Modelling of cold store for agro-products using solar-driven adsorption chiller under Rwandan environmental conditions

There has been an increasing need to address the lack of food cold chain in order to save wasted food in Sub-Saharan Africa. TRNSYS has been considered as a powerful tool to simulate transient energy systems. In this study, TRNSYS has been utilised to model a standalone year-round adsorption cooling system driven by solar thermal energy to preserve fruits and vegetables after the harvest in Rwanda. The required solar collector area and heat storage size were optimised to run the adsorption refrigeration system 24/7, meet the cooling demand of the cold room and maintain its conditions. A combination of evacuated tube solar collector area of 45 m² with a hot storage size of 10 m³ and 50 m² with 8 m³ were found optimal to drive the cooling system 24/7 and maintain a cold room of 38 m³ at the desired operating temperature of 10^oC to preserve a selected range of fruits and vegetables.