Supply of energy required for water-ammonia absorption refrigeration cycle for an industrial refrigerator using solar parabolic collectors and photovoltaic panels: case study Malaysia

Conventional water-ammonia absorption refrigeration system in the industry uses heat energy generated by non-renewable energy sources such as the burning of natural gas, but it is just a matter of time before natural gas becomes depleted. Then, non-renewable energy often produces greenhouse gases that are harmful to the environment. Therefore, solar energy can be used as an alternative to supply the energy required by the absorption refrigeration cycle (ARC). Parabolic trough collectors (PTC) can supply the required heat energy to the reboiler, whereas photovoltaic (PV) panels can supply the electrical energy to the pump of an ARC. To prove the feasibility of using solar energy as a more sustainable alternative, a simulation of the PTC and PV models is conducted, and the average energy generated by each model is obtained. The result of this research proved that Malaysia is a suitable location for the implementation of solar technologies as the amount of solar radiation is sufficiently high throughout the year.