Performance, economic, and environmental analysis of an absorption chiller integrated with a solar heater employing nanofluids for central air conditioning applications

Air conditioning represents a large proportion of energy consumption, which has led to a global shift towards harnessing solar energy for air conditioning (A/C) systems. This study aims to evaluate the solar absorption A/C system using climate data from Cairo, Egypt (30.1 °N/30.3 °E) during the summer season. The investigation was done using TRNSYS simulation software under various factors affecting the performance. These included the chilled-fluid mass flow rate and temperatures of the hot and cooled fluid. Moreover, four types of nanoparticles: magnesium oxide (MgO), silicon carbide (SiC), aluminum oxide (Al2O3), and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) were studied. In addition, the solar collector area and its inclination angle were evaluated. In Cairo meteorological conditions, the maximum COP was 0.789 at a cooling load of 31.1 kW. The desired result was achieved with a hot fluid inlet temperature of about 90 °C and a solar collector area of 50 m2, using a quadratic efficiency type. The highest performance was achieved with a solar fluid tank capacity of 3780 L, a hot fluid flow rate of 1.4 kg/s, and a solar collector slope of about 10 °. At a 6% MWCNT concentration, the highest COP was 1.11 and the solar fraction was 0.978.HighlightsAn absorption chiller integrated with a solar heater employing nanofluids is investigated.Four different Al2O3, MgO, SiC, and MWCNT nanoparticles are studied.Operating conditions greatly affect the system's performance.Compound parabolic and quadratic efficiency collectors produced the highest COP.The highest COP and solar fraction are when using MWCNT.