This paper presents an air-cooled waste heat-driven absorption refrigeration cycle with a non-adiabatic absorber using R290/oil as working fluid. The effect of various operating parameters (generator temperature, absorber outlet solution temperature, evaporator and condenser temperature, absorption efficiency and solution heat exchanger effectiveness) on the system performance has been discussed based on the first and second law of thermodynamics. In order to reveal which components have a poor utilization of the input exergy, theexergy destruction coefficient has been defined and calculated under considered working conditions. The simulation results show that the system can run steadily under air-cooled conditions with an appreciable COP of 0.4696 and exergetic efficiency of 0.1293. So 8290/oil mixture is a highly potential working fluid for absorption refrigeration. The application of the air-cooled non-adiabatic absorber improves both the coefficient of performance and the exergetic efficiency of the system, which also contributes to the miniaturization and cost reduction of air-cooled systems. And the solution heat exchanger and generator are the major contributors to the total exergy destruction of the system. More efforts should be made to optimize these components for higher exergetic efficiency of the system. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.