Exergetic analysis of an absorption/compression refrigeration unit based on R124/DMAC mixture for solar cooling

This work presents an energetic and exergetic analysis of an upgraded frigorific production unit, operating with a novel organic mixture: DMAC/R124 (N, N′-dimethylacetamide/2-chloro-1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane). Investigated parameters are the COP (performance coefficient), the irreversibility and the exergetic efficiency. Performances of the proposed mixture system are compared with those relative to the classical water/ammonia system. Results show that the COP obtained with the new fluids is similar to that relative to the old one, it is about 64% for a compression ratio about 2, while the same optimum value is achieved with a compression ratio about 3.3 when working with ammonia/water. Furthermore, the system using the new proposed couple uses lower threshold temperatures, between 60 °C and 80 °C as optimum COP, which allows the use of low temperature energy sources.Results of the exergetic analysis indicate that irreversibility of the R124/DMAC system is lower than that of the ammonia/water system by about 5 kW and so is the exergetic efficiency. It is noted from this study that the major gain brought by this new couple is the diminution of the operating temperatures of this type of heat pumps from temperatures going to 120 °C–80 °C and even 60 °C. We retain the advantages of introducing this organic absorbent (DMAC) in the refrigeration production field.     

A zero ODP replacement for R12 in a centrifugal compressor: an experimental study using R134a

It is well believed that the hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and their mixtures are the most promising candidates to substitute the conventional refrigerants, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and HCFCs which contain chlorine atoms in the molecule. This substitution is necessary for the harmful action of CFCs and of HCFCs toward atmospheric ozone layer damage because the disruption of ozone has been attributed to chlorine. For this reason they must be replaced by more environment‐friendly refrigerants, as the new family, designated as HFCs, that are chlorine free. Centrifugal compressors differ from positive displacement compressors in two major respects: high vapour volume flow for a given physical size and lower pressure ratio. They are particularly suited to applications where differences between evaporator and condenser temperatures are low. The preferred properties for fluids used in centrifugal compressors differ in certain important aspects from those preferred for fluids used in positive displacement units. In particular centrifugal compressors typically utilize fluids such as CFC114, CFC113, CFC12 and CFC11 for which many potential candidate replacements exist; however, for CFC12, HFC134a is the most suitable replacement. A comparison of the refrigerants HFC134a and CFC12 has been carried out and the results from the tests, using data from a refrigerating plant operating with a centrifugal compressor are reported. The chilled water cooling plant, with a refrigerating capacity of 6500 kW is made up of a centrifugal two‐stage compressor, a condenser linked to a cooling tower, an economizer and a flooded evaporator. Experimental results show that a lower coefficient of performance is found when R134a is used as substitute for R12; the difference between the COP values decreases rising the compression ratio. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A solar ejector cooling system using refrigerant R134a in the Athens area

This paper describes the performance of an ejector cooling system driven by solar energy and R134a as working fluid. The system operating in conjunction with intermediate temperature solar collector in Athens, is predicted along the 5 months (May–September). The operation of the system and the related thermodynamics are simulated by suitable computer codes and the required local climatologically data are determined by statistical processing over a considerable number of years. It was fount that the COP of ejector cooling system varied from 0.035 to 0.199 when the operation conditions were: generator temperature (82–92 °C), condenser temperature (32–40 °C) and evaporator temperature (−10–0 °C). For solar cooling application the COP of overall system varied from 0.014 to 0.101 with the same operation conditions and total solar radiation (536–838 W/m²) in July.     

Increase of COP for heat transformer in water purification systems. Part I – Increasing heat source temperature

The integration of a water purification system in a heat transformer allows a fraction of heat obtained by the heat transformer to be recycled, increasing the heat source temperature. Consequently, the evaporator and generator temperatures are also increased. For any operating conditions, keeping the condenser and absorber temperatures and also the heat load to the evaporator and generator, a higher value of COP is obtained when only the evaporator and generator temperatures are increased. Simulation with proven software compares the performance of the modeling of an absorption heat transformer for water purification (AHTWP) operating with water/lithium bromide, as the working fluid–absorbent pair. Plots of enthalpy-based coefficients of performance (COP_ET) and the increase in the coefficient of performance (COP) are shown against absorber temperature for several thermodynamic operating conditions. The results showed that proposed (AHTWP) system is capable of increasing the original value of COP_ET more than 120%, by recycling part of the energy from a water purification system. The proposed system allows to increase COP values from any experimental data for water purification or any other distillation system integrated to a heat transformer, regardless of the actual COP value and any working fluid–absorbent pair.     

