Combined absorption desalination-refrigeration cycle driven by low temperature heat source

Renpeng Li, Ruzhu Wang and Zhenyuan Xu

Energy, 2025, vol. 327, issue C

Abstract: Combined absorption desalination-refrigeration cycles enable simultaneous freshwater production and cooling through sub-ambient evaporation of saline water, offering promise for regions facing water and cooling shortages. However, conventional single-stage cycles cannot operate effectively under low-temperature heat sources such as solar thermal energy. To address this, we propose heat-coupled and mass-coupled double-stage cycles and conduct performance comparisons with the single-stage configuration. Key indicators—coefficient of performance (COP), gained output ratio (GOR), specific cooling power (SCP), specific water production (SWP), and exergy efficiency—are evaluated across a heat source temperature range of 50–85 °C. Results show that double-stage cycles provide more stable performance under varying conditions. The heat-coupled configuration achieves the best efficiency, with a COP of 0.45 and GOR of 0.91 at 53 °C—the lowest temperature where the single-stage cycle functions, with only 0.029 COP and 0.03 GOR. This represents over a 30-fold increase in water production and more than a 15-fold improvement in COP. Across the full temperature range, the heat-coupled cycle consistently outperforms the single-stage system, with GORs of 0.88–0.92, SCPs of 83.32–751.50 kW/kg, and SWPs of 0.13–1.25. These results highlight its potential as an efficient solution for utilizing low-grade heat to address global water scarcity and cooling demands.

Keywords: Low-temperature heat sources; Absorption desalination-refrigeration cycle; Double-stage cycle (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S036054422502050X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:327:y:2025:i:c:s036054422502050x

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.136408

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().