PERGAMON Applied Thermal Engineering 18 (1998) 755±764

Opportunities for sorption cooling using low grade heat

P. Lamp, C. Schweigler, F. Ziegler
Bayerisches Zentrum fuÈr Angewandte Energieforschung e.V. (ZAE Bayern), Walther-Meiûner-Str.6,
D-85748 Garching, Germany
Received 10 December 1997

Abstract

We report on recent research and development in the ®eld of cooling systems to be driven with low
temperature heat. The economics of those systems to a large extent are determined by the heat
exchangers required to operate the cycle. In this respect, fundamental conclusions will be derived using
the concept of endo-reversible cycles. However, the main aspects to be discussed for real sorption cycles
are the choice of the working pair and the development of new cycles. It will be shown that the choice
of working pair is of minor importance with regard to the use of low grade heat. To adapt the cooling
system to a special application like that, it is more bene®cial to specially design new multistage sorption
cycles. As an example, the design of a machine used in district heating networks is given. The results
obtained from prototype test runs con®rm the predicted performance. # 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All
rights reserved.

Keywords: Low-grade heat; Sorption cooling; Working ¯uids; District-heating

1. Introduction

During the last few years the interest in cooling systems driven with low temperature heat
has been steadily increasing. Especially, the use of heat from combined heat and power
production in district heating systems has attracted a lot of interest. During summertime,
an exploitation of this energy source for air conditioning with the consequent increased
utilisation of the district heating networks contributes to both energy savings and
economics.
One common feature of stations supplying combined heat and power is that the performance
of the heat supply system increases when the temperature of the heat which is delivered to the
user is lowered. Therefore, there is a distinct need to develop sorption cooling systems with low
driving temperature, e.g., between 608 to 808C or even lower.

1359-4311/98/$19.00 # 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

PII: S 1 3 5 9 - 4 3 1 1 ( 9 7 ) 0 0 1 2 1 - X
756 P. Lamp et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 18 (1998) 755±764

Fig. 1. Temperature levels involved in a simple heat driven cooling system with driving heat Q2 supplied at t2, a
heat sink at t1 (heat Q1) and heat input Q0 at temperature t0. To transfer the according amounts of heat, a heat
exchanger area is necessary which mainly depends on the di€erence between the external temperatures ti and the
internal (process) temperatures Ti (i = 1,2,3).

2. Basic considerations

One main drawback for all systems using low-grade heat is a relatively large investment cost.
Using the concept of endo-reversible cycles, basic economical statements can be made
independently from the kind of heat transformation system being used.
A sorption machine as any other heat driven cooling system transfers heat between di€erent
temperature levels. As an example, in Fig. 1 a system with three temperature levels is depicted.
The only equipment necessary to bring heat into or out of the system are heat exchangers with
sucient area to be able to transfer the according amounts of heat Qi (i = 1,2,3).
The area which has to be installed is a function of the heat transfer coecients and of the
driving temperature di€erences (DTi) between the external heat carrier (ti), and internal process
temperatures (Ti). If the only irreversibilities are those attributed to this heat exchange the
cycle is called endo-reversible [1±5]. The coecient of performance (COPenrev) of such a cycle
1=T1 ÿ 1=T2
COPenrev ˆ …1†
1=T0 ÿ 1=T1
is determined by the internal temperatures only. It is the maximum COP which can be reached
with these internal temperatures, independent of the speci®c kind of transformation system,
cycle, or working ¯uid.
In reality, the external temperatures in general are ®xed by the application. The internal
temperatures are determined by the driving temperature di€erences DTi, i.e. by the amount of
heat exchanger area installed. For in®nite heat exchanger area DTi=0 and Ti=ti, yielding the
maximum COPrev. With decreasing heat exchanger area the DTi increase and, consequently, the
COPenrev decreases. From an economic point of view the heat exchanger area determines ®rst,
the cost of a machine and via the COP the running cost. The common task for any application
is to minimise the total cost of the system made up from investment and running cost.
In Fig. 2 speci®c running cost (energy cost), is plotted against speci®c investment cost for a
cooling system with the temperatures chosen to be t0=78C, t1=328C, t2=708C (bold solid
line). For simplicity, all heat transfer coecients have been assumed to equal 1 kW/m2K.
Moreover, it has been assumed that all driving temperature di€erences DTi are equal, which is
a good assumption for the conditions given [5]. The COP which can be attained with a given
 P. Lamp et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 18 (1998) 755±764 757