Simulation studies on R134a—DMAC based half effect absorption cold storage systems

This paper presents simulation studies conducted on a half effect vapour absorption cycle using R134a-DMAC as the refrigerant-absorbent pair with low temperature heat sources for cold storage applications. The intermediate pressure of the cycle has been optimized for maximum COP. The effects of the temperatures of the evaporator, condenser, absorber and generator on the COP of the cycle have also been studied. It is found that the effect of the temperature of the low absorber on the performance is more pronounced than that of the high absorber. The COP for the baseline system is found to vary from 0.35 for low evaporating and high condensing temperatures to 0.46 for high evaporating and low condensing temperatures. The use of a condensate pre-cooler has resulted in an improvement of 5–15% in COP. The performance of this working fluid pair is better than that of ammonia–water for low heat source temperatures in the half effect configuration.     

Performance of a triple-pressure-level absorption cycle with R125-N,N′-dimethylethylurea

In the developed triple-pressure-level (TPL) single stage absorption cycle, a specially designed jet ejector was introduced at the absorber inlet. The device served two major functions: it facilitated pressure recovery and improved the mixing between the weak solution and the refrigerant vapour coming from the evaporator. These effects enhanced the absorption of the refrigerant vapour into the solution drops. To facilitate the design of the jet ejector for such absorption machines, a numerical model of simultaneous heat-and-mass transfers between the liquid and the gas phases in the ejector was developed. The refrigerant pentafluoroethane (R125) and the absorbent N,N′-dimethylethylurea (DMEU) were used as the working fluid. A computerized simulation program was used to perform a parametric study of the TPL absorption cycle. The influence of the jet ejector on the performance of the TPL absorption cycle was evaluated, and the performance of the TPL absorption cycle was compared with that of a double-pressure level (DPL) cycle. Four cases were studied that represent the improvements in the TPL absorption cycle performances as a result of the incorporation of the jet ejector. The four cases are: the ability to reduce the circulation ratio f, the ability to lower the evaporator temperature, the ability to lower the generator temperature and the ability to use higher-temperature cooling water.     

基于有机朗肯循环的低温地热制冷系统热力学分析

为有效利用低温地热资源,本文以有机朗肯–蒸汽压缩制冷系统为研究对象,建立了系统的热力学模型,分析比较了分别以R290、R600、R600a、R601、R601a和R1270为工质时的系统性能,并以系统整体COP和每千瓦制冷量所对应的工质流量为关键指标对工质进行了优选。分析结果表明：当地热水温度为60 ~ 90℃,冷凝温度为30 ~ 55℃,蒸发温度为 –15 ~15℃时,R601是系统的最佳工质。当地热水温度为90℃,其余参数为典型工况值时,工质R601所对应的系统性能系数COP为0.49。     

Performance of alternative refrigerant R430A on domestic water purifiers

In this study, performance of R430A is examined numerically and experimentally in an effort to replace HFC134a used in refrigeration system of domestic water purifiers. Even though HFC134a is used predominantly in such a system these days, it needs to be phased out in near future in most of the developed countries due to its high global warming potential. To solve this problem, cycle simulation and experiments are carried out with a new refrigerant mixture of 76%R152a/24%R600a using actual water purifiers. This mixture is numbered and listed as R430A by ASHRAE recently. Test results show that the system performance is greatly influenced by the amount of charge due to the small internal volume of the refrigeration system in water purifiers. With the optimum amount of charge of 21–22 g, about 50% of HFC134a, the energy consumption of R430A is 13.4% lower than that of HFC134a. The compressor dome and discharge temperatures and condenser center temperature of R430A are very similar to those of HFC134a for the optimum charge. Overall, R430A, a new long term environmentally safe refrigerant, is a good alternative for HFC134a in domestic water purifiers requiring no major change in the system.     

