Kevin D, Rafferty, P.E. Geo-Heat Center Klamath Falls, OR 97601 INTRODUCTION The absorption eyele is a process by which refriger- ation effect is produced through the use of two fluids and some quantity of heat input, rather than electrical inpucas in| the more familiar vapor compression cyele, Both vapor ‘compression and absorption refrigeration cycles accomplish the removal of heat through the evaporation of a refrigerant at a low pressure and the rejection of heat through the ‘condensation of the refrigerant at a higher pressure, The method of ereating the pressute difference and circulating the refrigerant is the primary difference between the two cycles, The vapor compression cycle employs amechanical ‘compressor to create the pressure differences necessary to circulate the refrigerant. In the absorption system, a secondary fluid of absorbent is used to circulate the reftigerant. Because the temperature requirements for the ‘yee fall into the low-to-maderate temperature range, and there is significant potential for electrical energy savings, absorption would seem to be a good prospect for geother- ‘mal application, Absorption machines are commercially available today in two basic configurations. For applications above 32°F (primarily airconditioning), the eyele uses lithium bromide as the absorbent and water as the refigerant, For appliea- tions below 32°F, an ammonia/water cycle is employed with ammonia asthe refrigerant and water as the absorbent, 13.2 LITHIUM BROMIDE/WATER CYCLE MACHINES Figure 13.1 shows a diagram of a typical lithium ‘bromide/water machine (Li Br/H,0). The process occurs in two vessels or shells. The upper shell contains the ‘generator and condenser, the lower shell, the absorber and evaporator. Heat supplied in the generator section is added to a solution of Li Br/H,O. This heat causes the refigerant, in this case water, to be boiled out of the solution in a distillation process. The water vapor that results passes into the condenser section where a cooling medium is used to ‘condense the vapor back toa liquid state. The water then flows down to the evaporator section where it passes over tubes containing the fluid to be cooled. By maintaining a Figure 13.1. Diagram of two-shell lithium bromide eyele water chiller (ASHRAE, 1983). very low pressure inthe absorber-evaporator shel, the water boils at a very low temperature, This boiling causes the water to absorb heat from the medium to be cooled, thus, lowering its temperature. Evaporated water then passes into the absorber section where itis mixed with a Li Br/H,0 solution that is very low in water content, This strong solution (strong in Li Br) tends to absorb the vapor from the evaporator section to form a weaker solution. ‘This is the alasorption process that gives the eyee its name. The weak solution is then pumpedto the generator section to repeat the eyele ‘As shown in Figure 13.1, there are three fluid circuits that have extemal connections: a) generator heat input, b) cooling water, and.) chilled water. Associated with each of these circuits is a specific temperature at which the machines are rated. For single-stage units, these tempera- ‘ures are : 12 psi steam (or equivalent hot water) entering the generator, 85°F cooling water, and 44°F leaving chilled water (ASHRAE, 1983). Under these conditions, a coeftic- ient of performance (COP) of approximately 0.65 to 0.70 could be expected (ASHRAE, 1983). The COP can be thought of as a sort of index ofthe efficiency ofthe machine, I is caleulated by dividing the cooling output by the 29913.3 PERFORMANCE Based on equations that have been developed (Christen, 1977) to describe the performance of a single- stage absorption machine, Figure 13.2 shows the effect on COP and capacity (cooling output) versus input hot-water tempersture, Entering hot water temperatures of Tess then 220°F result in substantial reduction in equipment capacity, ‘The reason for the steep drop off in capacity with temperature is related to the nature of the heat input to the absorption cycle. Inthe generator, hea input causes boiling to occur in the absorbenvreftigerant mixture, Because the pressure is fairly constant in the generator, this fixes the boiling temperature. As‘ result, a reduction in the en tering hot water temperature causes a reduction in the temperature difference between the hot fluid and the boiling mixture, Because heat transfer varies directly with temper- ature difference, there is # nearly linear drop off in absorp- tion refrigeration capacity with entering hot water tempera- ture. In the past few years, one manufacturer (Yavaki, undated) has modified small capacity units (2t0 10 ton) for ; i Percent of capacity increased performance at lower inlet temperature. How- ever, low-temperature modified machines are not yet avail- able in large outputs, which would be applicable to institutional- and industial-type projects. Although COP and capacity are also affected by other variables such as condenser and chilled water