A traditional vehicular air conditioning system using vapor compression increases fuel consumption by at least 15%, while provoking a reduction in engine power. Whereas an internal combustion engine converts about 30% of the energy into mechanical energy, about 35% is released in the form of exhaust gas and 25% is dissipated through the cooling system, and approximately 50% of the available fuel energy is released as heat to the environment. This heat could be used by an absorption refrigeration system, which requires a high temperature source to provide the vaporization of the refrigerant and decoupling from the absorbent solution.
The main objective of this paper is to present a thermodynamic evaluation of the use of heat recovery in internal combustion engines, Diesel cycle, to drive an air conditioning absorption refrigerator for vehicles using the pair water-ammonia. An energy and exergy analysis, applying the First and Second Law of Thermodynamics to the systems involved, is developed in a simulator to evaluate the technical feasibility of using this system to weatherize large vehicles. It identifies the points of the system where the highest irreversibility is found, thus enabling the power focused on reducing such losses. By using asimulation, we hope to determine the basis for the assembly of a prototype vehicular air conditioning system by absorption in transport vehicles.