Evaluation of a solar intermittent refrigeration system for ice production operating with ammonia/lithium nitrate

A novel solar intermittent refrigeration system for ice production developed in the Centro de Investigación en Energía of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México is presented. The system operates with the ammonia/lithium nitrate mixture. The system developed has a nominal capacity of 8 kg of ice/day. It consists of a cylindrical parabolic collector acting as generator–absorber. Evaporator temperatures as low as −11 °C were obtained for several hours with solar coefficients of performance up to 0.08. It was found that the coefficient of performance increases with the increment of solar radiation and the solution concentration. A dependency of the coefficient of performance was not founded against the cooling water temperature. Also it was found that the maximum operating pressure increases meanwhile the generation temperature decreases with an increase of the solution concentration.