temperatures and flow rates, ‘generator heat input conditions have the largest impact on performance. This is «particularly important consideration with regard to geothermal applications. Because many geothermal resources in the 240 F and. above temperature range are being investigated for power ‘generation using organic Rankine cycle (ORC) schemes, it is likely that space conditioning applications would see temperatures below this value. As a result, chillers operating in the 180 to 230°F range would (according to Figure 13.2) have to be (depending on resource tempera- ture) between 400 and 20% oversized respectively for a particular application, ‘This would tend to increase capital cost and decrease payback when compared to a conven tional system, ‘An additional increase in capital cost would arise from. the larger cooling tower costs that result from the low COP of absorption equipment. The COP of singe effect equip- ment is approximately 0.7. The COP of a vapor compres- sion machine under the same conditions may be 3.0 or higher. As a result, for each unit of reftigeration, a vapor compression system would have to reject 133 units of heat at the cooling tower. For an absorption system, at a COP of 0.7, 2.43 units of heat must be rejected at the cooling tower. This results in a significant cost penalty forthe absorption system with regard to the cooling tower and accessories, Peteant of COP at faied condons Enterng hot water temperature ¢) Figure 13.2 Capac 300 of a lithium bromide absorption chiller (Christen, 1977).‘Tin the hot water flow circuit. In boiler coupled ‘operation, this is of litle consequence to operating cost However, because A T directly affects flow rate, and thus pumping energy, thisisamajor consideration in geothermal applications. Forexample, assuming a COP of 0.54 and 15°F A T on the geothermal fluid, 250 M pump head and 65% wire-to- ‘water efficiency atthe well pump, approximately 0.20 kWit pumping power would be required, This compares (0 approximately 0.50 - 0,60 kWit for a large centrifugal ‘machine (compressor consumption only). The small A T and high flow rates also point out another consideration with regard to absorption chiller use in space conditioning applications, Assume a geothermal system is to be designed for heating and cooling a new building. Because the heating system can be designed for rather large ATs in comparison to the chiller, the incremental cost ofthe absorption approach would have to include the higher well and/or pump costs to accommodate its requirements, A second approach would be to design the well for space heating requirements and use s smaller absorption machine for base load duty, In this approach, 2 second electric chiller would be used for peaking. In either ‘ase, capital cost would be increased. o 200 400 Capacity in Tons Figure 13.3, Figure 13.3. presents some more general cost information on large tonnage (>100 tons) cooling equipment for space conditioning applications. ‘The plot shows the installed costs for both absorption chillers (Abs. chi.) centrifugal chillers (Elec. chlr.), and auxilliary condenser equipment cooling tower, cooling water pumps and cooling water piping) for both absorption chillers (Abs. twr.) And centrifugal chillers Elec. twr.). As shown, both the chiller itself and its auxiliary condenser equipment costs are much higher for the absorption design than for electic-driven chillers. These are the primary capital cost differences that a geothermal operation would have to compensate for in savings. 13.5 SMALL TONNAGE EQUIPMENT To our knowledge, there is only one company (Yazaki undated) currently manufacturing small tonnage (<20 tons) lithium bromide refrigeration equipment. This fem, located in Japan, produces equipment primarily for solar applications. Currently, units are available in 1.3, 2,3, 5, 7.5, and 10 ton capacities, ‘These units can be manifolded together to provide capacities of up to 50 tons. Because the units are water cooled chillers, they requite considerably more mechanical equipment for a given capacity than the conventional electric vapor compression equipment usually applied in ths size range Inaddition tothe absorption chiller itself, a cooling tower's required. ‘The cooling tower, which is installed outside, requires interconnecting piping and a circulation pump. Because the absorption machine produces chilled water, a cooling coil and fan are requited to deliver the cooling Abs chir Elec chir Abs twr Elec twr 600 800 = 1000 Chiller and auxiliary equipment costs - electric and absorption (Means, 1996). 