Theoretical and experimental analysis of a CO2 heat pump for domestic hot water

This paper describes the development of a CO₂ air/water heat pump for the production of tap hot water in a residential building. The basic design consists of a single-stage piston compressor, a coaxial type gas cooler, an electronic expansion valve, a finned tube evaporator and a low pressure receiver. The heat pump is combined with a storage tank designed to maintain internal water stratification.The gas cooler pressure optimisation in the case of fixed water delivery temperature was theoretically analysed.A new control method for the upper cycle pressure was developed to maximise the COP of the heat pump, while the water mass flow was adjusted to maintain the set water temperature at the gas cooler exit.Before commissioning, the heat pump was factory tested to verify its energy performance and to validate the high pressure control logic.     

CO2 heat pump systems

After the CFCs and the HCFCs were deemed unfit as working fluids in refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat pump applications, there has been a renaissance for carbon dioxide technology. Heat pumps is one of the application areas where theoretical and experimental investigations are now performed by an increasing number of research institutions and manufacturers. This paper gives an overview of some of the current activities in the CO₂ heat pump field. Discussed are the important characteristics of the transcritical CO₂ process applied to heat pumps, and also discussed are theoretical and experimental results from several heat pump applications. Provided that calculations and system designs are performed on the premises of the working fluid, and that test plants are constructed and operated to fully exploit the specific characteristics of both the fluid and the transcritical process, the results show that CO₂ is an attractive alternative to the synthetic fluids. Competitive products may be launched in the near future.     

A correlation-free on-line optimal control method of heat rejection pressures in CO2 transcritical systems

This paper proposes a novel correlation-free on-line optimal control method for CO₂ transcritical refrigeration systems. It uses the on-line correction formula to track the optimal pressure set point. As a critical advantage against the existing empirical correlations of the heat rejection pressure, it is independent of the cycle, the system specifications, and the operating conditions. Dynamic numerical simulation demonstrates how to apply the new method to a basic CO₂ transcritical refrigeration system. The results show that the proposed method can well track the optimal pressures and is robust to resist the sampling noise.     

Fan-less heat exchanger concept for CO2 heat pump systems

A novel system for space heating has been developed taking advantage of the favourable characteristics of the transcritical CO₂ cycle, where heat is rejected by cooling of supercritical gas at gliding temperature. By a proper design of a counter flow heat exchanger it is possible to heat air to high temperatures and thereby giving the driving force for circulation of air through the heat exchanger, in consequence without using a fan. A concept without a fan, here called a fan-less concept, would give several advantages; no noise, no power consumption for the fan and increased comfort with reduced air draft in the room. The concept may also be used for heat rejection in systems for light commercial applications or other applications where fan assisted heat rejection concepts are used today.

An experimental study of a CO₂ to air heat exchanger has been performed. The heat exchanger was made of a vertically finned aluminium profile. Tubes for CO₂ were mounted in the base of the profile. CO₂ at supercritical pressure flowing downwards through the profile was heating air flowing in the channels formed by the fins of the profile. In this way a perfect counter flow heat exchange was obtained. The prototype heat exchanger was 2000 mm high and 190 mm wide, with 45 mm deep fins.

A simulation model was developed and verified to give good accordance with the experimental data. The model was then used to study how different design parameters influence the efficiency of the heat exchanger. By altering the number of fins and the fin thickness of the tested profile, the heat output at a given condition could be increased to almost double, meaning that the initial design was relatively far from optimal.

With the original heat exchanger profile design concept a heat exchanger with height, width and depth of, respectively 2000, 750 and 200 mm, would be required in order to achieve a heat output of 2500 W if the constraints for assumed acceptable efficiency was applied. If a heat exchanger with less height is preferred, the width will have to be increased in order to maintain about the same front area, width times height. Ideas have also been introduced for how to improve both the compactness and efficiency of the heat exchanger by introducing a compact counter flow heat exchanger in the lower part of the air flow channel. It is concluded that the new concept looks promising for use as the indoor heat exchanger in an air-to-air heat pump or as a gascooler for heat rejection in small commercial equipment, when using CO₂ as refrigerant.     