Fig. 2. Speci®c running cost as a function of the speci®c ®rst cost of heat powered cycles working between the three
temperature levels t0=78C, t1=328C, t2=708C (endo-reversible, single-e€ect and double-lift, solid lines). The dashed
lines are lines of constant total cost for two di€erent running hours per year and di€erent total cooling cost (see
text).

amount of exchange area determines the necessary amount of driving heat for a speci®ed
cooling capacity, which is converted to running cost by a value of 50 DM/MWh for the heat
input. The heat exchanger area is converted to ®rst cost by a value of 1000 DM/m2.
The bold solid line represents any kind of endo-reversible cooling system for the given
operational conditionsÐwith the lowest running cost achievable depending on the design, i.e.
the installed heat exchange area. The design of a real machine, in addition, depends strongly
on the thermophysical properties of the working ¯uids used. Not all points along the solid line
shown in Fig. 2 can be realised with one single sorption cycle for a given working ¯uid.
However, all real cycles have to be situated on the right hand side of that curve. In order to
verify this statement, two weak solid lines have been plotted into Fig. 2 additionally. They
represent the design curves attained numerically (for explanation of the method, see [6, 7]) for a
double-lift cycle (upper line, see Fig. 6a), and a single-e€ect cycle (lower line) using LiBr/H2O
as a working pair and the same economical and heat transfer data as in the endo-reversible
calculation.
The dashed lines are lines of constant total costÐassuming for the cooling system a life of
10 years and a running time of 1000 h/a (steep lines) and 6000 h/a (¯at lines) respectively. With
increasing total cooling cost these lines are parallel shifted from left to right. Consequently,
they touch the design curve of each speci®c cycle in the respective optimal design point. Of
course, for di€erent running times, i.e. di€erent applications, this optimal design point varies,
758 P. Lamp et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 18 (1998) 755±764

as illustrated from the di€erent slope of the lines. With smaller running times, a relatively
cheap endo-reversible machine is most economical with a total cost of 170 DM/MWh, whereas
with long running times a more expensive machine is optimal with a total cost of cooling of
80 DM/MWh. However, the cheapest machine from an investment consideration, is far from
being the most cost e€ective machine from a total cost point of view in both cases.
The real cycles, of course, are more expensive due to the solution heat exchangers and
perform worse due to internal irreversibilities. From Fig. 2 it can be deduced that lower
cooling costs are being attained by the double-lift cycle in the case of low running time with
235 DM/MWh albeit its small COP. In the case of long running times the single-e€ect cycle is
to be preferred with a cooling cost of 100 DM/MWh, although it needs about double the
investment compared to the double-lift cycle.

3. In¯uence of working media

Starting from the basic consideration above, we will now focus more speci®cally on
absorption chillers using H2O/H2O-LiBr as working ¯uids. To introduce the notation used
later on Fig. 3, which shows a single-e€ect absorption chiller in the ln pÿ(ÿ1/T) diagram. The
temperature of the evaporator T0 and the temperature of the condenser as well as the absorber
outlet T1 are in general ®xed within a range of some degrees by the cold water and cooling

Fig. 3. Schematic drawing of a single-e€ect cycle. E: evaporator, A: absorber, G: generator, C: condenser, cw: weak
solution, cs: strong solution, Q: transferred heat.
 P. Lamp et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 18 (1998) 755±764 759

water temperature. The physical properties of the used working ¯uids, i.e., essentially the
vapour pressure curves, determine the position of the cycle within the solution ®eld. In
principle this is equally valid for adsorption machines, i.e. using solid sorbents to adsorb the
refrigerant vapour. The equilibrium sorbate charge of the solid sorbent at given temperature
and pressure yields equilibrium curves which can be treated in the same way as the vapour
pressure curves of the liquid absorption system.
The external conditions for chilled and cooling water determine the internal temperatures T0,
T1, the pressure levels and the temperature T2', which is the minimum driving temperature.
Classical liquid and solid sorbents do not vary strongly in the relation of thrust 1/T1±1/T2 to
lift 1/T0±1/T1, as the only di€erence has to be attributed to the heat of solution, which is in the
order of 5 to 20% of the heat of condensation. If this is true, the said minimum driving
temperature T2' for a given lift is independent of the working pair within a few degrees. Now,
in order to desorb refrigerant, the concentration of the sorbent has to be changed. The
concentration of the weak solution is given by the external conditions. What is still left to be
®xed is the composition change and thus the temperature di€erence between the lowest and
highest equilibrium temperature in the generator, i.e., the temperature glide T2'±T2, which is
determined by the choice of the solution ¯ow rate.
In general, instead of the solution ¯ow rate, the speci®c solution ¯ow rate f is given. f
denotes the ratio of the weak solution ¯ow rate (with refrigerant concentration cw) to the
circulating refrigerant vapour ¯ow rate
…1 ÿ cs †
f ˆ …2†
…cw ÿ cs †

