IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v256y2026ipes0960148125019809.html

Transient investigation of solar-powered absorption heat transformers for process heat production in industries

Author

Listed:
  • Bellos, Evangelos
  • Lykas, Panagiotis
  • Sammoutos, Christos
  • Kitsopoulou, Angeliki
  • Gonidaki, Dimitra
  • Vidalis, Evangelos
  • Rahbari, Hamid Reza
  • Arabkoohsar, Ahmad
  • Tzivanidis, Christos

Abstract

This study investigates a solar-driven absorption heat transformer (AHT) with the LiBr/H2O pair. Four different solar thermal technologies are examined for producing useful heat which is then stored in a tank and feeds the AHT for industrial heat production. The examined solar thermal collectors are the simple flat plate collector (SFPC), the advanced flat plate collector (AFPC), the evacuated flat plate collector (EFPC), and the evacuated tube collector (ETC). Practically, the heat transformer upgrades the solar useful output through a thermochemical absorption cycle. This work uses a validated thermodynamic program created in Engineering Equation Solver, while the unsteady investigation is carried out through TRNSYS software by connecting the tools properly, exploiting their interoperability. During this analysis, the impact of some critical parameters on the system behavior is studied to calculate the industrial heat production and the system efficiency by conducting a dynamic simulation of a typical summer typical week in Athens (Greece). Specifically, the impact of the solar collectors' mass flow rate, the load mass flow rate, the solar field area, and the tank's volume are defined for all the collector types. Finally, a yearly simulation is conducted for the main scenario (100 m2 solar field with a tank of 8 m3) indicating that the selection of EFPC is the best choice energetically and economically compared to others. Specifically, in this scenario, the yearly industrial heating production is calculated at 36879 kWh, the yearly system energy efficiency at 21.17 %, the yearly system exergetic efficiency at 5.86 %, the levelized cost of heating at 0.0702 €/kWh, and the yearly CO2 emissions avoidance at 8504 kg CO2. The reported data shows that the proposed systems are more sustainable compared to a benchmark scenario with a natural boiler system. Finally, it is useful to state that the use of ETC and AFPC are also sustainable choices, but they are less effective compared to EFPC.

