Exergy assessment of an optimized capillary tube‐based transcritical CO2 heat pump system

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. A comparative study for various operating conditions, based on system COP and exergetic efficiency, of a capillary tube and a controllable expansion valve‐based transcritical carbon dioxide heat pump systems for simultaneous heating and cooling at 73 and 4°C, respectively, is presented here. Two optimized capillary tubes having diameter of 1.5 and 1.6 mm are compared with an equivalent controllable throttle valve. Heat transfer and fluid flow effects are included in the gas cooler and evaporator model and capillary tube employs the homogeneous flow model to simulate two‐phase flow. Subcritical and supercritical thermodynamic and transport properties of CO₂ are calculated employing a precision in‐house property code. Optimization of effective distribution of total heat exchanger area ratio between gas cooler and evaporator is investigated. The exergetic efficiency is better in case of the capillary tube than that of a controllable throttle valve‐based system. Capillary tube‐based system is shown to be quite flexible regarding changes in ambient temperature, almost behaving to offer an optimal pressure control just like the controllable expansion valve yielding both, maximum system COP and maximum exergetic efficiency. Relatively at a smaller diameter, the capillary tube exhibits better exergetic efficiency. Capillary tube length is the critical parameter that influences system optimum conditions. The exergy flow diagram exhibits that compressor, gas cooler and capillary tube contribute a larger share, in that order, to system irreversibility. It is fairly established in this study that a capillary tube can be a good engineering option for small capacity systems in lieu of an expansion valve, which has been thought of as the only possible solution to attain the pressure optimization, an important feature of all transcritical CO₂ systems. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Irreversibility minimization of heat exchangers for transcritical CO2 systems

Irreversibility analyses of both evaporator and gas cooler of a CO₂ based transcritical heat pump for combined cooling and heating, employing water as the secondary fluid, have been reported. The analysis includes both operational and material associated irreversibilities. Optimization of heat exchanger tube diameter and length and effect of design parameters on overall system performance is also presented. Results clearly show that higher heat transfer coefficient can be achieved by reducing the diameter only to a limited extent due to rapid increase in pressure drop. The minimum possible diameter depends on mass flow rate (capacity) and division of flow path. The right combination of optimum diameter and length depends on the number of passes, capacity and operating parameters. It is noteworthy that due to higher pressure drop occurring in the evaporator compared to the gas cooler, zero temperature approach is attained before the optimum length is reached in case of the evaporator. Presented results are expected to help choose effective heat exchanger size in terms of diameter, length and number of passes.     

Exergetic analysis of transcritical CO2 residential air-conditioning system based on experimental data

The experimental system for the transcritical CO₂ residential air-conditioning with an internal heat exchanger was built. The effects of working conditions on system performance were experimentally studied. Based on the experimental dada, the second law analysis on the transcritical CO₂ system was performed. The effects of working conditions on the total exergetic efficiency of the system were investigated. The results show that in the studied parameter ranges, the exergetic efficiency of the system increases with the increases of gas cooler side air inlet temperature, gas cooler side air inlet velocity and evaporating temperature. And it will decrease with the increases of evaporator side air inlet temperature and velocity. Then, a complete exergetic analysis was performed for the entire CO₂ transcritical cycle including compressor, gas cooler, expansion valve, evaporator and internal heat exchanger under different working conditions. The average exergy loss in gas cooler is the highest one under all working conditions which is about 30.7% of the total exergy loss in the system. The second is the average exergy loss in expansion valve which is about 24.9% of the total exergy loss, followed by the exergy losses in evaporator and compressor, which account for 21.9% and 19.5%, respectively. The exergy loss in internal heat exchanger is the lowest one which is only about 3.0%. So in the optimization design of the transcritical CO₂ residential air-conditioning system more attentions should be paid to the gas cooler and expansion valve.     

Optimization of ejector-expansion transcritical CO2 heat pump cycle

Optimization studies along with optimum parameter correlations, using constant area mixing model are presented in this article for ejector-expansion transcritical CO₂ heat pump cycle with both conventional and modified layouts. Both the energetic and exergetic comparisons between valve, turbine and ejector-expansions-based transcritical CO₂ heat pump cycles are also studied for simultaneous cooling and heating applications. Performances for conventional layouts are presented by maximum COP, optimum discharge pressure and corresponding entrainment ratio and pressure lift ratio of ejector, whereas for modified layout by maximum COP, optimum discharge pressure and corresponding pressure lift ratio. The optimization for modified layout can be realized for certain entrainment ratio, evaporator and gas cooler exit temperature combinations. Considering the trade-off between the system energetic and exergetic performances, and cost associated with expansion devices, the ejector may be the promising alternative expansion device for transcritical CO₂ heat pump cycle.     