Transcritical carbon dioxide microchannel heat pump water heaters: Part II - System simulation and optimization

This paper presents the development of a transcritical CO₂ heat pump water heating system model incorporating analytical heat exchanger models and an empirical compressor model. This study investigated the effects of a suction line heat exchanger (SLHX) and once-through versus recirculating water heating schemes. The once-through systems outperformed the recirculating systems by 10% for the system without an SLHX and 15% with an SLHX. However, a gas cooler twice as large is required. The SLHX was shown to benefit system performance at higher evaporator temperatures with improvements of 16.5% for the once-through and 4% for the recirculating systems. This study can be used to improve the design of microchannel based transcritical CO₂ heat pumps; evaluate the impact of varying water inlet temperature, desired outlet temperature and evaporation temperature on system performance; and quantify the effect of differential diurnal electricity rates on system operating costs for these different operation schemes.     

Energetic evaluation of an internal heat exchanger in a CO2 transcritical refrigeration plant using experimental data

The performance of an Internal Heat Exchanger (IHX) operating in a CO₂ transcritical refrigeration plant is analysed, from an energetic point of view, in this work. The evaluation is based on experimental data by contrasting the performance of the plant working with (44 tests) and without the IHX (46 tests) at the same operating conditions. The experimental evaluation covers three evaporating levels (−5, −10 and −15 °C), at two different gas-cooler outlet temperatures each (31, 34 °C), for a wide range of gas-cooler operating pressures (74.5-105.9 bar).The thermal effectiveness of the IHX is empirically analysed for the different operating conditions in the first part of the paper. Moreover, the relation of its effectiveness with the operating parameters is presented. The second part is devoted to analyse the modification of the energetic performance of the plant caused by the IHX. The results show a maximum increment on cooling capacity of 12%, an increment of the efficiency of the plant up to 12% and a maximum increase on discharge temperature of 10 °C at −15 °C of evaporating temperature.     

Experimental analysis on the effect of internal heat exchanger in transcritical CO2 refrigeration cycle with two-phase ejector

The performance of CO₂ ejector refrigeration system needs further improvement to make CO₂ more viable than traditional harmful refrigerants. In this research, the effect of internal heat exchanger (IHX) in the performance of ejector refrigeration system was analyzed experimentally and compared with conventional expansion refrigeration system. Experiments were performed at different operating pressure and temperature for the cases of without IHX, 30 cm IHX and 60 cm IHX. The results showed that IHX significantly increased the coefficient of performance (COP) of ejector system. At the conditions used in this research, the ejector system with 60 cm IHX provided the maximum COP improvement of up to 27% compared to similar conventional system. The motive nozzle’s inlet condition had significant effect on the performance of ejector system. The results also confirmed the presence of considerable amount of liquid refrigerant at separator’s gas outlet of ejector system which was deemed possible in our previous research.     

Charge reduction experimental investigation of CO2 single-phase flow in a horizontal micro-channel with constant heat flux conditions

The use of carbon dioxide as alternative refrigerant in refrigeration plants and heat pumps has been focused recently. Through the specific properties of CO₂, the use of very compact heat exchangers is relevant and the technology of micro-channel heat exchangers rises as a suitable solution. The experimental investigation of CO₂ flow in a single micro-channel with an inner diameter of 529 μm is planned with an original test section. This test section is initially dedicated for further CO₂ two-phase flow analysis. The local heat transfer coefficients are estimated with micro-thermocouples stuck on the micro-channel wall. The pressure drop is also measured. This paper presents the first results in single-phase pressure drop and heat transfer and exhibits promising coming data in two-phase flow pressure drop and heat transfer for mass velocity between 200 kg/m²/s and 1400 kg/m²/s and working saturation temperature between −10 °C and 5 °C. The results stress on the good accuracy of suitable classical laws to predict pressure drop and heat transfer in single-phase flow in micro-channel.     

