rate transferred through the walls and from the
refrigerated load is evaluated by an expression similar to (9). As
referred before, the total water mass inside the system remains
always constant.
The pressure is considered uniform within the system at each
instant, and in the heating and cooling phases (at constant content
of adsorbed water) is evaluated using the ClausiuseClapeyron
equation

(11)

The condenser pressure is taken as the saturation pressure of

water vapor at the condenser temperature, and the evaporation
pressure is specied, being equal to the value obtained during the
experimental measurements.
The cycle performance is evaluated with the same equation used
when dealing with the experimental results [Equation (1)].
The properties of the adsorbent material are listed in Table 1 and
were obtained from the supplier. The parameters of the Toth
Equation are listed on Table 2 and were obtained from Ref. [25].
3.2. Boundary and initial conditions for the adsorber domain
For symmetry reasons, the calculation domain is reduced to half
of a cell between ns, as sketched in Fig. 3. The bottom boundary is
permeable to mass transfer, but is considered adiabatic. Therefore,
the only thermally active boundary of the adsorber is its upper
surface where the heat ux is specied at each time step, according
to the heat rate received by the contact with the collector plate,
which calculated as




Q_ col Acol S  UL Tp;av  Tamb

In the refrigerated cabinet, the energy balance is:

dmevap
$Levap;liq
Q_ walls Q_ refrig_load Q_ sens_water;cond 
dt
dmice
$Lf ;ice 0

dt

DHads

Rvapor T 2

(12)

where S is the radiation rate received by the collector (solar radiation in the plane of the collector, corrected by the solar transmission of the glass and the absorption coefcient of the black paint

Table 1
Properties of silica-gel type A used in the simulations.
Density
Specic surface
Pore volume
Average pore diameter
Specic heat
Thermal conductivity (dry silica-gel)

730 kg/m3
650e800 m2/g
0.35e0.45 ml/g
2.0e3.0 nm
0.92 kJ/(kg  C)
0.175 W/(m  C)

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G.J.V.N. Brites et al. / Renewable Energy 86 (2016) 238e250

Table 2
Coefcients of the Toth Equation for the equilibrium of water vapor
on silica-gel type A [25].
K0 [kg/(kg$kPa)]
DHads [kJ/kg]
Xm [kg/kg]
n
R0 kJ=kg$K

(4.650.9)  1010
(2.710.1)  103
0.4
10
0.461889

of the collector's plate), and UL is the overall heat transfer coefcient for a solar collector, calculated as proposed by Ref. [22]. The
average temperature of the collector plate Tp,av is estimated at each
time step from an energy balance equation, considering a uniform
plate temperature.
The simulation departs from thermal equilibrium conditions (all
the points in the adsorber are at ambient air temperature) and
repeats the calculations several times for the rst day until there
are no noticeable changes in the distributions of temperature and
of adsorbed water content between the current dataset and the
preceding dataset for the rst day.
3.3. Solution procedure
The program calculates the adsorption cycle from meteorological data (hourly ambient temperature and solar radiation for a
particular day) and the geometry and construction parameters of
the solar refrigerator. However, it does not calculate the evaporation pressure, which instead is specied as the average value
experimentally measured. A control volume approach and the fully
implicit method were used, respectively, for the space and time
discretization of the energy conservation equation [21], the
resulting set of algebraic equations being solved using the TDMA
algorithm. For simplication, the pressure inside the adsorbent
layer is considered constant in each time step. This assumption is
reasonable, because the processes are very slow and the silica-gel
bed thickness is not too large.
Two convergence criteria were monitored: the weighted sum of
the residues of the discretized equations and the iterative variation
of the variables within each time step. Another technique was used