301‘capacity tothe space, Insulated piping is required to con- rect the machine to the cooling coil. Another circulating pump is required forthe chilled water circuit. Finally, hot ‘water must be supplied to the absorption machine. ‘This requires a third piping loop. In order to evaluate the economic merit of small absorption equipment compared to conventional electric ‘cooling, Figure 13.4 was developed. This plot compares the savings achieved through the use of the absorption ‘equipment to its incremental capital costs over a ‘conventional cooling system. Specifically, the figure plots ‘cost of electricity against simple payback in years for the five different size units. In each case, the annual electric ‘cost savings of the absorption system (at 2,000 full load hours per year) is compared to the incremental capital cost of the system to arrive at a simple payback value. The ‘conventional system to which absorption is comparedin this ‘case is a rooftop package unit. This is the least expensive ‘conventional system available. A comparison of the absorption approach to more sophisticated cooling systems (VAY, 4-pipe chilled water, et.) would yield much more attractive payback periods. Theplotis based on the availability of geothermal fluid of sufficient temperature toallow operational rated capacity (190°F or above). In addition, other than piping, no costs 40 Simple payback in years for geothermal well or pumping are incorporated. Only. cooling equipment related costs are considered. Asaresult, the payback values in Figure 13.4 are valid only for a situation in which a geothermal resource has already been developed for some other purpose (space heating and aquaculture), and the only decision at hand is that of choosing between electric and absorption cooling options. Figure 13.4 also shows that the economics of small tonnage absorption cooling are attractive only in cases of $ to 10 ton capacity requirements and more than $0.10 kW/h electrical costs, Figure 13.4 is based on an annual cooling. requirement of 2,000 full load hours per year. This ison the upper end of requirements for most geographical areas. To adjust for other annual cooling requirements, simply ‘multiply he simple payback from Figure 13.4 by actual full load hours and divide by 2,000, ‘The performance of the absorption cooling machine was based on nominal conditions in order to develop Figure 134. It should be noted that, as withthe larger machines, performance is heavily dependent upon entering hot water temperature and entering cooling water temperature, Ratings are based on 190°F entering hot water, 85 °F ent- ering cooling water and 48°F leaving chilled water. Flow rates forall three loops ate based upon a 9*F A T. 002 008 9.96, 0.98 010 Cost of electricity in $ per kWh Figure 13.4 Simple payback on small absorption equipment compared to conventional rooftop equipment. 302Percent, 40 170 180 190 200 210 Entering hot water temperature (°F) Figure 13.5 Small tonnage absorption equipment performance. Figure 13.5 illustrates the effect of entering hot water temperature and entering cooling water temperature on small machine performance. At entering hot water temperatures of less than 180°F, substantial derating is necessary. For preliminary evaluation, the 85°F cooling ‘water curve should be employed. 13.6 COMMERCIAL REFRIGERATION Most commercial and industrial reftigeration appli- cations involve process temperatutes of less than 32°F and many are 0". As a result, the lithium bromide/water eyele is no longer able to. meet the requirements, because water is used for the refrigerant. As a result, a fluid which is not subject to freezing at these temperatures is required. The most common type of absorption cycle employed for these applications is the water/ammonia cycle. Inthis case, water is the absorbent and ammonia is the refrigerant. Use of water/ammonia equipment in conjunction with ‘geothermal resources for commercial refrigeration applica- tions is influenced by some of the same considerations as space cooling applications. Figure 13.5 illustrates the most important of these. As_ refrigeration temperature is re- duced, the required hot water input temperature is in- creased, Because most commercial and industrial reftige- ration applications occur at temperatures below 32°F, required heat input temperatures must be at least 230°F. It should also be remembered that the required evaporation temperature is 10 to 15°F below the process temperature For example, for a +20°F cold storage application, a S°F ‘evaporation temperature would be requited, Figure 13.6 suggests a minimum hot water temperature of 275°F would be requited. ‘There is nota large number of geothermal resources in this temperature range. For geo- thermal resourees that produce temperatures in this range, itis likely that small scale power generation would le com- peting consideration unless cascaded uses are employed Figure 13.7 indicates another consideration for re- ‘igeration applications. The COP for most applications is likely to be less than 0.55. As a result, hot water flow requirements are substantial. In addition, the cooling tower requirements, as discussed above, are much larger than for ‘equivalently sized vapor compression equipment. 