| Abstract: | This paper presents a brief review of the available latent heat storage systems for solar energy utilization. A new concept of latent heat storage of solar energy via the refrigerant-absorbent mass storage in absorption cycle heat pump systems used for solar space heating/cooling has been proposed and assessed thermodynamically. A computer modelling and numerical simulation study shows that the concept of refrigerant storage is fundamentally sound, technically feasible and yields the following advantages over other storage methods: (i) the storage capacity per unit volume is high as the latent heat of vaporization of the refrigerant is high; (ii) the heat loss from the storage to the surroundings is minimum as the storage temperature is near the ambient; (iii) prolonged energy storage is possible with no degradation in system performance and hence suitable for combined solar heating and airconditioning. The effects of operating parameters on the energy storage concentration and storage efficiency have been studied in detail. |
