Study of the adsorber-collector performance of a solar adsorption cooling unit using the zeolite-water pair and operating under the dry tropical climatic conditions

In this paper we present the distribution of simulated state variables in a -adsorber-collector prototype of an adsorption solar refrigerator designed to work with the zeolite-water pair under the climatic conditions of the city of Ouagadougou. The solar performance factor (COPs) and the cooling capacity (SCP) are the parameters studied for evaluating the system performance. The simulation of these quantities is obtained from the heat and mass transfer equilibrium equations, solved by a numerical scheme using Thomas' algorithm (TDMA).The Dubinin-Astakhov adsorption model is used to model the adsorption phenomenon. A MATLAB program has been developed for the numerical simulation of the problem. In order to get closer to the local operating conditions, we have implemented in the MATLAB program, values of the sunshine, the wind speed and the ambient temperature recorded on the IRSAT solar adsorption refrigerator collector during four successive days of April of the year 2016. For a zeolite mass of 10 kg, and for the condensation and evaporation temperatures set respectively at and , we found the COPs and the SCP varying respectively from to and from to .