Experimental investigation of a vapor compression heat pump used for cooling and heating applications

The present work aims at evaluating the performance characteristics of a vapor compression heat pump (VCHP) for simultaneous space cooling (summer air conditioning) and hot water supply. In order to achieve this objective, a test facility was developed and experiments were performed over a wide range of evaporator water inlet temperature (14:26 °C) and condenser water inlet temperature (22:34 °C). R134a was used as a primary working fluid whereas water was adopted as a secondary heat transfer fluid at both heat source (evaporator) and heat sink (condenser) of the heat pump. Performance characteristics of the considered heat pump were characterized by outlet water temperatures, water side capacities and coefficient of performance (COP) for various operating modes namely: cooling, heating and simultaneous cooling and heating. Results showed that COP increases with the evaporator water inlet temperature while decreases as the condenser water inlet temperature increases. However, the evaporator water inlet temperature has more effect on the performance characteristics of the heat pump than that of condenser water inlet temperature. Actual COP of cooling mode between 1.9 to 3.1 and that of heating mode from 2.9 to 3.3 were obtained. Actual simultaneous COP between 3.7 and 4.9 was achieved.     

Comparative study of a cascade cycle for simultaneous refrigeration and heating operating with ammonia,R134a,butane, propane,and CO2 as working fluids

In this paper, a cascade system for simultaneous refrigeration and heating is simulated with different working fluids. Ammonia, R134a, butane and propane are evaluated in the low-temperature (LT) cycle and carbon dioxide (CO₂) is used in the high cycle. The effects of the thermodynamic parameters on the cascade system are evaluated with the aim of finding the best working fluid performance and optimum design parameters. Coefficients of performance (COP) and exergetic efficiencies were estimated for each one of the cycles and for the entire system. The behaviour of these parameters is presented as a function of the internal heat exchanger effectiveness and main operating system temperatures. The results showed that the cascade system using butane in the LT cycle increased the COP up to 7.3% in comparison with those obtained with NH₃–CO₂. On the other hand, the cascade systems operating with the mixtures R134a–CO₂ and propane-CO₂ presented similar results reaching COPs up to 5% higher than those obtained with the NH₃–CO₂ system.     

Feasibility of driving convective thermal wave chillers with low-grade heat

A theoretical investigation of a convective thermal wave adsorption chiller was completed. The working pair was activated carbon–methanol. The predicted axial profiles of loading and temperature exhibited the same features as those reported for ammonia-activated carbon beds. For practical purposes, the coefficient of performance (COP) and a dimensionless cooling power were insensitive to the heat capacity of the refrigerant vapour, or the effective thermal conductivity of the refrigerant. With regard to the bed, increasing either its effective heat capacity or its effective axial conductivity strongly impeded performance. The COP and the dimensionless cooling power were mapped against two composite dimensionless groups, formed from a Stanton number, a ratio of interphase heat transfer to axial conduction, and the group aL where a is surface area per unit volume and L is bed length. Realistic pumping power was possible only at the expense of relatively large machines and poor COP; the two attributes that the convective thermal wave machines are intended to enhance. The results discouraged the building of costly experiments.     

Development of a metal hydride refrigeration system as an exhaust gas-driven automobile air conditioner

Aiming at developing exhaust gas-driven automobile air conditioners, two types of systems varying in heat carriers were preliminarily designed. A new hydride pair LaNi_4.61Mn_0.26Al_0.13/La_0.6Y_0.4Ni_4.8Mn_0.2 was developed working at 120–200 °C/20–50 °C/−10–0 °C. P-C isotherms and reaction kinetics were tested. Reaction enthalpy, entropy and theoretical cycling coefficient of performance (COP) were deducted from Van’t-Hoff diagram. Test results showed that the hydride pair has flat plateau slopes, fast reaction dynamics and small hystereses; the reaction enthalpy of the refrigeration hydride is −27.1 kJ/mol H₂ and system theoretical COP is 0.711. Mean particle sizes during cycles were verified to be an intrinsic property affected by constitution, heat treatment and cycle numbers rather than initial grain sizes. Based on this work pair, cylindrical reactors were designed and a function proving metal hydride intermittent refrigeration system was constructed with heat conducting oil as heat source and water as heat sink. The reactor equivalent thermal conductivity is merely 1.3 W/(m K), which still has not meet practical requirement. Intermittent refrigeration cycles were achieved and the average cooling power is 84.6 W at 150 °C/30 °C/0 °C with COP being 0.26. The regulations of cycling performance and minimum refrigeration temperature (MRT) were determined by altering heat source temperature. Results showed that cooling power and system COP increase while MRT decreases with the growth of heat source temperature. This study develops a new hydride pair and confirms its application in automobile refrigeration systems, while their heat transfer properties still need to be improved for better performance.     

