Effect of solar collector type on the absorption system performance

Solar energy has a great ability in cooling and air conditioning as the demand coincides with the availability of solar energy. In this study, different solar collector technologies such as Parabolic Trough Concentrator PTC and Linear Fresnel Collector LFC were used to power solar absorption system. The effect of using these different technologies on the thermal performance of the absorption cooling system was investigated. The PTC proved better performance compared to the Linear Fresnel Collector in terms of outlet fluid temperature, temperature rise and rate of energy gained. The result shows an enhancement in the outlet temperature, temperature rise and the rate of energy gained due to use the parabolic trough collector by about 47 °C, 6 °C and 161 kW, respectively. Also, the operating period due to using the parabolic tough collector is longer relative to the linear Fresnel collector. The result shows that an operating period of about 71.5 and 63.75 h/week was satisfied for the PTC and LFC, respectively. This study was performed using TRNSYS program.