to conrm the good convergence, comparing all the heat uxes for
one complete cycle: if the initial and nal states are equal,
convergence is conrmed if the heat supplied to the adsorber
during the heating and desorption phases equals the heat rejected
by the adsorber during the cooling and adsorption phases.
3.4. Comparison between numerical and experimental results
Fig. 5 presents a comparison between numerical and experimental results. There is a reasonable agreement between the
temperatures, although the temperature of the collector plate
shows a slight discrepancy in the heating and cooling phases,
which can be a consequence of not considering the thermal inertia
of the exterior collector case in the numerical model, but the
experimental pressure during the desorption phase is higher than
that predicted by the simulation. A pressure higher than predicted
may be a consequence of a bad choice of materials, like a sealing
material which degasies under vacuum, and also some porous
weldings which allow a very small inltration of air e extra care
with these aspects will allow the construction of better prototypes
in the future. The comparison was made for some different days,
yielding, in general, a good agreement. It is considered therefore
that the numerical model of the solar refrigerator is suitable for the
study of the inuence of the main parameters on the operation of
the solar refrigerator, and thus to obtain the set of parameters
leading to a better coefcient of performance.
Fig. 6 shows a good agreement between the theoretical and
experimental cycles when represented in the Clapeyron diagram,
except for the higher desorption temperature in the experimental
cycle. The simulated cycle exhibits a shorter variation between
maximum and minimum water content in the silica-gel, compared
with the theoretical and the experimental cycles, essentially
because of the pressure difference between simulated and experimental results. The higher difference between maximum- and
minimum pressures in the experimental cycle may be due to the
presence of small quantities of vapors extraneous to system operation, which will cause a decrease in the refrigerator's performance.
Despite many efforts it was not possible to improve this aspect,
perhaps due to insufcient capabilities of the used vacuum pump.

Fig. 5. Comparison between experimental and numerical results.

G.J.V.N. Brites et al. / Renewable Energy 86 (2016) 238e250

243

Fig. 6. Comparison between theoretical, experimental and simulated cycles.

Calculating the amount of water condensed based on the variation

of the adsorbed water content in the silica-gel from Fig. 6 and the
total mass of silica-gel (30 kg), we conclude that the simulated cycle
condenses the correct amount of water. However, the experimental
cycle should condense 1.5 L, but only 0.63 L was registered on the
same day, which suggests some malfunction of the refrigerator,
probably due to the presence of noncondensable gases. The numerical simulation leads to correct results for the condensed water,
and predicts also the correct condensation pressure in the graph of
Fig. 6.
Results of the numerical simulation for the same day are listed
in Table 3, where the theoretical and experimental performance
data are also included. There is a big difference between the
experimental and the theoretical values obtained for the COP and
SCP, which suggests the possibility that the performance of the
solar refrigerator prototype can still be signicantly improved. The
COP of the theoretical cycle is an unattainable limit in practice,
maintaining the same temperatures, but it is useful to understand
what is the potential to improve the performance of the solar
refrigerator, which is the present case.
4. Parametric study
The simulation program, giving numerical results which
reasonably agree with the experimental ones, was used to perform
a parametric study aiming to assess the inuence of each of the
main governing parameters on the solar refrigerator performance,
namely:
 Mass of adsorbent per unit area of plane collector;
 Number of ns inside the adsorber;

Table 3
Performance data for the theoretical, experimental and simulated cycles.

Qevap [kJ]
Qsolar [kJ]
mcond [kg]
COPsolar
SCP [kJ/kg]

Theoretical cycle

Experimental cycle

Simulated cycle

4088.3
24418.2
1.74
0.167
136.3

1489.5
24418.2
0.63
0.061
49.6

1700.6
24210.0
0.68
0.069
56.7

 Solar azimuth of the solar collector;