For a given f and weak solution concentration cw, the concentration of the strong solution cs
can be calculated. With cs also the highest equilibrium temperature in the generator T2 and the
highest equilibrium temperature in the absorber T1' are determined. To drive the cycle, heat is
supplied to the generator. T2 is the highest temperature within the cycle and therefore at the
same time, the minimum external temperature theoretically possible for the driving heat source.
If the speci®c solution ¯ow rate f is low, a large temperature glide with a high temperature T2
is required. On the other hand, a high speci®c solution ¯ow rate means a small temperature
glide and therefore a low value T2.
Fig. 4 shows the equilibrium temperature T2 required for di€erent working pairs. This
temperature is at the same time the minimum possible temperature of the driving heat source,
assuming an in®nitely large heat exchanger area. Fixed conditions are temperatures of 58C in
the evaporator, 358C in the condenser and 358C for the lowest absorber equilibrium
temperature. T2 has been plotted as function of the solution ¯ow rate f.
For f 4 1 the temperature spread between the highest equilibrium temperature in the
generator and the lowest one equals zero. The main result shown in Fig. 4 is that this
temperature is essentially the same (within two degrees) for all working pairs used. Therefore
from ®rst principles, the choice of the working pair has almost no in¯uence on the lowest
driving temperature which can be utilised. With decreasing speci®c solution ¯ow rate the
temperature glide and therefore the temperature T2 is determined by the temperature di€erence
between the vapour pressure lines of the according concentrations at the ®xed pressure level.
760 P. Lamp et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 18 (1998) 755±764

Fig. 4. Generator outlet temperature T2 (see also ®gure 1) as a function of the speci®c solution ¯ow rate for two
absorption (liquid) and two adsorption (solid) systems.

Fig. 4 shows that the systems using liquids as sorbents exhibit a lower temperature T2 for
®xed f, or in other words stay below a certain temperature level even at lower speci®c solution
¯ow rate f.
The conclusion of this paragraph is twofold: in idealised systems with in®nite solution ¯ow
rate f, the di€erent working ¯uids show no signi®cant di€erence with regard to the minimum
temperature required for input. In real systems (®nite f ) liquid sorption systems exhibit lower
minimal driving temperatures than solid sorption systems. An illustration is shown in Fig. 5.
Here, for given temperatures and given heat exchanger areas, a H2O/H2O-LiBr chiller and a
H2O/silicagel chiller are compared. The COP and the cooling capacity attained with a given
design varies as a function of the circulation ratio f. If in both cases the speci®c solution ¯ow
rate f is adjusted to obtain 1 kW cooling capacity, the LiBr chiller requires a value of f which
is about half the value of the silicagel, resulting in a COP of 0,85 compared to 0,76. In order
to obtain these values, it was assumed in a very idealistic manner that the silicagel can be
circulated through a solution heat exchanger in the same way as the LiBr solution. Also all k-
values at the heat exchangers have been the same for the LiBr and the silicagel system. This
means that the di€erences seen in Fig. 5 follow only from the thermo-physical equilibrium
properties of the media used. In reality, the performance of a silicagel chiller is expected to be
worse.
 P. Lamp et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 18 (1998) 755±764 761

Fig. 5. Comparison of the COP and cooling capacity of an idealised LiBr and silicagel chiller. The installed heat
exchanger area and k-values are the same in both cases. It was also assumed that the silicagel can be circulated
through the solution heat exchanger.

