What is it about?
This research focuses on building and controlling a lab machine called a single-stage absorption heat pump that takes leftover low-temperature heat—from factories, solar panels, or geothermal sources—and boosts it to higher temperatures for reuse, like in industrial heating. It uses water as the main fluid and a special absorbent called Carrol (a mix of lithium bromide salt and ethylene glycol antifreeze) to make the process work better without clogging. The setup includes key parts: a vapor generator, a condenser to cool steam back to liquid, an evaporator, an absorber where heat is released, an economizer to save energy, plus heating and cooling helpers, and a heat recovery exchanger. There are 32 things to track, but five are crucial: pressure, temperature, salt concentration, fluid flow, and evaporation power. The team simulated the system on a computer to predict the best settings, calibrated temperature sensors for accuracy, and wrote software (using HP-VEE) to calculate power use and flows in real-time during tests. They tested it in a Mexican university lab, finding how power ratios between parts change with the final hot temperature (from 90°C to 110°C or 194°F to 230°F). A simple math link helps automate the fluid flow, cutting startup time from 5 hours of manual tweaks. It's like programming a smart thermostat for an energy-recycling device to run smoothly and efficiently.
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Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
Why is it important?
In 2025, with global pushes for energy efficiency and waste heat recovery (estimated 20-50% industrial loss), this 2007 study is key for practical lab-to-real-world absorption pumps that cut fossil fuel use by upgrading low-grade heat affordably. Unique is the object-oriented software for real-time fluid control with water/Carrol, addressing common issues like crystallization in standard mixes—allowing stable boosts up to 110°C. It could reduce startup times and costs in prototypes, enabling broader use in solar/geothermal systems for developing countries like Mexico, potentially saving 15-25% energy in processes like desalination. With 4 citations, it has informed automation in thermal engineering, fostering sustainable innovations amid net-zero goals.
Perspectives
This chapter from Innovations in Computer and Information Sciences presents laboratory instrumentation and object-oriented design for controlling working fluid in a Single-Stage Absorption Heat Pump (SSAHP) using H2O/Carrol™ at UAEM's Laboratory. SSAHP revalues waste heat from TEV (~71°C) to TAB (90-110°C) via exothermic absorption. System: Generator, condenser, evaporator, absorber, economizer; auxiliaries: heating/cooling; recovery: absorber exchanger: All these devices have 32 variables, 5 critical for steady-state: P, T, X, flow, and energy for each process.
Professor Rosenberg J Romero
Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Morelos
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Laboratory instrumentation and object oriented design for working fluid control in an “absorption heat pump” using Water / Carrol, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4020-6268-1_76.
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