 Heat transfer coefcient during night cooling of the adsorber;
 Thermal contact resistance between the silica-gel and the
adsorber plate;
 Condenser surface area;
 Water free surface in the evaporator;
 Solar absorption coefcient of the collector plate.
For a better understanding of the effect of each parameter,
simulations were performed considering two types of days:
extreme weather (very hot day, with the maximum temperature
exceeding 35  C, minimum temperature of 20  C, and a clear sky),
and relatively cool day, with the maximum temperature reaching
only 25  C, minimum temperature of 15  C, and some scattered
clouds.
The analysis of some parameters was grouped together to
reduce the size of the present work.
4.1. Mass of silica-gel in the adsorber and number of ns in the
adsorber
A number of simulations was performed varying the amount of
silica-gel and thus the thickness of the corresponding layer. Fig. 7 a)
shows the results for the two types of days considered. It suggests
that the optimum mass of silica-gel is between 15 and 20 kg. The
trends of the obtained curves show that an optimum mass of silicagel exists, which must be considered when designing this kind of
systems.
Fig. 7 b) shows the effect of the mass of silica-gel on the shape of
the adsorption cycle. For smaller amounts of adsorbent, the
adsorption and desorption phases are more extended, with wider
temperature and water content range. In contrast, when the mass
of silica-gel is 40 kg, the thickness of the bed of silica-gel is about
60 mm, which makes more difcult for the heat absorbed at the
collector plate to reach the deeper layers of silica-gel, especially due
to the quite low thermal conductivity and granular nature of the
silica-gel. Also, a larger amount of silica-gel contributes to a slower
heating and cooling, achieving regeneration temperatures relatively lower, and at the end of the adsorption phase the temperature of the silica-gel is still relatively high, resulting in a smaller
amount of evaporated water and, consequently, in a worse performance of the cycle.

244

G.J.V.N. Brites et al. / Renewable Energy 86 (2016) 238e250

Fig. 7. a) Effect of the mass of adsorbent (silica gel) inside the adsorber on the performance of the solar refrigerator. b) Effect of the mass of silica gel on the adsorption cycle
simulation, for a hot day.

The reinforcement ns inside the adsorber are essential to

ensure structural stability, counteracting the atmospheric pressure
forces in the adsorber due to the vacuum conditions inside. However, they also play a very important role in the heat exchange
between the collector plate and the adsorbent material, as shown
by Figs. 8 and 9.
It was performed a new simulation using the meteorological
data of 14-09-2011 (day with high maximum temperature and a
clear sky), considering 19 ns (20 adsorbent cells) and the results
were compared with the ones obtained with the simulation of the
current solar refrigerator with only 9 ns and 10 adsorbent cells, for
the same day. There is a very positive effect increasing the number
of ns, because the minimum temperature in the innermost layer of
silica-gel changes from 32.5  C to 30.5  C at the end of the
adsorption phase, the maximum temperature in the innermost
layer changes from 77.8  C to 85.5  C, which represents a signicant
improvement of the heat transfer between the adsorber plate and
the adsorbent bed. It is also expected that this enhancement of the
heat exchanges inside the adsorber will lead to higher differences
on the maximum and minimum adsorbate content, which in turn
will produce a signicant improvement on the performance of the
solar refrigerator.

The expectation for an improved performance of the solar

refrigerator doubling the number of ns is conrmed when
comparing the parameters of the adsorption cycle. The results in
Table 4 show that the amount of condensed water is higher and the
solar COP increases 19%, from 0.069 to 0.082, when the number of
ns is duplicated. It is concluded, therefore, that this parameter
could signicantly contribute to increase the performance of the
solar refrigerator.
4.2. Orientation of the solar collector and night cooling
From the analysis of the experimental data and computer
simulation results, it can be seen that once reached the maximum
temperature of the adsorbent (or the instant of maximum
desorption), all the solar heat supplied after this instant not only
does not contribute to increase the performance of the solar
refrigerator but also can decrease it, because after the maximum
temperature reached, all extra heat received can delay the cooling
phase. The question is then: orienting the solar collector with an
azimuth further to west or to east can improve the performance of
the solar refrigerator, maximizing solar energy received when it is
really important to the performance of the cycle, and minimizing

Fig. 8. Predicted adsorbent temperature for day 14-09-2011 at 08:00 h (nal of the adsorption phase): (a) in a 100 mm wide cell; (b) in the same cell with an additional n at the cell
center plane.

G.J.V.N. Brites et al. / Renewable Energy 86 (2016) 238e250

245

Fig. 9. Predicted adsorbent temperature for day 14-09-2011 at 16:00 h (nal of the desorption phase): (a) in a 100 mm wide cell; (b) in the same cell with an additional n at the cell
center plane.

Table 4
Comparative results for the performance of the solar refrigerator, considering the
adsorber with 9 ns (case 1) and with 19 ns (case 2).