Exergy analysis and optimization of a solar-assisted heat pump

A theoretical and experimental exergy analysis of a solar-assisted heat pump for air heating is presented. An experimental prototype that operates as a solar-assisted or as a conventional heat pump was tested to determine exergetic efficiency, total system irreversibility and component irreversibilities. A methodology for determination of the optimum temperature of the working fluid in the evaporation and condensation steps is proposed. The methodology is based on maximization of efficiency in these two parts of the system.     

Modeling and simulating the transcritical CO2 heat pump system

In this paper, a mathematical model for steady-state simulation of transcritical CO₂ water-to-water heat pump system with an expander has been developed. It is used to simulate the performance of transcritical CO₂ system with CO₂ expander prototype. Simulated results are compared with experimental data to verify the accuracy of the simulation model. The comparison results show the average deviation of about 15% for COP_c(cooling coefficient of performance) and COP_h(heating coefficient of performance), about 17% for cooling and heating capacity at experimental high pressure ranges. With this model, which has been validated in a limited high pressure range, the influence of water mass flow rate and water inlet temperature of both evaporator and gas cooler on the performance of transcritical CO₂ expander system is analyzed. The results show that decreasing inlet temperature and increasing mass flow rate of cooling water cannot only increase the system performance but also reduce the optimal heat rejection pressure, at which the maximum COP (coefficient of performance) can be obtained. For chilling water, increasing its inlet temperature and mass flow rate is favorable for increasing the system performance, while the optimal heat rejection pressure does not vary very much.     

Particular characteristics of transcritical CO2 refrigeration cycle with an ejector

The present study describes a theoretical analysis of a transcritical CO₂ ejector expansion refrigeration cycle (EERC) which uses an ejector as the main expansion device instead of an expansion valve. The system performance is strongly coupled to the ejector entrainment ratio which must produce the proper CO₂ quality at the ejector exit. If the exit quality is not correct, either the liquid will enter the compressor or the evaporator will be filled with vapor. Thus, the ejector entrainment ratio significantly influences the refrigeration effect with an optimum ratio giving the ideal system performance. For the working conditions studied in this paper, the ejector expansion system maximum cooling COP is up to 18.6% better than the internal heat exchanger cycle (IHEC) cooling COP and 22.0% better than the conventional vapor compression refrigeration cycle (VCRC) cooling COP. At the conditions for the maximum cooling COP, the ejector expansion cycle refrigeration output is 8.2% better than the internal heat exchanger cycle refrigeration output and 11.5% better than the conventional cycle refrigeration output. An exergy analysis showed that the ejector expansion cycle greatly reduces the throttling losses. The analysis was also used to study the variations of the ejector expansion cycle cooling COP for various heat rejection pressures, refrigerant temperatures at the gas cooler exit, nozzle efficiencies and diffuser efficiencies.     

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.     

Effects of operating parameters on the performance of a CO2 air conditioning system for vehicles

This paper deals with the effects of the operating parameters on the cooling performance that can be applied for a transcritical CO₂ automotive air conditioning system. The experimental conditions of the performance tests for a CO₂ system and components such as a gas cooler and an evaporator were suggested to compare with the performance of each at the standardized test conditions. This research presents experimental results for the performance characteristics of a CO₂ automotive air conditioning system with various operating conditions such as different gas cooler inlet pressures, compressor speeds and frontal air temperatures/flow rates passing through the evaporator and the gas cooler. Experimental results show that the cooling capacity was more than 4.9 kW and coefficient of performance (COP) was more than 2.4, at each optimum pressure of gas cooler inlet during idling condition. Also, the cooling capacity was about 7.5 kW and COP was about 1.7 at the optimum pressure of gas cooler inlet during driving condition when air inlet temperatures of gas cooler and evaporator were 45 °C and 35 °C, respectively. Therefore, we concluded that the automotive air conditioning system using CO₂ refrigerant has good performance. This paper also deals with the development of optimum high pressure control algorithm for the transcritical CO₂ cycle to achieve the maximum COP.     

Theoretical performance analysis of heat pump water heaters using carbon dioxide as refrigerant

The aim of this paper is to simulate the performance of an air source heat pump water heater using carbon dioxide (CO₂) as a working fluid. The heat pump water heating system consists of a compressor, a gas cooler, an expansion device and an evaporator. The computer simulation model has been developed by using the heat transfer data and the thermodynamic properties of CO₂. The effects on the heat pump performance by the operating parameters such as the compressor rotational speed, the inlet water temperature at the gas cooler, the inlet air temperature at the evaporator and the mass flow rate ratio of water to refrigerant were presented. For rated capacities of a 4 kW compressor with a 10 kW gas cooler and a 6 kW evaporator, the coefficient of performance is found to be between 2.0 and 3.0. The mass flow rate ratio of water and CO₂ between 1.2 and 2.2 is the most suitable value for generating hot water temperature above 60°C at 15–25°C ambient air temperature. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A correlation of optimal heat rejection pressures in transcritical carbon dioxide cycles

