Thermodynamic study of a combined double-way solid–gas thermochemical sorption refrigeration cycle

A combined double-way thermochemical sorption refrigeration thermodynamic cycle was proposed and tested. Both adsorption refrigeration and resorption refrigeration processes were combined in order to improve the system performance. Two different consolidated composite materials were used as the reactive sorbents and ammonia was used as the refrigerant. Experimental results showed that a system operating with such proposed cycle can have two useful cold productions during one cycle at the expense of only one heat input at high temperature. The average specific cooling power (SCP) during the adsorption refrigeration phase was 301 W kg^?1. Analysis of the experimental data showed that the driving equilibrium drop during the resorption process was much lower than that during the adsorption process, when the cold production temperature was similar. The proposed combined double-way sorption cycle has a larger cooling capacity per unit of heat input and the maximum theoretical coefficient of performance (COP) is 1.24 when MnCl₂ and BaCl₂ are used as the reactive sorbents.     

Experimental study on a combined double-way chemisorption refrigeration system

A combined double-way chemisorption refrigeration system was described and investigated, and the experimental test unit was built, which consists of two adsorption beds: one high-temperature salt bed (HTS bed), which is filled with manganese chloride; and one low-temperature salt bed (LTS bed), which is filled with barium chloride. Moreover, the working performance of double-way chemisorption refrigeration cycle was studied. This cycle uses only one heat input to get two cold outputs, one of which comes from the evaporation heat produced by the refrigerant during the adsorption process, and another of which is from decomposition reaction heat consumed by LTS during the resorption process. The experimental results showed that the coefficient of performance (COP) and specific cooling power (SCP) were 0.703 and 225 W kg⁻¹ respectively at the refrigeration temperature of 15 °C, regeneration temperature of 160 °C and heat sink temperature of 30 °C. Also, the relation between the average global conversion and the COP value were found and analyzed. And the choice of salts and optimum reaction time were discussed either.     

双效双重热化学吸附制冷性能实验研究

建立了基于吸附-再吸附原理和内部回热技术的双效双重热化学吸附制冷实验系统,对其可行性及工作性能进行了实验研究。测试结果表明:双效双重热化学吸附制冷热力循环技术用于制冷空调领域是完全可行的,在每次循环过程中由外界热源输入一次高温解吸热可实现四次冷量输出;当采用NiCl2为高温盐吸附剂、MnCl2为中温盐吸附剂、BaCl2为低温盐吸附剂、NH3为制冷剂时,在加热温度为265℃、制冷温度为15℃、冷却温度为30℃的工况下,双效双重热化学吸附制冷循环的COP达到1.1。在此基础上分析了吸附制冷阶段和再吸附制冷阶段冷量输出过程的制冷功率变化特性,发现再吸附过程吸附反应强于吸附反应。     

以硫化石墨为吸附剂基质的再吸附制冷性能分析

相比于传统的吸附式制冷,再吸附制冷作为一种新型的制冷方式,其结构更加简单,并且其制冷性能系数也比相同条件下的吸附式制冷系统要高,故有较好的应用前景。但受到吸附剂的传热传质性能的限制,难以实现高效的再吸附制冷。本文利用硫化石墨作为吸附剂的基质,对其导热系数以及渗透率进行了测试比较,优选吸附剂。并且针对再吸附制冷系统建立了相关数学模型,分析不同工况条件下吸附剂工质对的性能。对整个再吸附制冷过程进行模拟仿真,从而得到不同工况下的制冷性能。结果表明,采用新型复合吸附剂的再吸附系统,COP最大可达到0.3以上,SCP最大可达到161 W/kg。     

Mass recovery adsorption refrigeration cycle—improving cooling capacity

The study investigates the performance of two-bed, silica gel-water adsorption refrigeration cycle with mass recovery process. The cycle with mass recovery can be driven by the relatively low temperature heat source. In an adsorption refrigeration cycle, the pressures in adsorber and desorber are different. The chiller with mass recovery process utilizes the pressure difference to enhance the refrigerant mass circulation. Cooling capacity and coefficient of performance (COP) were calculated by cycle simulation computer program to analyze the influences of operating conditions. The mass recovery cycle was compared with conventional cycle such as the single stage adsorption cycle in terms of cooling capacity and COP. The results show that the cooling capacity of mass recovery cycle is superior to that of conventional cycle and the mass recovery process is more effective for low regenerating temperature.     