Qevap [kJ]
Qsolar [kJ]
mcond [kg]
COPsolar
SCP [kJ/kg]

Case 1e9 ns

Case 2e19 ns

1700.6
24210.0
0.68
0.069
56.7

1912.8
24210
0.798
0.082
63.8

solar radiation received when it is undesirable, or when it is desired

to cool the adsorber?
A set of simulations was performed, varying the azimuth (zero
at south, negative to east, and positive to the west), and the results
are shown in Fig. 10 (a). The slope of the collector is equal to the
local latitude in all simulations (40 ). As expected, the maximum
solar radiation received by the collector occurs at approximately
the south orientation, i.e., zero azimuth. However, it can be seen
that the COP increases with west orientation, and the maximum
amount of evaporated water, corresponding to the maximum cold
production, occurs for an azimuth of about 40 . It is concluded,
therefore, that it is advantageous to orient the adsorber to southwest, in order to maximize the production of cold and improve the
COP of the system. The maximized performance obtained with a
positive azimuth results from the fact that the solar collector

captures more solar radiation in the afternoon, when the collector

is already at high temperature, maximizing the desorption of the
adsorbate. These conclusions were conrmed with the experimental prototype, and a good agreement between experimental
and simulated data was obtained.
One of the typical problems of solar adsorption refrigerators is
the difculty of dissipating the heat of adsorption to the environment, during the night. To increase the heat losses from the
adsorber during the cooling and adsorption phases, some mechanisms may be used to facilitate the heat exchange with the environment, like for example a manually operated mechanism to open
the glass of the collector, at night, to let the outdoor air in contact
with the plate adsorber, or the inclusion of nocturnal natural
ventilation openings in the collector with the possibility of closing
these openings during the day.
In the simulation program, the overall heat transfer coefcient
through the glass of the adsorber enters into Equation (2), and the
heat exchanged depends on the temperatures of the collector and
of the plate. When using natural ventilation openings for cooling
the collector plate during the night, the overall heat transfer coefcient U is increased. Due to the difculty in determining the value
of Utop when including apertures, a simple study was made by
comparing the coefcient Utop with two cases in which the coefcient Utop is doubled and tripled overnight, keeping the value of
the base case during the day. This study, even only of qualitative
nature, is sufcient to draw conclusions about the advantages of

Fig. 10. (a) e Variation of the performance parameters of the solar refrigerator as function of the orientation of the solar collector. (b) e Variation of the COP with increasing the heat
transfer coefcient of the collector at night.

246

G.J.V.N. Brites et al. / Renewable Energy 86 (2016) 238e250

using the air vents in the adsorber during the night. Fig. 10 (b)
shows the variation of the COP with an increase in the overall heat
transfer coefcient from the collector during the night. There is a
signicant improvement on the performance of the solar refrigerator when the night cooling effect is increased, and it would be very
advantageous to implement a mechanism to increase heat losses
from the collector in the period between 20:00 h and 07:00 h.
4.3. Thermal contact resistance in the adsorber, and condenser area
To adjust the results of the computer simulations to the experimental results, the value of the thermal contact resistance between
the silica-gel and the collector plate was selected as 5.0  102 m2  C/
W, a value well above that reported in the literature, near
2.5  103 m2  C/W, obtained from experimental measurements
[25]. This discrepancy may be explained due to the incorrect but
necessary use a thin aluminum foil between the collector and the
adsorbent to contain the silica-gel beads during the construction
(otherwise the silica-gel beads would occupy also the space between
the plate and the base of the ns during the construction), with
which the temperature oscillations may become wrinkled, reducing
the heat transfer. Eliminating or replacing the aluminum foil by
another material or construction technique that facilitates heat
transfer, like welding the ns to the plate, it is expected that the
performance of the solar refrigerator improves slightly. Simulations
in which the value of the thermal contact resistance was varied lead
to the results shown in Fig 11 (a). It is found that a reduction in the
contact thermal resistance by a factor of 5 (from 5.0  102 m2  C/W
to 1.0  102 m2  C/W) leads to a signicant increase in performance,
but a further reduction doesn't seem to produce any signicant effect
in the COP. It is thus justied to improve the thermal contact between the adsorbent and the collector plate, removing the aluminum
foil and using a graphite foil or other high thermal conductivity foil to
improve heat transfer, or alternatively try to nd another assembling
solution to retain the silica-gel without need of using the foil and
thus without increasing the thermal contact resistance.
The total external area of the condenser, including ns and
tubes, is approximately 20 m2. This heat transfer area was estimated so that, under conditions of strong desorption, the
condensation temperature does not exceed the ambient air temperature by more than 5  C. As the area of the condenser was obtained from design calculations, there was a tendency to consider
an oversize to compensate for any possible unexpected effects. To
ascertain the inuence of the condenser area in the maximum
temperature difference between the condenser and the environment, as well as its effect on the performance of the solar

