Hybrid system combining mechanical compression and thermochemical storage of ammonia vapor for cold production

This paper studies a hybrid system for cold production consisting of a compression cycle combined with a thermochemical process by sharing the same condenser, evaporator and refrigerant fluid. The aim of this hybridization is to solve mismatch issues between the demand of cold and the source of energy (availability and/or price) with a system as compact as possible. One important side benefit is that the interaction between the compressor and the thermochemical reactor reduces the activation temperature for ammonia desorption in the thermochemical reactor. To study this interaction a quasi-steady simulation model for both storage and de-storage phases has been developed and experimentally validated by means of a small scale (approx. 300 Wh of cold storage) experimental bench with ammonia as refrigerant and barium chloride (BaCl2) as reactant salt. Experiments proved a 35 K reduction in the activation temperature of the desorption reaction with respect to desorption without compressor. Model validation by adjusting permeability and thermal conductivity of the reactive composite showed an acceptable agreement between predicted and experimental reaction advancement-time curves. The validated model was used for simulation of the system in a preliminary case study, representative in power (40 kW) and temperature (-25 degrees C) of an industrial cold demand. It is shown that during ammonia de-storage, the hybrid achieves a higher COP than a conventional mechanical vapor compression system. It increases exponentially with the relative share of thermochemical storage in the cold production.