Experimental investigation of mass recovery adsorption refrigeration cycle

The study investigates the performance of silica gel–water adsorption refrigeration cycle with mass recovery process by experimental prototype machine. In an adsorption refrigeration cycle, the pressures in adsorber and desorber are different. The mass recovery cycle utilizes the pressure difference to enhance the refrigerant mass circulation. Moreover, novel cycle was proposed for improvement of cooling output. In our previous study, simulation analysis shows that mass recovery cycle has the advantage over conventional single-stage. Experiments with prototype machine were conducted to investigate the performance improvement of mass recovery cycle in the present paper. Specific cooling power (SCP) and coefficient of performance (COP) were calculated with experimental data to analyze the influences of operating conditions. The proposed cycle was compared with the single-stage cycle in terms of SCP and COP. The results show that SCP of mass recovery cycle is superior to that of conventional cycle and mass recovery cycle is effective with low temperature heat source.     

Performance analysis of a combined vapor compression cycle and ejector cycle for refrigeration cogeneration

A hybrid vapor compression refrigeration (HVCR) system, which combines a vapor compression refrigeration (VCR) system and an ejector refrigeration (ER) system, was developed. The waste heat energy from the gas cooler in the VCR system is applied as driven source towards ER system.Thermodynamic investigations on the performance of the HVCR system, using CO₂ as a refrigerant, are performed with energetic and exergetic methods, and the comparative analyses with the VCR system are conducted. Comprehensive effects of key operating parameters on the system performance are also studied. The results indicate that for the same cooling capacity, the coefficient of performance (COP) of the HVCR system shows 25% higher COP and the total mechanical power consumption is reduced by 20% than that of conventional VCR system, respectively. The performance characteristics of the proposed cycle show its application potential in cooling and air-conditioning.     

Numerical study of a novel cascading adsorption cycle

A novel cascading adsorption cooling cycle for refrigeration purposes is proposed in this paper. This cycle consists of two zeolite adsorbent beds and a silica gel adsorbent bed. The working refrigerant for the three adsorbers is water. The zeolite adsorbent bed is configured as the high temperature stage while the silica gel adsorbent bed acts as the low temperature stage. Both heat and mass recovery are carried out between the two zeolite adsorbent beds. In addition, heat is also exchanged between the zeolite adsorbent and the silica gel adsorbent beds. A lumped model is assumed for this cascading cycle. The COP for the base case is found to be 1.35, which is much higher than the COP of an intermittent cycle (about 0.5) and a two-bed combined heat and mass recovery cycle (about 0.8). However, its specific cooling power (SCP) of 42.7 W/kg is much lower than that of the intermittent cycle. The numerical results indicate that an optimal middle temperature exists for a prescribed driven temperature. The optimal COP increases with an increase in the driven temperature. However, when the driven temperature increases beyond 503 K, there is negligible change in the COP.     

Hybrid vapor compression refrigeration system with an integrated ejector cooling cycle

A refrigeration system was developed which combines a basic vapor compression refrigeration cycle with an ejector cooling cycle. The ejector cooling cycle is driven by the waste heat from the condenser in the vapor compression refrigeration cycle. The additional cooling capacity from the ejector cycle is directly input into the evaporator of the vapor compression refrigeration cycle. The governing equations are derived based on energy and mass conservation in each component including the compressor, ejector, generator, booster and heat exchangers. The system performance is first analyzed for the on-design conditions. The results show that the COP is improved by 9.1% for R22 system. The system is then compared with a basic refrigeration system for variations of five important variables. The system analysis shows that this refrigeration system can effectively improve the COP by the ejector cycle with the refrigerant which has high compressor discharge temperature.     

Development of a circulating system for a jet refrigeration cycle

This paper proposed a workless-generator-feeding (WGF) system for a jet refrigeration cycle, using R141b. This feeding system does not require any mechanical power. The liquid refrigerant from the condenser was fed to the vapour-generator by means of the generator pressure and gravitational force. The system was tested and compared with a conventional system using a mechanical pump. It was found that this system was workable. The heat input to the generator was slightly higher than that for a system using a mechanical pump. The jet refrigeration cycle employing this new feeding system provided a slightly lower coefficient of performance (COP) compared to a system using a mechanical pump. However, this new system did not require any mechanical energy. Therefore, the jet refrigeration system employing this WGF system is truly a heat-power refrigeration cycle.     

