A Comparison between Exhaust Gas and Electrical Grid Heating of a Diffusion Absorption Refrigerator

Abstract

Abstract A considerable quantity of waste energy in the exhaust system could be reutilized and added in a vehicle to run auxiliary systems, and contribute to improving the overall efficiency of the system. In the current work, a comparison between the conventional electrical grid and exhaust gas heating of an absorption refrigeration system was performed experimentally. A heat exchanger was fabricated to recover the wasted exhaust gas energy of internal combustion engine and operate the generator portion of a diffusion type refrigeration absorption system. The components performance of the absorption refrigerator was analyzed and estimated thermodynamically as a function of type energy source. The results revealed that the components temperatures were rapidly responded in case of the exhaust gas energy with the maximum and minimum steady state temperatures of the generator and evaporator of 140 °C and -1.1 °C, respectively. The steady state values of the COP can be reached from electrical grid, and the exhaust gas energy sources of the refrigerated system were 0.083 and 0.072, respectively. The key conclusion to be drawn is that the proposed system can be used to recycle the waste heat for refrigeration purpose; yet, with low COP values.