Assessment of Aqueous Lithium-based Salt Solutions as Working Fluid for Absorption Chillers using Aspen Plus

Adonis P. Adornado (School of Chemical, Biological, and Materials Engineering and Sciences, Mapúa University, Intramuros, Manila 1002, Philippines)
Allan N. Soriano (School of Chemical, Biological, and Materials Engineering and Sciences, Mapúa University, Intramuros, Manila 1002, Philippines)
Vergel C. Bungay (Department of Chemical Engineering, De La Salle University, Taft Ave., Manila 1004, Philippines)

ASEAN Journal of Chemical Engineering
Vol 17, No 2 (2017)

Absorption chillers are a viable option for providing waste heat-powered coolingor refrigeration, thereby improving overall energy efficiency-less primary energy input,lower emissions, and cost savings. This study focuses on the assessment of aqueouslithium-based salt solutions as working fluid for absorption chiller in exploring thepossibility of developing new mixtures for absorption chillers to improve the performanceof the absorption refrigeration systems (ARSs). In this paper, the coefficient ofperformance (COP) of a single-effect absorption chiller using aqueous lithium-based saltsolutions (LiF-H2O, LiCl-H2O, LiBr-H2O, and LiI-H2O) as working fluid was assessed usingAspen Plus®. The simulation results obtained showed that the mass and energy were wellbalanced for all systems. Furthermore, a direct proportionality relationship between COPof absorption chillers and the van't Hoff factor, i of dissociated aqueous salt solutions wasobserved. The highest COP value is 0.8930 for LiI-H2O among others.