4. New cycles

As shown in the last paragraphs, the choice of the working ¯uid only to a small extent
in¯uences the lowest possible driving temperature. In the following the option to use advanced
cycles to this end will be highlighted using an example of a system which is being
commercialised in Germany.
Concerning sorption systems, a great variety of multistage cycles is available [8±10]. At ZAE
Bayern a new machine has been designed for application in district heating networks. The
district heating water drives the absorption cooling machine, which leads to better usage of the
network in summer times. The boundary conditions are in general low temperature (down to
808C) of the district heating water supply, and a high temperature spread between supply and
return (about 20 to 30 K). The resulting very low return temperatures, down to 508C, can be
used in a so called double-lift cycleÐwell-known from ammonia refrigeration [11] (Fig. 6a).
Here the vapour is regenerated ®rst at an intermediate pressure level and resorbed again in a
second solution circle. The second regeneration is done at the appropriate pressure of the
condenser. The e€ect is that both regenerations take place at a reduced temperature compared
to a single e€ect chiller. This has to be paid for by a reduced COP, which is about 0.4. To take
advantage of the upper temperature of 808C and to realise the large temperature spread
762 P. Lamp et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 18 (1998) 755±764

Fig. 6. Schematics of a) double-lift, and b) single-e€ect/double-lift cycle.

required, the double-lift cycle was integrated into a single-e€ect cycle (Fig. 6b). The district
heating water releases heat ®rst in the generator of the single-e€ect stage and then in the two
generators of the double-lift stage, leading to the high temperature spread. Depending on the
distribution of the heat exchanger areas within the three generators, as well as on the
temperature of the district heating water input, the COP will vary between the COP of the
double-lift and single-e€ect cycle, 0.4 and 0.8 respectively [12±14].
Two prototypes of a H2O/H2O-LiBr absorption cooling machine based on the single-e€ect/
double-lift (SE/DL) cycle described above, have been built by the companies Entropie and
GEA. They are installed in the University of Berlin and in a building of the Stadtwerke
DuÈsseldorf respectively. The machine manufactured by Entropie was designed for a cooling
capacity of 400 kW at a district heating supply temperature of 958C and a return temperature
of 608C. This large temperature glide cannot be achieved with standard single-e€ect absorption
chillers. The COP at the design point is about 0.6. This plant has been in operation since
summer 1996 [15].
Fig. 7 shows the measured performance data as a function of the supply temperature at ®xed
hot water mass ¯ow. The lower graph shows the return temperature, the middle graph the cold
production and the upper graph the COP of the machine. Starting with a huge temperature
glide of 35 K at the design point, the temperature glide is reduced with decreasing supply
temperature to about 13 K at 608C supply temperature, which means an extremely low return
temperature of 478C. The decrease of the cold production with decreasing supply temperature
is shown in the middle graph. At 608C supply temperature the cold production is still 100 kW,
which means 25% of the designed capacity. The decrease is more than the according change in
temperature spread due to the fact that the COP also decreases with decreasing supply
temperature as shown in the upper graph of Fig. 7. As explained above, the resulting COP of
the SEDL chiller is a superposition of the COP of the SE and the DL cycle and at lower
driving temperatures, the share of the DL part with the lower COP is increased.
To summarise, the measurements of the ®rst running period fully con®rmed the predicted
performance [14] of this new multistage cycle, and showed its outstanding capabilities for the
use in district heating networks.
 P. Lamp et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 18 (1998) 755±764 763

Fig. 7. Results of the ®rst running period of the SEDL chiller. The return temperature (lower graph), cold production
(middle graph) and COP (upper graph) are shown as a function of the district heating supply temperature.

5. Conclusion

In this paper, after some remarks concerning the economics of endo-reversible cycles, liquid
and solid sorption cooling machines were compared with respect to their potential for low
temperature applications using ®rst principle considerations. It was shown that for identical
boundary conditions, the theoretical minimum driving temperature (f 4 1) is almost the same
for all liquid absorption and solid sorption systems. In practice, i.e., with ®nite but ®xed f the
liquid systems yield lower driving temperatures. Moreover, with a given driving temperature
the solid systems, including silicagel, require a higher speci®c solution ¯ow rate f. In general an
increase in f leads to a lower COP for both, but the dependence is di€erent for liquid and solid
systems due to their di€erent way of working (continuously versus discontinuously).
The largest potential for innovations concerning the use of low-grade heat can be attributed
to the development of new cycles which are designed to meet the special demand of low grade
heat input. A multistage cycle which is a superposition of Single-e€ect and Double-lift (SE/DL)
was discussed. In ®rst experiments with a pilot plant installed in a district heating system in
764 P. Lamp et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 18 (1998) 755±764

Berlin, a COP of better than 0.6 was attained with a supply temperature to operate the plant
of 958C and a return temperature of 608C. In part load, even lower return temperatures can be
realised. These results prove the versatility of multistage cycles to cope with the problem of
using low temperature heat to operate sorption machines.

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