refrigerator, it was performed a series of simulations in which the

area of the condenser is varied. The results are shown in Fig. 11,
observing, as expected, that a decrease in the area of the condenser
causes a decrease of performance and an increase on the maximum
temperature difference between the condenser and the environment. The reduction of performance is slight for a reduction of area
from 20 m2 to 10 m2, but below 10 m2 the performance reduction
becomes more pronounced; it is noticeable that even with 5 m2
condenser area the COP remains above 0.064. Regarding the
maximum temperature difference between the condenser and the
environment, with 20 m2 area this difference is only 2.2  C for the
coolest day and 1.2  C for the hottest day (the difference is greater
on the cooler day because the amount of water condensed is also
greater, then a larger amount of condensation heat is released,
which increases the temperature difference). As the area is reduced,
an increasingly steep temperature difference also occurs, exceeding
4  C for 5 m2 of condenser area.
It is concluded that there is no advantage in decreasing the area
of the condenser (except a slight reduction in the overall weight of
the solar refrigerator); however, it is interesting to note that the
reduction of area to 5 m2 still allows reasonable operation of the
installation, since the COP is maintained above 0.06. This means
that it is possible to build a more compact, lighter and cheaper solar
refrigerator without a large decrease on performance.
4.4. Pressure loss reduction, radiative characteristics of the plate
and thermal insulation of the refrigerated cabinet
It has been found experimentally that the evaporation pressure
falls signicantly below the triple point of water, i.e. 612 Pa. This
may be due to several factors: the area of the free surface in the
evaporator is not sufciently large, the formation of a layer of ice
may block the free surface evaporation (this blocking effect occurs
more easily if the free surface area is small), or some components of
the pipes can have a reduced diameter and high extent, resulting on
a signicant pressure drop in the pipes (at so low pressures volume
ow rates and velocities may be considerably high). A simple solution is to increase the free surface evaporation by placing two or
three evaporators instead of only one, with the disadvantage of
reducing the useful refrigerated space available in the refrigerated
cabinet. The effect of the evaporation pressure on the performance
of the solar refrigerator is shown in Fig. 12, where it can be seen that
the COP greatly increases, approximately linearly, when increasing
pressure evaporation.
The paint of the absorber plate is a common commercial spray
paint, because of the difculty to nd suitable special solar paints in

Fig. 11. (a) e Effect of the thermal contact resistance on the performance of the solar refrigerator. (b) e Effect of the condenser area on the maximum temperature difference
between condenser and environment air and on the COP of the solar refrigerator.

