DEVELOPMENT AND PRELIMINARY PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A SOLAR COLLECTOR FOR ADSORPTION REFRIGERATOR

Abstract

The design and construction of a flat plate solar collector is presented in this paper. The solar collector was designed to power adsorption refrigerator using activated carbon/methanol pair. Design was such as to provide simplicity and yet ruggedness for harsh operating environment in the tropical climate of Nigeria. For methanol desorption, the collector must reach a maximum temperature of at least 100"C. Performance results showed that the maximum temperature of 10aoC attained in the solar collector was adequate for methanol gen6lation, while maximum received insolation of 1000 kW/m2 was sufficient for methanol desorption