Home – Home – Jornals – Chemistry for Sustainable Development 2004 number 6

Ecological and economic aspects of the use of sorption heat facilities (refrigerators and thermal pumps) under the conditions existing in Russia are considered, along with their competitiveness in comparison with traditional systems. It is shown that sorption refrigerators are preferable in comparison with compression ones if waste heat (or solar energy) is used. If regeneration is carried out by burning natural gas, sorption devices can be more ecologically pure only in exclusive cases, so, in order to decrease emissions of greenhouse gases, is it reasonable to develop compression devices with high coefficient of performance (COP ³ 4). Sorption heat pumps with the coefficient of amplification COA>1 are ecologically safer and economically more efficient that gas heaters. In the case of COA_abs=1.7, consumption of natural gas decreases by 41 %; for COA_abs=1.5 - by 33%, which means substantial practical interest. Analysis may be useful either for the determination of the promising character of various sorption devices followed by elaboration of the corresponding technical policy or for choosing the economic parameters affecting the competitiveness of technologies, including those for separate regions of Russia.