G.J.V.N. Brites et al. / Renewable Energy 86 (2016) 238e250

the local market. An internet search allowed to nd various paints

with a high absorptance of solar radiation, and even paints with
selective features, which combine a good absorptance with a low
emissivity. These paints are specially designed for solar radiation
absorption.
Table 5 compares the estimated radiation properties of the paint
used on the prototype with special coatings for solar energy applications. The properties of the paint used are not known, but were
adjusted to match the simulation with experimental results, corresponding to the minimum values of a and of a common commercial dark paint.
Using the properties of Table 5 in the simulation program, the
results of Fig. 12 b were obtained, where it can be seen that all
special paints exhibit very similar results, and it is observed a slight
improvement when special paints are used. It is concluded that the
used paint should be replaced, at least, by a carbon black paint or a
metal oxide paint, but a selective black paint would allow the
greatest performance improvement.
In what concerns the refrigerated cabinet, there are two possibilities to improve its thermal insulation: increasing the insulation
wall thickness or using a thermal insulation with lower thermal
conductivity. The material used in the construction of the refrigerated cabinet was extruded polystyrene foam boards (XPS) with
40 mm thickness, and the wall consists of three superposed layers,
totalizing 120 mm thickness. The U-value of this solution is
0.282 W/(m2  C).
Some solutions are proposed: a wall using XPS with 160 mm
thickness, a wall using XPS with 200 mm thickness, or a wall
consisting of vacuum insulation panels. The vacuum insulation
panels have values of thermal conductivity below 0.004 W/(m  C)
or 0.008 W/(m  C) considering the thermal bridges at the edges of
the panel [26]. There are some panels, as the Panasonic U-vacuo,
which have overall thermal conductivities of 0.0012 W/(m  C) according to the data provided by the manufacturer. The value of
0008 W/(m  C) is more realistic accounting for the thermal bridges
at the edges of the panel.
Table 6 shows the results in terms of the overall heat transfer
coefcient U of the different proposals for improving the thermal
insulation of the refrigerated cabinet. Clearly there is a huge
advantage of using vacuum panels if it is possible to nd the
appropriate size panels, and this solution may also be used in
combination with XPS to increase the mechanical strength of the
cold box walls. In the impossibility of using vacuum panels, a

247

solution should be attempted to increase the wall thickness from

120 mm to 200 mm. In addition to the thermal insulation, it is
critical to prevent the cold box wall from receiving direct sunlight;
it may be used a reective lm or a shade for this purpose.
With regard to the thermal insulation of the refrigerated cabinet, this parameter is not relevant to the performance of the
adsorption cycle, being only important to better preserve the
temperature of the refrigerated load and achieve greater autonomy
in terms of consecutive days without sun.
5. Improving the operation of the solar refrigerator
5.1. Selected parameters
To estimate the performance improvement of the solar refrigerator after entering all the proposed changes, a new simulation
was performed considering the parameters listed in Table 7. It is
important to note that each of these parameters was analyzed
independently of the others, and now all the then improved values
are put together in the same simulation to obtain an improved solar
refrigerator. This is different of having an overall and integrated
optimization of the system, as referred above.
The mass of silica-gel was maintained at 30 kg, because the
simulations showed that, in the improved prototype, 30 kg
provide a better COP than 20 kg. This occurs because of the
interrelation among the improvement parameters; improving
the heat transfer to the adsorbent shifts the optimal mass of
adsorbent to higher values (Fig. 7). This interrelation of the
studied parameters suggests that a more global optimization
study is possible, however, considering that the operation of the
solar refrigerator is conditioned by the random daily variations of
the meteorological conditions, it is not possible to have a simple
set of optimum parameters for the real operation of the solar
refrigerator.
5.2. Results for a relatively warm day
Results presented in Fig. 13 correspond to the simulation with
improved parameters for the day 14-09-2011. The maximum temperature of the collector plate obtained for this conguration is
lower than that obtained from the experimental measurements,
which means that the thermal resistance between the plate and the
silica-gel bed was reduced and more heat was transferred to the

Fig. 12. (a) e Effect of evaporation pressure on the performance of the solar refrigerator. (b) e Results for the performance of the solar refrigerator with different adsorber plate
paints.

248

G.J.V.N. Brites et al. / Renewable Energy 86 (2016) 238e250

Table 5
Properties of the paint used and other special paints.

Commercial paint used

Black carbon paint
Metal oxide paint
Okitsumo GSP-1 (Black)
Solkote

Typical thickness
[mm]

Absorptance (a)

Emissivity ()

50
8.0
30.0
2.0
0.9

0.80
0.94
0.93
0.91
0.91

0.80
0.89
0.86
0.32
0.22

Table 6
Proposals for the improvement of the thermal insulation of the refrigerated cabinet
walls. In the calculation of the parameter U the inner and outer convection coefcients were considered to be 5 and 10 W/m2  C, respectively.