Flow and convection heat transfer characteristics of CO2 mixed with lubricating oil at super-critical pressures in small tube during cooling

This paper describes the heat transfer and the pressure drop characteristics of CO₂ mixed with small amounts of compatible lubricating oil at super-critical pressures inside horizontal tubes with inner diameters of 1.98 mm and 4.14 mm during cooling. The heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops were measured. The results show that for the oil-free cases, the correlation proposed by Dang and Hihara accurately predicted the heat transfer coefficients and Petukhov’s correlation was found to predict the frictional pressure drops reasonably. Entrainment of the lubricating oil reduced the heat transfer coefficients and increased the pressure drops. Analysis showed that the heat transfer coefficients of the CO₂/oil mixture are strongly related to the density and viscosity ratios of the oil to the CO₂. An empirical correlation was developed based on the measured data, which predicts most of the experimental data within a deviation of 20%.     

Condensation heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of CO2 in a microchannel

The condensation heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of CO₂ in a multiport microchannel with a hydraulic diameter of 1.5 mm was investigated with variation of the mass flux from 400 to 1000 kgm⁻²s⁻¹ and of the condensation temperature from −5 to 5 °C. The heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop increased with the decrease of condensation temperature and the increase of mass flux. However, the rate of increase of the heat transfer coefficient was retarded by these changes. The gradient of the pressure drop with respect to vapor quality is significant with the increase of mass flux. The existing models for heat transfer coefficient overpredicted the experimental data, and the deviation increased at high vapor quality and at high heat transfer coefficient. The smallest mean deviation of ±51.8% was found by the Thome et al. model. For the pressure drop, the Mishima and Hibiki model showed mean deviation of 29.1%.     

Effects of refrigerant charge amount on the performance of a transcritical CO2 heat pump

A typical transcritical CO₂ system shows lower performance than conventional air conditioners in cooling mode operation. In addition, the CO₂ system shows a large variation of the performance according to refrigerant charge whereas the conventional systems do not show large variation. In this study, the performance of the CO₂ heat pump was measured and analyzed by varying the refrigerant charge amount at standard cooling condition. In addition, the performance sensitivity of the CO₂ system as a function of refrigerant charge was compared to those for the R22, R410A, and R407C systems. The cooling COP of the CO₂ system was reduced more significantly at undercharged conditions than at overcharged conditions as the deviation from the optimal charge increased. The expansion loss was the dominant factor affecting system performance at undercharged conditions, while the gascooler loss became the major parameter at overcharged conditions. Among the systems investigated and compared in this study, the CO₂ system showed the most reduction in performance at undercharged conditions.     

Residential CO2 heat pump system for combined space heating and hot water heating

A theoretical and experimental study has been carried out for a residential brine-to-water CO₂ heat pump system for combined space heating and hot water heating. A 6.5 kW prototype heat pump unit was constructed and extensively tested in order to document the performance and to study component and system behaviour over a wide range of operating conditions. The CO₂ heat pump was equipped with a unique counter-flow tripartite gas cooler for preheating of domestic hot water (DHW), low-temperature space heating and reheating of DHW.

The CO₂ heat pump was tested in three different modes: space heating only, DHW heating only and simultaneous space heating and DHW heating. The heat pump unit gave off heat to a floor heating system at supply/return temperatures of 33/28, 35/30 or 40/35 °C, and the set-point temperature for the DHW was 60, 70 or 80 °C. Most tests were carried out at an evaporation temperature of −5 °C, and the average city water temperature was 6.5 °C. The experimental results proved that a brine-to-water CO₂ heat pump system may achieve the same or higher seasonal performance factor (SPF) than the most energy efficient state-of-the-art brine-to-water heat pump systems as long as: (1) the heating demand for hot water production constitutes at least 25% of the total annual heating demand of the residence, (2) the return temperature in the space heating system is about 30 °C or lower, (3) the city water temperature is about 10 °C or lower and (4) the exergy losses in the DHW tank are small.     

Modelling the performance of a transcritical CO2 heat pump for high temperature heating

A prototype transcritical CO₂ heat pump was constructed for heating water to temperatures greater than 65°C while providing refrigeration at less than 2°C. The heating capacity was 115 kW at an evaporation temperature of +0.3°C and a hot water temperature of 77.5°C, with a heating coefficient of performance (COP) of 3.4. Performance data is presented for each of the compressor, the gas cooler, and the recuperator as well as for the overall heat pump system. Equipment performance data was incorporated into a computer model to enable parametric investigations of heat pump performance. Model predictions showed that the hot water temperature could be increased from 65 to 120°C with a relatively small reduction in heating capacity and heating COP of 33 and 21%, respectively. Model predictions also highlight the potential for significant capacity improvements by eliminating the recuperator in favour of a larger gas cooler.     

