Experimental evaluation of a variable effect LiBr–water absorption chiller designed for high-efficient solar cooling system

• A variable effect LiBr–water absorption chiller is studied.
• The chiller is evaluated based on a real developed 50 kW prototype.
• COP increased from 0.69 to 1.08 under generation temperature from 95 °C to 120 °C.
• The effects of several parameters on COP and cooling power were analyzed.

A variable effect LiBr–water absorption chiller is studied in this paper based on a real developed 50 kW prototype. The chiller is designed specifically for the high-efficient utilization of the solar power with variable temperature. It can obtain the optimized COP and cooling power under different heat source temperatures. The construction, circulation and testing system of the chiller were introduced. A typical running condition of the chiller from the starting to the steady operating was given to show the dynamic performance. Several groups of the temperatures and COPs were given to show the steady state performance. These data showed that the COP increased from 0.69 to 1.08 under generation temperature from 95 °C to 120 °C. Besides, the effects of chilled water temperature, cooling water temperature, pump frequency and opening of valve on COP and cooling power were analyzed respectively.