13.7 CURRENT ABSORPTION RESEARCH Recent work at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL)(Wablig, 1984) has resultedin significantly improved absorption cycle performance. Researchers at LBL, ‘working to improve absorption cycle performance for solar application, have developed two advanced versions of the ammonia/water machine. Ammonia/water was chosen as the working fluid pair in order to allow the use of an air- cooled condenser for potential heat pump operation. 303Source 200 4 420 0 20 480 Evaporation temperature (°F) i, 1982). Figure 13.6 Required resource temperatures for ammonia/water absorption equipment ( or 06 -86 °F Cooling water temperature ~ cop “0 2 3 2 40a vaporation temperature ("F) Figure 13.7 The COP for ammonia/water absorption equipment refriger applications (Hi 304Supply water temperature (F) Figure 13.8 Ammonia/water single and double effect regenerative cycle performance (Wahlig, 1984). The two cycles that have been developed are designed IR and 2R for single effect regenerative cycle and double effect regenerative cycle, respectively. As shown in Figure 13.8, these two cycles show substantially higher COP, over ‘a much broader range of generator input temperatures than the conventional lithium/bromide cycles. ‘The superior performance is achieved by operating the chiller input stage at constant temperature, rather than constant pressure as in ‘conventional systems. This has the effect of reducing the thermodynamic irreversibilities in the absorption cycle (Wablig, 1984), Itis not known to what extent this technology has been incorporated by the major manufacturers of indirect fired absorption equipment. 13.8 MATERIALS The generator section is the only portion of the absorption machine that is likely to be exposed to the geothermal fluid. In this section, the heating medium is passed through a tube bundle to provide heat to the reftigeranvabsorbent mixture located in the shell. The generator tube bundle is generally constructed of copper or a copper alloy (80/10 cupro nickel). These al- loys,as discussed in Chapter 8, are not compatible with most geothermal resources, particularly if hydrogen sulphide (H,S), ammonia (NH,) or oxygenare present. Be- cause most resources contain some or all of these dissolved gases, exposure of standard construction chillers to these fluids is not recommended, Two available options 1. Special order chiller with corrosion resistant tubes. 2. An isolation heat exchanger and clean water loop, Conversations with at least one major large tonnage absorption machine manufacturer indicate that the first option may be the most cost effective (Todd, 1987). Although a 316 stainless steel tube would appear tobe the ‘most cost effective, the manufacturer suggest the use of titanium. Because titanium tubes are more generally available in the enhanced surface configurations necessary for this application, thei cost is very competitive with the stainless steel tubes. In addition, the use of unenhanced stainless steel tubes would, according to the manufacturer, result in a large de-rating of the chiller because of less effective heat transfer The incremental capital cost for this type of construction (titanium generator tubes) would amount to approximately 10 to 15% ofthe basic machine cost. In most ceases, this would be far less than the cost associated with the heat exchanger, circulating pump, piping, and controls necessary foran isolation loop, An additional advantage is thatthe alternate generator construction avoids the losses associated with the heat exchanger. 305306 F. Very high resource temperatures of two-stage are requited for low-temperature refrigeration, Absorption machine hot water requirements compared to space heating flow requirements Incremental well and pumping costs should be applied to the absorption machine. Refrigeration capacity required Larger machines have lower incremental capital costs fon a Siton basis. Coupled with the larger displaced ‘energy, this result in a mote postive economic picture Annual cooling load for space conditioning, in full oad hours or for process cooling, in terms of load factor Obviously higher utilization ofthe equipment results in ‘more rapid payout Pumping power for resources with unusually low static water levels or drawdowns Pumping power may approach 50% of high efficiency electric chiller consumption. American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers, 1983. "1983 Handbook of Fundamentals,” ASHRAE, Atlanta, GA, pp. 14.1-148. Christen, J.B., 1977. "Central Cooling - Absorptive Chill- ts," Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge TN. Hirai, W. A., 1982. "Feasibility Study of an Joe Making. and Cold Storage Facility Using Geothermal Waste Heat," Geo-Heat Center, Klamath Falls, OR. Means, R.S.,1985. "1985 Means Mechanical Cost Data," R.S. Means, Inc., Kingston, MA. Todd, M., Sales Engineer, 1987. Personal communica- tion. Airefeo Inc., Portland, OR. Wablig, M., 1984. Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Pet- sonal communication with Gene Culver, Geo-Heat Center. Yazaki Corporation, undated, Yazaki Gas & Solar Air Conditioning Equipment - Cat. No, 15.3 AME, Yazaki Corporation, Tokyo, Japan.