Experimental Study of Thermo-siphon Generator for Solar Energy LiBr Absorption Refrigerator

In this paper, a LiBr/H2O absorption refrigerator was fabricated and experimentally studied. The refrigerator was driven by solar heated water with an 85°C of designed temperature. The condenser is water-cooled at the design temperature of 32°C. The refrigeration capability was designed to be 2.3 kW at 7°C. A detailed experimental study was conducted on the thermo-siphon generator, the most important component of this type of refrigerator. The performance of the refrigerator was presented in terms of COP and refrigeration capacity. An analysis was made on the relationship between refrigerator performance and working conditions of thermo-siphon generator. The experimental results show the designed parameters (e.g. refrigeration capacity and refrigeration temperature) were well achieved. But the refrigeration capacity decreased dramatically as the temperature of hot water decreased down to the temperature below 85°C.