In this work, a cycle simulation model has been developed to optimize the coefficient of performance (COP) of transcritical carbon dioxide air-conditioning cycles. The analysis shows that the COP of the transcritical carbon dioxide cycle varies nonmonotonically with the heat rejection pressure; a maximum COP occurs at an optimal heat rejection pressure. It is further revealed that the values of the optimal heat rejection pressure mainly depend on the outlet temperature of the gas cooler, the evaporation temperature, and the performance of the compressor. Based on the cycle simulations, correlations of the optimal heat rejection pressure in terms of appropriate parameters are obtained for specific conditions. The results are of significance for the design and control of the transcritical carbon dioxide air-conditioning and heat pump systems     

Exergy analysis of transcritical carbon dioxide refrigeration cycle with an expander

In this paper, a comparative study is performed for the transcritical carbon dioxide refrigeration cycles with a throttling valve and with an expander, based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics. The effects of evaporating temperature and outlet temperature of gas cooler on the optimal heat rejection pressure, the coefficients of performance (COP), the exergy losses, and the exergy efficiencies are investigated. In order to identify the amounts and locations of irreversibility within the two cycles, exergy analysis is employed to study the thermodynamics process in each component. It is found that in the throttling valve cycle, the largest exergy loss occurs in the throttling valve, about 38% of the total cycle irreversibility. In the expander cycle, the irreversibility mainly comes from the gas cooler and the compressor, approximately 38% and 35%, respectively. The COP and exergy efficiency of the expander cycle are on average 33% and 30% higher than those of the throttling valve cycle, respectively. It is also concluded that an optimal heat rejection pressure can be obtained for all the operating conditions to maximize the COP. The analysis results are of significance to provide theoretical basis for optimization design and operation control of the transcritical carbon dioxide cycle with an expander.     

Preliminary investigation of a transcritical CO2 heat pump driven by a solar‐powered CO2 Rankine cycle

In this paper, a transcritical carbon dioxide heat pump system driven by solar‐owered CO₂ Rankine cycle is proposed for simultaneous heating and cooling applications. Based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics, a theoretical analysis on the performance characteristic is carried out for this solar‐powered heat pump cycle using CO₂ as working fluid. Further, the effects of the governing parameters on the performance such as coefficient of performance (COP) and the system exergy destruction rate are investigated numerically. With the simulation results, it is found that, the cooling COP for the transcritical CO₂ heat pump syatem is somewhat above 0.3 and the heating COP is above 0.9. It is also concluded that, the performance of the combined transcritical CO₂ heat pump system can be significantly improved based on the optimized governing parameters, such as solar radiation, solar collector efficient area, the heat transfer area and the inlet water temperature of heat exchange components, and the CO₂ flow rate of two sub‐cycles. Where, the cooling capacity, heating capacity, and exergy destruction rate are found to increase with solar radiation, but the COPs of combined system are decreased with it. Furthermore, in terms of improvement in COPs and reduction in system exergy destruction at the same time, it is more effective to employ a large heat transfer area of heat exchange components in the combined heat pump system. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimum allocation of heat exchanger inventory of irreversible air heat pump cycles

This study has determined the optimal ratios of heat conductance of a cold-side heat exchanger to that of a hot-side heat exchanger when the heating load and the coefficient of performance (COP) of the irreversible air heat pump cycles are taken as the optimization objectives. Both the optimum distributions of heat conductance corresponding to the maximum heating load and the maximum COP are less than 0.5 for the fixed total heat exchanger inventory. The influences of the heat reservoir temperature ratio, the total heat exchanger inventory, and the efficiencies of the compressor and expander on the optimum distribution of heat conductance and the maximum heating load and the maximum COP are analysed and shown by numerical examples.     

Studies on a two-stage transcritical carbon dioxide heat pump cycle with flash intercooling

Simulation studies on a two-stage flash intercooling transcritical carbon dioxide heat pump cycle are presented. Sub-critical and super-critical thermodynamic and transport properties of carbon dioxide are calculated employing an exclusive precision property code based on recently published correlations. Results exhibit that flash intercooling technique is not economical with CO₂ refrigerant unlike NH₃ as the refrigerant. COP is considerably lower than that of the single cycle for a given gas cooler and evaporator temperature. There is no optimum inter-stage pressure as well. However, a marginal increase in COP occurs as inter-stage pressure decreases from the classical estimate of geometric mean of gas cooler and evaporator pressure. It is observed that incorporation of desuperheating of vapour in the intercooler almost doubles the mass flow rate in the second stage which can be attributed to the large flashing that occurs in the intercooler; this increase depends on the discharge temperature from the first stage and mass flow rate of refrigerant flow in the evaporator. Compressor isentropic efficiency shows marginal influence on system performance.     

