Assessment and Optimization of the Performance of a Novel Solar Refrigeration System Applied in Agro-Food Industry.

In solar cooling systems the selection of the thermal driven and solar collection technologies is mainly based on climate and load conditions analysis. Moreover in particular conditions (i.e., south part of the Mediterranean basin), energy (electricity, back-up fuel) and water costs and availability can be driving parameters in the design process. The work presented in this paper falls within the activities carried out to evaluate the technical feasibility of solar cooling in the Mediterranean food & agro industry. In particular, a case study based on the application of a solar refrigeration system for a Tunisian Agro-food industry is presented. This novel system consists in the series connection of a concentrating collector, a water-ammonia single effect air-cooled absorption chiller and a cold storage. This configuration is justified by the high temperature difference between the chilled refrigerant temperature about –5 °C and the ambient temperature which could exceed 40 °C. The monitoring data obtained were analyzed in order to extract the performance figures recommended by the most up to date unified monitoring procedure proposed within Task 38-SHC of the International Energy Agency (IEA). These results showed a good operation of the system as well as they are reasonably comparable to the expected performance of the system. As well as they pointed out possible improvements of the system’s operation parameters.