Seasonal performance and climatic adaptability of a solar-powered microchannel membrane-based absorption refrigeration system

Microchannel membrane-based absorption refrigeration system (MMARS) has vast potential to satisfy the increasing cooling demand by utilizing renewable and waste thermal energy. To maximize its potential for future large-scale applications, the geometries of the MMARS were optimized for the first time to obtain the lowest system cost under various weather conditions and cooling demands in different climate zones of China. After optimization, Kunming (mild region) has the highest levelized cooling demand cost of 0.2710 $/kWh because of its high initial cost, while Beijing (cold region) has the lowest cost of 0.1508 $/kWh due to its rich solar energy to reduce the operating cost and sufficient cooling demand to levelize the initial cost. It is worth noting that if only natural gas is counted in energy consumption, Kunming, with rich solar energy, achieves the highest seasonal COP of 2.654, but Hong Kong (hot summer and warm winter region) with insufficient solar energy only gets 1.318 because of the low proportion (48.84%) of solar energy in its heat sources. This paper provides a seasonal performance-based geometries optimization of the MMARS and studies its climatic adaptability in different climate zones, facilitating the reasonable design and application of efficient and compact absorption refrigeration systems.