Performance and exergetic analysis of vapor compression refrigeration system with an internal heat exchanger using a hydrocarbon,isobutane (R600a)

Hydrocarbons (HCs) are excellent refrigerants in many ways such as energy efficiency, critical point, solubility, transport and heat transfer properties, but they are also flammable, which causes the need for changes in standards, production and product. There are increasing number of scientists and engineers who believe that an alternative solution, which has been overlooked, may be provided by using HCs. The main objective of this study is to perform energy and exergy analyses for a vapor compression refrigeration system with an internal heat exchanger using a HC, isobutene (R600a). For a refrigeration capacity of 1 kW and cold chamber temperature of 0°C, energy and exergy balances are taken into account to determine the performance of the refrigeration system. Energy and exergy fluxes are determined, and irreversibility rates are calculated for every component of the system. It is seen that the compressor has the highest irreversibility rate, and the heat exchanger has the lowest. Also from the result of the analysis, it is found that condenser and evaporator temperatures have strong effects on energetic and exergetic performances of the system such as coefficient of performance (COP), efficiency ratio (τ), exergetic efficiency (ξ) and irreversibility rate. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Theoretical and experimental studies on optimum heat rejection pressure for a CO2 heat pump system

The experimental and simulation researches have been conducted to investigate the relationships between optimum heat rejection pressure and other related operating parameters for a transcritical CO₂ heat pump system with two throttle valves. It proved that it is relatively reliable to control the heat rejection pressure of the CO₂ system with two expansion valves in series. The experimental results also show similar trends with those from simulation, under widely different operating conditions. Thus both the simulation and experimental results meet here: for a transcritical CO₂ cycle, there exists an optimal heat rejection pressure, under which the system can reach the maximum heating coefficient of performance (COP). Furthermore, the research also reveals that the optimal heat rejection pressure mainly depends on the refrigerant outlet temperature of gas cooler whereas the evaporating temperature and the performance of the given compressor have smaller effect on the optimum heat rejection pressure. Based on the experimental data, a correlation of the optimal heat rejection pressure with respect to mainly involved parameters is obtained for specific conditions.     

分液热泵空调系统的制热性能研究

随着热泵空调的普及,热泵空调的能耗占比不断增大,其节能问题成为了关注焦点。换热器对系统性能有着重要的影响,如何通过改进换热器来提升系统性能则成为了研究的热点。其中分液冷凝器作为一种新型的换热设备,能对系统制冷性能产生积极影响。但热泵空调系统在制热工况下,分液冷凝器变成气液分离式蒸发器,其系统制热性能尚未可知。通过实验研究,调整毛细管长度和制冷剂充注量,发现在国家标准工况下分液热泵空调系统的最大制热量比原系统高4.50%,C OP比原系统高7.93%,所对应的毛细管长度为700 mm,制冷剂充注量为700 g。且制冷剂过充注的情况下,分液热泵空调系统的制热性能比较稳定。     

A critical approach to the determination of optimal heat rejection pressure in transcritical systems

In this paper the optimal energy efficiency and high cycle pressure problem in single-stage refrigerating carbon dioxide vapour compressor units operating in transcritical conditions is addressed. Literature approximated solutions to the optimisation problem are analysed and critically discussed. A numerical model for CO₂ heat exchangers and refrigerant systems is developed. Different gas coolers are simulated in order to investigate the effect of literature simplifying assumptions on the optimal pressure determination: the analysis showed a strong sensitivity of the gas cooler outlet temperature from the secondary fluid temperature, from its capacity rate and from the heat exchanger geometry. Nevertheless it resulted that approximated solutions obtained considering the carbon dioxide gas cooler outlet temperature as an independent variable behaved better than solutions correlating it to secondary fluid inlet temperature.A commercial refrigeration plant and a heat pump water heater were finally simulated to verify their energy performances when applying literature approximated solutions in presence of an on-board compressor capacity and supply water temperature control respectively. While in the case of the commercial refrigeration plant no major penalisation resulted from the literature approximated solutions simplifying assumptions, the heat pump performance was strongly deteriorated, up to ?30%, as a consequence of the huge variation in the water capacity flow rate resulting from the water temperature control.It was finally concluded that an approximated correlation should be critically evaluated before implementation; a real-time algorithm for determining the optimal (or quasi-optimal) pressure value could provide a more efficient and robust solution.     

CO2跨临界循环水源热泵变工况特性

摘要：对CO2跨临界循环水源热泵的变工况运行特性进行了实验研究和理论分析，研究了外部热源条件和运行压力对系统性能的影响，根据实验数据拟合了CO2压缩机的绝热效率公式，分析了气体冷却器和蒸发器的热交换完善程度以及对系统的运行动态特性的的影响，在实验研究的基础上，开展了CO2跨临界循环水—水热泵性能的理论分析，并探讨了运行调节的基本方法。