A cost effective absorption chiller with plate heat exchangers using water and hydroxides

The working pair water and hydroxide has about the same thermophysical properties as water/lithium bromide which is mainly used in absorption chiller applications. Because the solution field of water and hydroxide is significantly wider than that of water and lithium bromide, heat pump applications with high temperature lift can be realized. A double effect absorption heat pump with a heating capacity of about 45 kW was designed, built and tested in our laboratory. The generator is a direct fired pool boiling apparatus. All other components are plate heat exchangers. The absorbent is a mixture of 50% NaOH and 50% KOH. In this paper the experimental setup will be described and the experimental results of the test runs will be presented. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.