Experimental study on a continuous adsorption water chiller with novel design

A newly developed adsorption water chiller is introduced and tested. In the new adsorption refrigeration system, there are no refrigerant valves, the problem of mass transfer resistance resulting in pressure drop along refrigerant passage in conventional systems when methanol or water is used as refrigerant can be absolutely solved. Silica-gel–water is used as working pair and mass recovery-like process is adopted in order to use low temperature heat source ranging from 70 to 85 °C effectively. The experiment results demonstrate that the chiller (26.4 kg silica-gel in each adsorber) has a cooling capacity of 2–7.3 kW and COP ranging 0.2–0.42 according to different evaporating temperatures. Based on the experimental tests of the first prototype, the second prototype is designed and tested; the experimental data demonstrate that the chiller performance has been greatly improved, with a heat source temperature of 80 °C, a COP over 0.5 and cooling capacity of 9 kW has been achieved at evaporating temperature of 13 °C.     

Stepped pressure cycle – A new approach to Lorenz cycle

Refrigerant vapor-compression cycle usually works with variable temperature heat sources in reality, which causes remarkable irreversible losses in heat exchange process. This paper proposed the stepped pressure cycle to modify the vapor-compression cycle using refrigerant, particularly pure refrigerant. Refrigerant is designed to flow through a series of heat transfer units with stepped pressures so that the irreversible losses can be reduced. Theoretical proof confirmed the stepped pressure cycle with pure refrigerant can approach the Lorenz cycle, the most efficient cycle under variable temperature heat sources. Numerical analysis on cycle performance demonstrated that a dual-step suction and discharge pressure cycle using R32 can achieve 11.5% cooling COP improvement for residential air conditioner, while a dual-step discharge pressure cycle using R134a can bring 9.8% heating COP increase for heat pump water heater. A pilot system was made and preliminarily tested. Compared to the single cycle system, 12.3% and 18.7% COP increase were achieved in the pilot system by applying dual and triple subcycles, respectively.     

基于双级离心式冷水机组的低GWP制冷剂制冷循环特性分析

对比多种低GWP制冷剂在双级压缩与单级压缩制冷循环中的性能差异,并分析各制冷剂用于双级离心式冷水机组时,机组性能系数COP对有效过热度、过冷度、吸排气压损和压缩比分配系数(中间压力)等主要参数变化的敏感度.研究结果表明,低压替代制冷剂的安全性更优,且理想制冷循环的COP更高,但是其在变过冷度和变吸排气压损特性方面逊于中...     

再循环重力供液制冷系统实验

对重力供液制冷系统形成再循环的条件和再循环时蒸发器的传热性能进行理论分析,建立相应的数学模型。将重力供液制冷系统与直接膨胀供液制冷系统进行比较,得到两种不同制冷系统工作特性上的差异。通过在焓差实验室中测定制冷系统在不同工况下的压力、风量、制冷量以及耗功等技术参数,得到重力供液制冷系统和直接膨胀供液制冷系统在室外干球温度一定的情况下传热系数、制冷量以及系统COP的变化规律。实验表明:再循环的形成可以增大制冷剂流速同时充分润湿传热表面,强化换热效果显著,在测试的工况下蒸发器的传热系数可增大近40%,COP最大提高7.6%,低温工况的增幅更大。     

Performance improvement of a transcritical CO2 refrigeration cycle using two-stage thermoelectric modules in sub-cooler and gas cooler

A novel integration of a trans-critical CO₂ refrigeration cycle with thermoelectric modules in the gas cooler and sub-cooler is presented, wherein a two-stage thermoelectric generator (TEG) produces power from the waste heat of gas cooler, which is a considerable amount of required power in two-stage thermoelectric cooler (TEC) to sub-cool the refrigerant before expansion device. Mathematical simulation of TEG and TEC as well as energy and exergy based thermodynamic analysis of the proposed system is performed, and the effects of some important parameters on the system performance are investigated. A comparison is carried out between the proposed system and the simple CO₂ refrigeration cycle, indicating that the proposed configuration improves the coefficient of performance (COP) about 19%. Also, it is observed that the TEC and TEG have better performance in a two-stage configuration. The parametric study reveals that the new configuration decreases the cycle operation pressure at maximum COP and exergetic efficiency.     