Suggested Citation

  • Bellos, Evangelos & Lykas, Panagiotis & Sammoutos, Christos & Kitsopoulou, Angeliki & Gonidaki, Dimitra & Vidalis, Evangelos & Rahbari, Hamid Reza & Arabkoohsar, Ahmad & Tzivanidis, Christos, 2026. "Transient investigation of solar-powered absorption heat transformers for process heat production in industries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(PE).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:256:y:2026:i:pe:s0960148125019809
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2025.124316
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148125019809
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2025.124316?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mahmoudi, S.M. Seyed & Akbari, A.D. & Rosen, Marc A., 2022. "A novel combination of absorption heat transformer and refrigeration for cogenerating cooling and distilled water: Thermoeconomic optimization," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 978-996.
    2. Stengler, Jana & Bürger, Inga & Linder, Marc, 2020. "Thermodynamic and kinetic investigations of the SrBr2 hydration and dehydration reactions for thermochemical energy storage and heat transformation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    3. Alexandre C. L. Almeida & Anderson R. Duarte & Luiz H. Duczmal & Fernando L. P. Oliveira & Ricardo H. C. Takahashi & Ivair R. Silva, 2024. "Adjusted Inference for the Spatial Scan Statistic," Springer Books, in: Joseph Glaz & Markos V. Koutras (ed.), Handbook of Scan Statistics, chapter 3, pages 41-54, Springer.
    4. Dong, Yixiu & Yan, Hongzhi & Wang, Ruzhu, 2024. "Significant thermal upgrade via cascade high temperature heat pump with low GWP working fluids," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 190(PA).
    5. Lucas P. Harlaar & Jacques J.F. Commandeur & Jan A. van den Brakel & Siem Jan Koopman & Niels Bos & Frits D. Bijleveld, 2024. "Statistical Early Warning Models with Applications," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 24-037/III, Tinbergen Institute.
    6. Cudok, Falk & Giannetti, Niccolò & Ciganda, José L. Corrales & Aoyama, Jun & Babu, P. & Coronas, Alberto & Fujii, Tatsuo & Inoue, Naoyuki & Saito, Kiyoshi & Yamaguchi, Seiichi & Ziegler, Felix, 2021. "Absorption heat transformer - state-of-the-art of industrial applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    7. ., 2024. "Lockdown statistics," Chapters, in: On the Inaccuracies of Economic Observations, chapter 5, pages 127-153, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Wang, Cun & Bi, Yuehong, 2024. "Dynamic characteristics and performance analysis of a double-stage energy storage heat transformer with a large temperature lift," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    9. Colorado, D. & Hernández, J.A. & El Hamzaoui, Y. & Bassam, A. & Siqueiros, J. & Andaverde, J., 2011. "Error propagation on COP prediction by artificial neural network in a water purification system integrated to an absorption heat transformer," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 1315-1322.
    10. Zhang, Jing & Zhang, Hong-Hu & He, Ya-Ling & Tao, Wen-Quan, 2016. "A comprehensive review on advances and applications of industrial heat pumps based on the practices in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 800-825.
    11. Michel, Benoit & Clausse, Marc, 2020. "Design of thermochemical heat transformer for waste heat recovery: Methodology for reactive pairs screening and dynamic aspect consideration," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    12. Horuz, Ilhami & Kurt, Bener, 2010. "Absorption heat transformers and an industrial application," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 2175-2181.
    13. Wakim, Michel & Rivera-Tinoco, Rodrigo, 2019. "Absorption heat transformers: Sensitivity study to answer existing discrepancies," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 881-890.
    14. Gao, J.T. & Xu, Z.Y. & Wang, R.Z., 2021. "An air-source hybrid absorption-compression heat pump with large temperature lift," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ji, Qiang & Che, Chunwen & Yin, Yonggao & Huang, Gongsheng & Pan, Tengxiang & Zhao, Donglin & Wang, Yikai, 2024. "Optimizing working fluids for advancing industrial heating performance of compression-absorption cascade heat pump," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 376(PB).
    2. Rahbari, Hamid Reza & Elmegaard, Brian & Bellos, Evangelos & Tzivanidis, Christos & Arabkoohsar, Ahmad, 2025. "Thermochemical technologies for industrial waste heat recovery: A comprehensive review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    3. Wang, Ruzhu & Yan, Hongzhi & Wu, Di & Jiang, Jiatong & Dong, Yixiu, 2024. "High temperature heat pumps for industrial heating processes using water as refrigerant," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    4. Wang, Cun & Bi, Yuehong, 2024. "Dynamic characteristics and performance analysis of a double-stage energy storage heat transformer with a large temperature lift," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    5. Pandiyan, Surya Venkatesh & Rajasekharan, Jayaprakash & Gros, Sebastien, 2025. "Hierarchical distributed optimization based bidding algorithm for electric water heater flexibility aggregators in nordic energy activation markets," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 401(PB).
    6. Ji, Qiang & Li, Yizhen & Yin, Yonggao & Che, Chunwen & Huang, Gongsheng, 2026. "Compression-absorption hybrid heat pumps operating wide temperature ranges: A review and perspectives for large temperature lift," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 405(C).
    7. Álvaro F. Junquera & Christoph Kern, 2025. "From rules to forests: rule-based versus statistical models for jobseeker profiling," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 59(1), pages 1-27, December.
    8. Siskos, Christoforos & Manakas, Pantelis & Karaoglanoglou, Lazaros & Vlysidis, Anestis, 2026. "Techno-economic and environmental analysis of methanol production from cement carbon dioxide emissions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(PD).
    9. Dagilis, Vytautas & Uldinskas, Žilvinas & Vaitkus, Liutauras & Jouhara, Hussam & Poškas, Robertas, 2021. "The simulation and analysis of wood fuel low-grade heat," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    10. Liu, Yishuang & Qu, Shengli & Shen, Shaofeng & Feng, Yiwei & Sun, Tianrui & Wang, Chuang & Xing, Ziwen, 2025. "Experimental investigation on the large temperature lift heat pump with an integrated two-stage independently variable frequency compressor," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    11. Dong, Yixiu & Madani, Hatef & Kou, Xiaoxue & Wang, Ruzhu, 2025. "High temperature heat pump with dual uses of cooling and heating for industrial applications," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 379(C).
    12. Parham, Kiyan & Khamooshi, Mehrdad & Tematio, Daniel Boris Kenfack & Yari, Mortaza & Atikol, Uğur, 2014. "Absorption heat transformers – A comprehensive review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 430-452.
    13. Kazemi-Robati, Ehsan & Varotto, Sofia & Silva, Bernardo & Temiz, Irina, 2025. "Multiobjective energy management of multi-source offshore parks assisted with hybrid battery and hydrogen/fuel-cell energy storage systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 377(PC).
    14. Wei, Junzhuo & Wu, Di & Wang, Ruzhu, 2025. "A Multi-Objective evolutionary algorithm-based optimization framework for hybrid absorption-compression heat pump systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 382(C).
    15. Liu, W. & Ji, Y. & Wang, R.Q. & Zhang, X.J. & Jiang, L., 2023. "Analysis on temperature vacuum swing adsorption integrated with heat pump for efficient carbon capture," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 335(C).
    16. Isye Hayatina & Amar Auckaili & Mohammed Farid, 2023. "Review on Salt Hydrate Thermochemical Heat Transformer," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-23, June.
    17. Malleswararao, K. & Bürger, Inga & Mejia, Aldo Cosquillo & Kim, Seon Tae & Linder, Marc, 2026. "Innovative approaches to waste heat recovery: Coupling high temperature vapour compression heat pumps with salt hydrate thermochemical systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 405(C).
    18. Li, Wei & Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír & Wang, Qiuwang & Zeng, Min, 2022. "Salt hydrate–based gas-solid thermochemical energy storage: Current progress, challenges, and perspectives," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    19. Ding, Zhixiong & Wu, Wei, 2025. "Large-temperature-lift energy storage heat transformer for deep thermal energy utilization," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 384(C).
    20. Khosravi, Soheil & Desai, Nishith B. & Haglind, Fredrik & Arabkoohsar, Ahmad, 2025. "Techno-economic analysis of partial evaporation and sub-critical organic Rankine cycle systems integrated with an absorption heat transformer," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 326(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:256:y:2026:i:pe:s0960148125019809. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.