A numerical investigation of a diffusion-absorption refrigeration cycle based on R124-DMAC mixture for solar cooling

Research on new working fluid for uses in absorption systems has been continued. The feasibility of a solar driven DAR using the mixture R124/DMAC as working fluid is investigated by numerical simulation. The cycle is simulated for two cooling medium temperatures, 27 °C and 35 °C, and four driving heat temperatures in the range [90 °C–180 °C]. The performance characteristics of this system is analyzed parametrically by computer simulation for a design cooling capacity of 1 kW. The results show that the system performance and the lowest (minimum) evaporation temperature reached are largely dependent upon the absorber efficiency and the driving temperature. It is shown that for solar applications this fluid mixture has a higher COP and may constitute an alternative to the conventional ammonia–water system.     

Increase of COP for heat transformer in water purification systems. Part II – Without increasing heat source temperature

The integration of a water purification system allows a heat transformer to increase the actual coefficient of performance, by the reduction of the amount of heat supplied by unit of heat. A new defined COP called COP_WP is proposed for the present system, which considers the fraction of heat recycled. Simulation with proven software compares the performance of the modeling of an absorption heat transformer for water purification (AHTWP) operating with water/lithium bromide, as working fluid–absorbent pair. Plots of enthalpy-based coefficients of performance (COP_ET) and water purification coefficient of performance (COP_WP) are shown against absorber temperature for several thermodynamic operating conditions. The results showed that the proposed (AHTWP) system is capable of increasing the original value of COP_ET up to 1.6 times its original value by recycling energy from a water purification system. The proposed COP_WP allows increments for COP values from any experimental data for water purification or for any other distillation system integrated to a heat transformer, regardless of actual COP_A value or working fluid–absorbent pair.     

Performance of heat pumps charged with R170/R290 mixture

In this study, thermodynamic performance of R170/R290 mixture is measured on a heat pump bench tester in an attempt to substitute R22. The bench tester is equipped with a commercial hermetic rotary compressor providing a nominal capacity of 3.5 kW. All tests are conducted under the summer cooling and winter heating conditions of 7/45 °C and −7/41 °C in the evaporator and condenser, respectively. During the tests, the composition in R170/R290 mixture is varied from 0% to 10% with an interval of 2%. Test results show that the coefficient of performance (COP) and capacity of R290 are up to 15.4% higher and 7.5% lower, respectively than those of R22 for two conditions. For R170/R290 mixture, the COP decreases and the capacity increases with an increase in the composition of R170. The mixture of R170/R290 mixture at 4%/96% composition shows the similar capacity and COP as those of R22. For the mixture, the compressor discharge temperature is 17–28 °C lower than that of R22. For R170/R290 mixture, there is no problem with mineral oil since the mixture is composed of hydrocarbons. The amount of charge is reduced up to 58% as compared to R22. Overall, R170/R290 mixture is a good long term ‘drop-in’ candidate from the view point of energy efficiency and greenhouse warming to replace R22 in residential air-conditioners and heat pumps.     

Thermodynamic performance of R502 alternative refrigerant mixtures for low temperature and transport applications

In this study, two pure hydrocarbon refrigerants, R1270 (propylene) and R290 (propane), and three binary mixtures composed of R1270, R290 and R152a were tested in a refrigerating bench tester with a scroll compressor in an attempt to substitute R502, which is used in most low temperature and transport refrigeration applications. The test bench provided 3–3.5 kW capacity, and water and water/glycol mixture were employed as the secondary heat transfer fluids. All tests were conducted under the same external conditions, resulting in the average saturation temperatures of −28 and 45 °C in the evaporator and condenser, respectively. The test results showed that all refrigerants tested had 9.6–18.7% higher capacity and 17.1–27.3% higher COP than R502. The compressor discharge temperature of R1270 was similar to that of R502, while those of all the other refrigerants were 23.7–27.9 °C lower than that of R502. For all alternative refrigerants, the charge was reduced up to 60% as compared to R502. There, of course, was no problem with mineral oil, since the mixtures were mainly composed of hydrocarbons. Since some of them are mixtures, one can change their compositions a little to suit various needs in many applications without significant deterioration of the performance. Overall, these alternative refrigerants offer better system performance and reliability than R502 and can be used as long term substitutes for R502 due to their excellent environmental properties.     

