The Concept of Zero-Emission Cooling
Abstract
Cooling demand in residential and industrial applications causes a tremendous consumption of electrical energy due to the conventional technology of compression chillers. Furthermore, future scenarios depict a significant increase of the cooling demand for the year 2050, so that 16% of the entire global electricity consumption is originated by the cooling sector by then, with the consequence of emitting enormous amounts of CO2 emissions. Therefore, renewable and emission-free solutions for satisfying the worldwide cooling demand are highly important. The concept of “Zero-Emission Cooling” proposed in this paper considers the combination of an adsorption chiller and a double-glazed PVT collector in order to generate emission-free cold. The chiller under investigation already starts to work at a driving temperature of 55°C, and the double-glazing of the PVT collector makes it capable of providing temperatures up to 80°C more efficiently than others. The electrical output of the collector supplies all electric components and provides excess energy to be fed into the grid. The performed investigation showed that the concept basically works from the technical point of view, although a big collector area is required in order to provide enough driving power for the chiller. Most of the produced electrical energy can be fed into the grid, as only 13% are required to supply the internal electric consumers.