A working pair of CaCl2–LiBr–LiNO3/H2O and its application in a single-stage solar-driven absorption refrigeration cycle.
Abstract In this paper, a working pair of CaCl2–LiBr–LiNO3(8.72:1:1)/H2O has been proposed for a single-stage absorption refrigeration system driven by solar energy collected with flat plate solar collectors or vacuum glass tube solar collectors. The crystallization temperature, saturated vapor pressure, specific heat capacity, and specific enthalpy of the proposed working pair were systematically measured. Results showed that under the same refrigeration conditions, the required solar collecting temperature of the single-stage absorption refrigeration cycle based on CaCl2–LiBr–LiNO3(8.72:1:1)/H2O was 7.7 °C lower than that based on LiBr/H2O. Furthermore, the COP of the cycle based on CaCl2–LiBr–LiNO3(8.72:1:1)/H2O was approximately 0.04 higher than that based on LiBr/H2O. The corrosion rates of 316L stainless steel as the structure material and copper as the heat exchange material for the proposed working pair were low enough for practical applications.