Optimized transcritical CO2 heat pumps: Performance comparison of capillary tubes against expansion valves

A capillary tube based CO₂ heat pump is unique because of the transcritical nature of the system. The transcritical cycle has two independent parameters, pressure and temperature, unlike the subcritical cycle. In the present study, a steady state simulation model has been developed to evaluate the performance of a capillary tube based transcritical CO₂ heat pump system for simultaneous heating and cooling at 73 °C and 4 °C, respectively against optimized expansion valve systems. Capillary tubes of various configurations having diameters of 1.4, 1.5 and 1.6 mm along with internal surface roughness of 0.001–0.003 mm have been tested to obtain the optimum design and operating conditions. Subcritical and supercritical thermodynamic and transport properties of CO₂ are calculated employing a precision in-house property code.

It is observed that the capillary tube system is quite flexible in response to changes in ambient temperature, almost behaving to offer an optimal pressure control. System performance is marginally better with a capillary tube at higher gas cooler exit temperature. Capillary tube length turns out to be the critical parameter that influences system optimum conditions. A novel nomogram has been developed that can be employed as a guideline to select the optimum capillary tube.     

Efficiencies of transcritical CO2 cycles with and without an expansion turbine: Rendement de cycles transcritiques au CO2 avec et sans turbine d'expansion

With the discovery that fluorocarbons may have a profoundly detrimental effect on the earth's atmosphere, it has become necessary to find a suitable replacement for a fluorocarbon-based refrigeration cycle. Such a replacement must perform comparably to current refrigerants, be economically feasible, and significantly reduce the possibility of a negative environmental impact compared with current refrigerants. A review of the literature on the first vapor compression refrigeration cycles indicate that carbon dioxide was used as the working fluid prior to and after the turn of the century. Moreover, recent literature has suggested that carbon dioxide will work for certain air conditioning applications. Initial investigation of the heat transfer properties of carbon dioxide and subsequent modeling of a transcritical carbon dioxide vapor compression cycle suggest potential performance comparable to that of existing refrigeration systems. This paper will present a detailed literature review of carbon dioxide's role in refrigeration cycles and what has been investigated so far to find a suitable application for carbon dioxide as a refrigerant. In addition, two thermodynamic models for transcritical carbon dioxide cycles with and without an expansion turbine have been developed. Both models contain an internal suction-to-supercritical line heat exchange. The efficiencies of the transcritical carbon dioxide cycles will be compared with the ones of conventional HCFC-22 cycles. A second law analysis on both carbon dioxide and HCFC-22 cycles will be included.La découverte de l'effet nocif que peuvent avoir les fluorocarbons sur l'atmosphère terrestre a exigé de trouver des remplaçements aux cycles frigorifiques fondés sur eux. De tels remplaçants doivent avoir un rendement comparable, être économique acceptables et réduire nettement le risque d'impact négatif sur l'environnement.La littérature relative aux premiers cycles à compression de vapeur montre que le dioxyde de carbone fur utilisé à cette fin à la fin du XIXe et au début du XXe siècle. En outre des publications récentes suggèrent que le dioxyde de carbone à certaines applications en conditionnemnt d'air. Un examen préalable des propriétés de transfert de chaleur du dioxyde de carbone puis la modélisation d'un cycle transcritique avec ce fluide suggèrent que l'on peut obtenir ainsi des performances comparables à celles des systèmes frigorifiques actuels. Cet article présente une revue bibliographique détaillée sur le dioxyde de carbone dans les cycles frigorifiques et l'état des recherches effectuées pour trouver une utilisation possible de dioxyde de carbone comme frigorigène. Deux modèles thermodynamiques pour des cycles transcritiques au dioxyde de carbone avec et sans turbine d'expansion ont été réalisés. Ces deux modèles comprennent un échange de chaleur interne entre admission et ligne supercritique. Leurs rendements sone comparés avec ceux de cycles conventionnels, au R22. Une analyse comparée selon la 2e loi y est jointe.     

