Experimental study on the performance of a solar-biomass hybrid air-conditioning system

Renewable energy based technologies can be introduced for building cooling applications. Most studies on solar absorption cooling use fossil energy based auxiliary heaters. This paper presents experimental studies of a solar-biomass hybrid air conditioning system. The system performances at quasi-steady state conditions were analyzed. The results demonstrate that the system operates at about 75% of nominal capacity at an average overall system coefficient of performance of about 0.11. Performances of individual components of the system were also evaluated. The experimental results compared with results from other studies shows that the proposed system's performance in terms of chiller and overall system coefficient of performance is superior.

► Performance of a solar-biomass hybrid cooling system was evaluated experimentally. ► The results show that a solar-biomass hybrid air conditioning system is promising. ► The data during the quasi-steady state conditions was analyzed. ► The biomass-gasifier boiler auxiliary heater can improve the system performance. ► The comparison results show that the proposed system outperforms the others.