A theoretical study of a novel regenerative ejector refrigeration cycle

There has been a demand for developments of the ejector refrigeration systems using low grade thermal energy, such as solar energy and waste heat. In this paper, a novel regenerative ejector refrigeration cycle was described, which uses an auxiliary jet pump and a conventional regenerator to enhance the performance of the novel cycle. The theoretical analysis on the performance characteristics was carried out for the novel cycle with the refrigerant R141b. Compared with the conventional cycle, the simulation results show that the coefficient of performance (COP) of the novel cycle increases, respectively, by from 9.3 to 12.1% when generating temperature is in a range of 80–160 °C, the condensing temperature is in a range of 35–45 °C and the evaporating temperature is fixed at 10 °C. Especially due to the enhanced regeneration with increasing the pump outlet pressure, the improvement of COP of the novel cycle is approached to 17.8% compared with that in the conventional cycle under the operating condition that generating temperature is 100 °C, condensing temperature is 40 °C and evaporating temperature is 10 °C. Therefore, the characteristics of the novel cycle performance show its promise in using low grade thermal energy for the ejector refrigeration system.     

Analysis of a refrigeration cycle driven by refrigerant steam turbine

The objectives of this paper are to develop a novel cycle with refrigerant Rankine and refrigeration cycles, and to discuss the thermodynamic analysis of the cycle and the adequacy of the development. The combined cycle uses only one working fluid, has a simple mechanical system and does not have abrading parts. Three different refrigerants are evaluated to find the best candidate for the novel combined cycle—R123, R134a and R245ca. It is found that the R123 cycle gives the highest cycle efficiency among all cycles considered in the present study. The base cycle has a low efficiency because of the high temperature at the turbine outlet. By recovering the heat at the turbine outlet, the overall COP increases by 47% in case of the R245ca cycle. In the base cycle, COP depends mostly on the boiler pressure, while in the modified cycle with the recuperator, the cycle efficiency depends mostly on the boiler temperature. Considering the cycle efficiency and environmental issues, it is concluded that R245ca is the most promising refrigerant out of the cycles considered in the present paper.     

一个柴油机驱动的复合制冷循环

介绍了一个用柴油机驱动的复合制冷循环，即用柴油机主机带动压缩式循环，同时利用柴油机排气和缸套水的热量作源驱动吸收式循环。热力学分析和数值计算表明，此复合循环由于实现了不同品位热源的合理利用，减少了不可逆损失，其能效比普通式循环或直燃式吸收循环可分别提高19％和58％。     

蒸发盘管内制冷剂喷射蒸发的制冷系统研究

制冷剂高压能的利用对改善制冷系统运行有重要意义。基于场协同理论,提出了一种利用制冷剂在蒸发管内进行喷射的新型制冷系统,理论上分析了协同角随毛细管管径和喷射孔直径的变化规律,并进行了相关的可视化实验。理论分析结果表明:协同角随着喷射孔直径的增大而增大;随着毛细管管径的减小而减小,但是随之减小的速率降低。实验结果表明:和传统的毛细管节流制冷系统相比,开孔实验的制冷剂的充注量减少70%以上,COP提高了9%,系统达到稳定的时间减少了70%。     

Profit rate performance optimization for a generalized irreversible combined refrigeration cycle

Finite-time exergoeconomic performance of a Newtonian heat transfer law system generalized irreversible combined refrigeration cycle model with finite-rate heat transfer, heat leakage and internal irreversibility is presented in this paper. The operation of the generalized irreversible combined refrigeration cycle is viewed as a production process with exergy as its output. The performance optimization of the cycle is performed by taking profit as the objective. The optimal profit rate, optimal COP (coefficient of performance), as well as the relation between the optimal profit rate and COP of the cycle are derived. The focus of this paper is to obtain the compromise optimization between economics (profit rate) and the energy utilization factor (COP) for the cycle, by searching the optimum COP at maximum profit rate, which is termed as the finite time exergoeconomic performance bound. Moreover, the effects of various factors, including heat leakage, internal irreversibility and the price ratio, on the profit rate performance of the cycle are analysed by detailed numerical examples.