Journal
ENERGY CONVERSION AND MANAGEMENT
Volume 162, Issue -, Pages 90-97Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.enconman.2018.02.027
Keywords
Thermal energy storage; Domestic hot water; Adsorption; Silica-gel/water pair; Numerical simulation; Optimization
Categories
Funding
- Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)
- European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) through COMPETE Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI) [PTDC/EMS-ENE/3238/2014, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016760, LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-016760]
- Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) [SFRH/BD/90520/2012]
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia [PTDC/EMS-ENE/3238/2014, SFRH/BD/90520/2012] Funding Source: FCT
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The optimization and assessment study of a thermal energy adsorption storage system is presented. The system integrates an adsorption heat storage module in a conventional hot water storage tank of a solar thermal system, operating with the silica-gel/water adsorption pair. The system was modeled using TRNSYS circle and MATLAB(circle), and was previously assessed and improved through a set of parametric tests for each main component. In this work, the GenOpt(circle) optimization software was used to obtain the optimal performance of the whole system. It is found that a slender and lengthy adsorber with a large number of thin fins, a thick and lengthy condenser, and an evaporator with a large number of lengthy tubes improve the system's performance, by increasing the heat transfer areas and the adsorbent mass. The performance also improves by controlling the adsorber-condenser valve only through the system's pressure and opening the evaporator-adsorber valve at the hot water setpoint temperature. The optimized system presents a 16% saving in annual backup energy consumption compared with a similar conventional storage system, thus validating the results of the previous segregated parametric study. This optimized system operates at the highest performance with the same configuration in different locations/ climates, as only the inclination of the solar collector affects the results: larger inclinations improve the system's performance, by favoring its operation in Winter. Results present this system as a promising solution to increase the energy storage capacity of solar thermal systems, and potentially of systems using other primary energy sources.
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