HO-82-05-1 -- A Direct, Evaporatively Cooled, Three-Ton Lithium Bromide-Water Absorption Chiller for Solar Application PDF

Lithium bromide absorption machines first appeared commercially circa 1940. In all designs marketed, absorber/condenser heat has been rejected from the cycle through shell-and-tube exchangers to circulating water that is then processed in contact with the ambient air through a cooling tower. In mechanical refrigeration technology, evaporative condensing products have been an available alternative to water-cooled condensers with separate cooling towers. Lithium bromide machines have not been available with this alternative, mainly because of the difficulty of managing internal and external heat transfer processes through a common surface configuration that would meet all the needs satisfactorily. The main focus of this paper is the development of a direct, evaporatively cooled absorber/ condenser. Other features of the chiller already displayed in the past or presently available hardware on the market will not be a part of this discussion. A second objective is to establish the significance of evaporative cooling for active solar-cooling devices and, in particular, as an alternative to dry-air cooling as the means of heat rejection for solarcooling equipment.