Performance of ammonia–water refrigeration systems using artificial neural networks

In this paper, a new formulation, based on artificial neural network (ANN) model, is presented for the analysis of ammonia–water absorption refrigeration systems (AWRS). Performance analysis of the AWRS is very complex because of analytic functions used for calculating the properties of fluid couples and simulation programs. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to perform analysis of this system. It is well known that the generator temperature, evaporator temperature, condenser temperature, absorber temperature, poor and rich solution concentration affect the AWRS's coefficient of performance (COP) and circulation ratio (f). In this study, COP and f are estimated depending on the above temperatures and concentration values. Using the weights obtained from the trained network a new formulation is presented for the calculation of the COP and f; the use of ANN is proliferating with high speed in simulation. The R²-values obtained when unknown data were used to the networks was 0.9996 and 0.9873 for the circulation ratio and COP, respectively which is very satisfactory. The use of this new formulation, which can be employed with any programming language or spreadsheet program for the estimation of the circulation ratio and COP of AWRS, as described in this paper, may make the use of dedicated ANN software unnecessary.     

R407C as an alternative to R22 in vapour compression plant: an experimental study

The problem of HCFC22 phase-out in refrigeration plants is analysed. A comparison is performed between R22 and R407C. The latter seems a promising drop-in substitute. Indeed, its use in existing plants would only require discharge of mineral oil and refilling with a compatible polyolester oil. The experimental tests are performed in a plant consisting in a water-cooled vapor-compression circuit employed for cooling a water–glycol mixture in a closed-loop system. Both the thermodynamic properties and general performance of R407C are comparable with those of R22. The COP, however, is 5–17% lower. As a consequence, in order to provide the same refrigerating load, a plant working with R407C requires higher electric-power consumption. The operational behaviour of R407C is increasingly better with increasing condensation and evaporation temperature. Therefore, R407C is a good R22 substitute in all applications requiring high evaporation temperatures, such as air-conditioning plants. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparison of R22-absorbent pairs for absorption cooling based on P-T-X data

P-T-X data for nine combinations of R22-absorbent solutions are presented as correlations. A comparative study of these working fluids in absorption refrigeration systems is made. Based on cut-off temperature and circulation ratio considerations DMEDEG, DMETEG, DMETrEG, DMF and DMA are preferable solvents for R22. Among these R22-DMF and R22-DMA stand out when the criterion of coefficient of performance is also included. The generator cut-off temperatures are correlated in terms of temperatures of absorber, condenser and evaporator.     

Optimum design criteria for an Organic Rankine cycle using low-temperature geothermal heat sources

A cost-effective optimum design criterion for Organic Rankine power cycles utilizing low-temperature geothermal heat sources is presented. The ratio of the total heat exchanger area to net power output is used as the objective function and was optimized using the steepest descent method. Evaporation and condensation temperatures, geothermal and cooling water velocities are varied in the optimization method. The optimum cycle performance is evaluated and compared for working fluids that include ammonia, HCFC123, n-Pentane and PF5050. The optimization method converges to a unique solution for specific values of evaporation and condensation temperatures and geothermal and cooling water velocities. The choice of working fluid can be greatly affect the objective function which is a measure of power plant cost and in some instances the difference could be more than twice. Ammonia has minimum objective function and maximum geothermal water utilization, but not necessarily maximum cycle efficiency. Exergy analysis shows that efficiency of the ammonia cycle has been largely compromised in the optimization process than that of other working fluids. The fluids, HCFC 123 and n-Pentane, have better performance than PF 5050, although the latter has most preferable physical and chemical characteristics compared to other fluids considered.