Experimental Study of the Absorption Process of Organic Fluids in a Plate Heat Exchanger

In this paper, the absorption process in a plate heat exchanger with organic fluids has been experimentally investigated. It is well known that the absorber is the key component in absorption systems. The absorber studied consists of an adiabatic mixing chamber and a plate heat exchanger. In the mixing chamber, the solution that is poor in refrigerant is sprayed on the vapor refrigerant. Then, the two-phase mixture that is formed enters into the plate heat exchanger where the absorption process is completed by cooling the solution. Experiments have been performed using the organic fluid mixtures: Methanol-Tetraethyleneglycol dimethylether (TEGDME) and Trifluoroethanol (TFE)-TEGDME. The effect of the solution mass flow rate, the absorber pressure and the cooling water temperature on the absorber performance has been analyzed. The results obtained are discussed in terms of the absorber load, subcooling of the solution at the outlet of the absorber, overall heat transfer coefficient and absorbed mass flux. The information achieved should serve to understand better the absorption process for such mixtures and design an absorber using plate heat exchangers for air conditioning applications.