Thermo-economic analysis of a solar-powered absorption refrigeration integrated with a humidification–dehumidification desalination

With the decrease in the fuel price subsidy in Iran, the urge for renewable energy sources to produce cooling and freshwater in a sustainable manner is becoming a challenge. Therefore, it is necessary to specify the marginal fuel price at which a solar-based cooling/water system is compatible with a fuel-based system. To this end, a solar-powered absorption refrigeration integrated with a humidification–dehumidification desalination system was thermo-economically evaluated to produce the freshwater and cooling production rates of nearly 0.58 m3/h and 28 ton/h, respectively, as well as the solar field output temperature of 175 °C. The levelized cost of product definition, which is based on the capital costs of the system, operation and maintenance costs as well as the discount rate, was used to calculate the cooling and freshwater unit of costs (COC and COW). The results demonstrated that the locations with high solar radiation levels require smaller solar field areas and larger thermal energy storage (TES) capacities, which leads to a higher percentage of annual solar share ( $$S_{{{\text{sh}}}}$$ ), and consequently lower COC and COW values. For instance, Abu Dhabi and Athens with solar radiation levels of 1977 kWh/ $${\text{m}}^{2}$$ and 1514 kWh/ $${\text{m}}^{2}$$ , respectively, have the COC (or COW) of 0.135 $/ton (or 2.88 $/m3) and 0.387 $/ton (or 7.38 $/m3), respectively. The total annual fuel saving of the proposed system with 10 h of TES for the locations with the highest and lowest $$S_{{{\text{sh}}}}$$ s [Abu Dhabi (77.97%), Athens (29.47%)] was obtained as $${1}.{38} \times 10^{6} \;{\text{m}}^{3}$$ and 0.52 $$\times 10^{6} \;{\text{m}}^{3}$$ , respectively. In addition, since the fuel price is highly subsidized in three locations of the study, the solar-based system cannot economically compete with the fuel-based system unless the fuel cost increases by 500%, 36%, and 19% for Iran, Yemen, and United Arab Emirates, respectively.