Base case: 120 mm XPS

160 mm XPS
200 mm XPS
50 mm vacuum panels

Thickness [m]

k [W/(m  C)]

U [W/(m2  C)]

0.12
0.16
0.20
0.05

0.037
0.037
0.037
0.008

0.282
0.216
0.175
0.153

Table 7
Characteristics of the initial prototype and of the proposed prototype after the
optimization study.

Mass of silica-gel
Number of ns in the adsorber
Solar collector azimuth
Night cooling overall heat
loss coeff.
Thermal contact resistance
Condenser total heat exchange
area
Evaporation pressure
Solar collector plate paint

Initial prototype

Proposed prototype

30 kg
9
0 (south)
Utop, night Utop

30 kg
19
40 (to west)
Utop, night 2  Utop

5.0  10
20 m2

2

2 

C/W

500 Pa
Mate black spray paint

1.0  10
20 m2

2

2 

C/W

550 Pa
Black carbon paint

adsorbent. The maximum temperature of the adsorbent for this

conguration is higher than the temperature of the adsorbent in
the experimental measurements, indicating that the desorption is
stronger and more water is condensed. Also the maximum temperature of the adsorbent in this case appears with a delay relative
to the temperature of the adsorbent on the experimental measurements, which is perfectly consistent with the new orientation
of the solar collector. At night, the temperatures are lower in the
simulation because the night cooling was improved. The pressure
now seems to have values closer to the experimental measurements, as the condensation temperature in the simulation is
slightly higher, and more water is condensed.
Fig. 14 shows the experimental, theoretical (with Tregen,

max 80 C) and simulated (for the improved system) cycles. In the
case of the simulated cycle, the maximum average temperature of
the adsorbent during the regeneration phase reaches almost 90  C,
and at night the adsorbent temperature approximates the ambient
air temperature which means that a good cooling of the adsorbent
is achieved. The total variation of the amount of adsorbate in the
silica-gel is 0.053 kg of water per kg of dry silica-gel, corresponding
to a total of 1.49 L condensed water.
Comparing the experimental, simulated and simulated (for the
proposed improved conguration) results, according to the data in
Table 8 it can be seen that the simulation predicts that the
improved performance can result in a solar COP 2.5 times higher
than that obtained through the experimental tests with the rst
prototype. This result matches the best values of COP of adsorption
solar refrigerators found in the literature [13,14]. The SCP improves
from 49.7 to 124.4.

5.3. Results for a cooler day

The comparison of the results for the cooler day is made in
Table 9, and it can be observed, as for the hottest day case, that the
improved solution can produce a solar COP quite high, about 3.5
times higher than that obtained experimentally.

Fig. 13. Comparison of the numerical results for the improved system with the experimental results for day 14-09-2011.

G.J.V.N. Brites et al. / Renewable Energy 86 (2016) 238e250

249

Fig. 14. Comparison of the theoretical, experimental and simulated (improved) cycles for the day 14-09-2011.

6. Conclusions
A solar adsorption refrigerator using the silica-gel water pair
was successfully tested, managing to keep the evaporator temperature close to 0  C from the rst day of operation, and ice formation
on the evaporator is sufcient to maintain this temperature stable
as long as it did not occur more than 2 consecutive days of cloudy
sky. The refrigeration capacity of this rst prototype is modest, but
sufcient to cool from ambient temperature to nearly 0  C four
water plastic bottles of 1.5 L each. The cooling power is, on a daily
average, about 75 W.
Comparing the experimental results with those obtained
through a computer simulation it is shown that it is possible to
improve the solar performance of the refrigerator. The improved
solar refrigerator as a refrigeration capacity of about 3 times the
capacity of the rst prototype. The average daily cooling power is
225 W. This value can be a little higher if the insulation thickness is

Table 8
Performance comparison of the experimental, simulated and improved simulated
cycles for the day 14-09-2011.