Experimental investigations on adiabatic capillary tube in a transcritical CO2 heat pump system for simultaneous water cooling and heating

Experimental studies for a prototype CO₂ heat pump system employing capillary tube as an expansion device for simultaneous water heating and cooling have been presented. Tests were conducted with two stainless steel capillary tubes having specifications of ID = 1.71 mm, L = 2.95 m, ε_c = 3.92 μm and ID = 1.42 mm, L = 1.0 m, ε_c = 5.76 μm. System performance is significantly influenced by gas cooler water inlet temperature, whereas the effect of water flow rate on system performance is modest. An optimum charge is also recorded at which the system yields the best COP with a capillary tube. Performance deterioration is more severe at undercharged condition than at overcharged condition. Comparisons of test data with simulated results show that maximum deviation in mass flow rate of refrigerant is about ±10% and the flow characteristics exhibit a reasonably good match with the test data.     

Experimental investigation of a CO2 automotive air conditioner

In this study, a CO₂ automotive air conditioner prototype was designed and constructed. The compressor was of swash plate design; the gas cooler and evaporator were made of fin-tubes; a manual expansion valve and an internal heat exchanger accumulator were used. The lubricant, the CO₂ charge, the evaporator outlet pressure, the compressor speed, the air inlet temperature and flow rate of the gas cooler and the air flow rate of the evaporator were varied and the performance of the prototype was experimentally investigated in detail. The cooling capacity, compressor power consumption, CO₂ mass flow rate, and COP value were analyzed. The experimental results showed that the CO₂ system performance was greatly affected by different lubricants; the CO₂ system performance was sensitive to the mass charge; the high side pressure affected the system performance greatly and a high side pressure controller was needed.     

Improved rotary vane expander for trans-critical CO2 cycle by introducing high-pressure gas into the vane slots

The loss of contact between the vane tip and cylinder wall was proven to cause a serious leakage and inefficient operation of the rotary vane expander, which was developed to replace the throttling valve in the trans-critical CO₂ refrigeration system. An improved structure was suggested by introducing high-pressure gas into the vane slots. This paper presents the experimental investigation of the improved prototype expander. By comparing the improved prototype with the original, focusing on the expander performance and the p-θ diagram as well as the vane movement, the effects of introducing high-pressure gas into the slots on the thermodynamic processes and performance were analyzed. The results showed that, by introducing the high-pressure gas into the vane slots, the volumetric efficiency was increased from 17% to 35%, and the isentropic efficiency improved from 15% to 45%, resulting in a maximum COP improvement of 27.2% compared to the throttling cycle under the same working conditions.     

Applying the transcritical CO2 process to a drying heat pump

The transcritical CO₂ process fits well to the air dehumidification process observed in a heat pump dryer. Gains (respectively avoided losses) in connection with heat transfer during the air heating phase and superior compressor performance make up for the higher throttling losses of the process, resulting in an equivalent or even better coefficient of performance than the comparative R134a process.     

Optimization of a CO2–C3H8 cascade system for refrigeration and heating

Conventional working fluids (refrigerants) are being phased out worldwide to combat with the twin menace of ozone layer depletion and global warming and natural refrigerants are fast gaining favour lately. Single stage and multi stage refrigeration systems fail to widen the gap between heat source and heat sink temperatures required in many industrial applications requiring simultaneous heating and cooling and cascaded systems appear to be the best alternative. Modest research has been done in cascaded systems based on natural refrigerants thereby offering good potential for research. In this paper, a cascaded system for simultaneous heating and cooling (refrigeration and heat pump system) with a carbon dioxide based HT cycle and propane based LT cycle for simultaneous refrigeration and heating applications has been analyzed. To facilitate prediction of optimum performance parameters, performance trends with variation in the design parameters and operating variables have been presented in this article. Relevant expressions have been developed to serve as guidelines to the user for selecting appropriate design parameters like intermediate temperature so that the system yields optimum performance. Independently developed property codes have been employed for both carbon dioxide and propane for higher accuracy.