Qevap [kJ]
Qsolar [kJ]
mcond [kg]
COPsolar
SCP [kJ/kg]

Experimental

Simulated

Simulated (improved)

1489.5
24418.2
0.63
0.061
49.7

1700.6
24210.0
0.68
0.069
56.7

3733.5
22423.3
1.49
0.17
124.4

Table 9
Performance comparison of the experimental, simulated and improved simulated
cycles for the day 11-09-2011.

Qevap [kJ]
Qsolar [kJ]
mcond [kg]
COPsolar
SCP [kJ/kg]

Experimental

Simulated

Simulated (improved)

1229.2
21950.5
0.51
0.056
41.0

1804.4
21766.5
0.72
0.083
60.1

3858.4
19263.2
1.54
0.20
128.6

increased.
The study concerning the inuence of the main parameters on
the performance of the solar refrigerator enabled the identication
of signicant possible improvements, and thus allows the design,
sizing and operation of new solar refrigerators with improved
performances. This study allowed obtaining the values of the main
parameters that lead to an improved system with a coefcient of
performance comparable to the highest values reported in the
literature for this kind of systems. These results are therefore
relevant for further studies and performance improvements in this
eld, and for the design and operation of this kind of systems.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for
Science and Technology through the PhD grant with the reference
SFRH/BD/24904/2005.
Nomenclature
A
Acol
cP
COP
COPsolar
De
k
K0
Levap
Lcond
Lf
m
mads
m_

area [m2]
aperture area of the solar collector [m2]
specic heat at constant pressure [J/(kg$K)]
coefcient of performance e
global coefcient of performance of the solar refrigerator
e
effective diffusivity in the adsorption kinetic model LDF
[m2/s]
thermal conductivity [W/(m  C)]
parameter of the Toth equation [kg/(kg$kPa)]
latent heat of evaporation of the water in the evaporator
[J/kg]
latent heat of phase change of the condensing water in
the condenser [J/kg]
latent heat of fusion of the ice inside the evaporator [J/kg]
mass [kg]
mass of adsorbent [kg]
mass ow rate [kg/s]

250

t
P
Psat
Q
Qadsor
Qload
Qevap
Qwalls
Qsolar
Q_ col
Q_

solar

Rvapor
Rt
Rp
S
SCP
t
T
Tamb
Tcol
Tcond
Tp,av
Tregen
U
UL
X
Xeq
Xm

G.J.V.N. Brites et al. / Renewable Energy 86 (2016) 238e250

parameter of the Toth equation e

pressure [Pa]
saturation pressure [Pa]
energy transferred as heat [J]
heat transferred from the adsorber to the ambient during
the adsorption phase [J]
heat removed from the refrigerated load, from ambient
temperature to the cooling box temperature [J]
heat absorbed in the evaporator (cold production) [J]
heat that ows through the walls of the cooling box
during a complete cycle. (24 h) [J]
total solar energy received by the collector during a
complete cycle [J]
heat rate exchanged in the adsorber [W]
rate of total solar radiation in the plane of the collector
[W]
ideal gas constant for water vapor [J/(kg$K)]
thermal resistance [m2  C/W]
radius of the adsorbent particle, in the model of
adsorption kinetics LDF [m]
solar radiation effectively captured by the solar collector
(total radiation received minus the optical losses) [W/m2]
Specic Cooling Power [J/kg]
time [s]
temperature [ C] ou [K]
temperature of ambient air [ C] ou [K]
average temperature of the solar collector plate [ C] ou
[K]
condensation temperature [ C] ou [K]
average temperature of the solar collector plate, in the
numerical model [ C] ou [K]
regeneration temperature of the adsorbent [ C] ou [K]
global heat transfer coefcient [W/(m2  C)]
global heat transfer coefcient of the heat exchanged
between the collector and the ambient [W/(m2  C)]
adsorbed water content in the silica gel [kgadsorvato/
kgadsorvente]
adsorbed water content in the silica-gel, at equilibrium
[kgadsorvato/kgadsorvente]
maximum adsorbed water content in the silica-gel, in the
Toth equation [kgadsorvatokgadsorvente]

Greek letters
r
density [kg/m3]

porosity e
DHads
enthalpy of adsorption [kJ/kg]
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[20]
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[25]

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