A Totally Heat-Driven Refrigeration System Using Low-Temperature Heat Sources for Low-Temperature Applications

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (02) ◽  
pp. 1950012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeynab Seyfouri ◽  
Mehran Ameri ◽  
Mozaffar Ali Mehrabian

In the present study, a totally heat-driven refrigeration system is proposed and thermodynamically analyzed. This system uses a low-temperature heat source such as geothermal energy or solar energy to produce cooling at freezing temperatures. The proposed system comprises a Rankine cycle (RC) and a hybrid GAX (HGAX) refrigeration cycle, in which the RC provides the power requirement of the HGAX cycle. An ammonia–water mixture is used in both RC and HGAX cycles as the working fluid. A comparative study is conducted in which the proposed system is compared with two other systems using GAX cycle and/or a single stage cycle, as the refrigeration cycle. The study shows that the proposed system is preferred to produce cooling at temperatures from 2∘C to [Formula: see text]C. A detailed parametric analysis of the proposed system is carried out. The results of the analysis show that the system can produce cooling at [Formula: see text]C using a low-temperature heat source at 133.5∘C with the exergy efficiency of about 20% without any input power. By increasing the heat source temperature to 160∘C, an exergy efficiency of 25% can be achieved.

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdolreza Fazeli ◽  
Hossein Rezvantalab ◽  
Farshad Kowsary

In this study, a new combined power and refrigeration cycle is proposed, which combines the Rankine and absorption refrigeration cycles. Using a binary ammonia-water mixture as the working fluid, this combined cycle produces both power and refrigeration output simultaneously by employing only one external heat source. In order to achieve the highest possible exergy efficiency, a secondary turbine is inserted to expand the hot weak solution leaving the boiler. Moreover, an artificial neural network (ANN) is used to simulate the thermodynamic properties and the relationship between the input thermodynamic variables on the cycle performance. It is shown that turbine inlet pressure, as well as heat source and refrigeration temperatures have significant effects on the net power output, refrigeration output and exergy efficiency of the combined cycle. In addition, the results of ANN are in excellent agreement with the mathematical simulation and cover a wider range for evaluation of cycle performance.


Author(s):  
Yoshiharu Amano ◽  
Keisuke Kawanishi ◽  
Takumi Hashizume

This paper reports results from experimental investigations of the dynamics of an ammonia-water mixture turbine system. The mixture turbine system features Kalina Cycle technology [1]. The working fluid is an ammonia-water mixture (AWM), which enhances the power production recovered from the low-temperature heat source [2], [3]. The Kalina Cycle is superior to the Rankine Cycle for a low temperature heat source [4], [5]. The ammonia-water mixture turbine system has distillation-condensation processes. The subsystem produces ammonia-rich vapor and a lean solution at the separator, and the vapor and the solution converge at the condenser. The mass balance of ammonia and water is maintained by a level control at the separator and reservoirs at the condensers. Since the ammonia mass fraction in the cycle has a high sensitivity to the evaporation/condensation pressure and vapor flow rate in the cycle, the pressure change gives rise to a flow rate change and then level changes in the separators and reservoirs and vice versa. From the experimental investigation of the ammonia-water mixture turbine system, it was observed that the sensitivity of the evaporating flow rate and solution liquid density in the cycle is very high, and those sensitivity factors are affected by the ammonia-mass fraction. This paper presents the experimental results of a study on the dynamics of the distillation process of the ammonia-water mixture turbine system and uses the results of investigation to explain the mechanism of the unstable fluctuation in the system.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 500-507
Author(s):  
Lili Wei ◽  
Zhenjun Ma ◽  
Xuemei Gong ◽  
Xiujuan Guo

Abstract This paper presents experimental investigation of low-temperature heat to electricity generation system based on Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) using R152a as the working fluid. Both energy efficiency and exergy efficiency were analyzed based on the experiments. Although energy efficiency was low to 5.0% when the evaporating and cooling temperatures were 65°C and 11°C, respectively, the exergy efficiency reached 25%, which showed great competitiveness among low-temperature heat utilization technologies. To reveal the energy recovery proportion from the waste heat, both energy extraction efficiency and exergy extraction efficiency as well as energy and exergy loss paths were analyzed. When the heat source was 65°C, 14.9% of the maximum possible thermal energy in the heat source was absorbed by the organic working fluid, and 10.7% was transferred to the cooling medium. The power output contributed 0.64%. A total of 1.8% of the exergy in the heat stream flowed to the cooling medium. The start-up work takes dramatically 0.16% and 1.7% of energy and exergy, respectively. Other energy and exergy loss occurs due to the irreversibility of the heat transfer process and expansion process. Cascade ORC system could enlarge the temperature difference of the heat stream and raise the power output. However, the energy efficiency of the multi-stage ORC system is lower than single-stage system, since there was a downward trend of the temperature of heat source for the latter stage. ORC cycle can lower the temperature of heat source to 45°C.


2021 ◽  
Vol 238 ◽  
pp. 01002
Author(s):  
Diego Micheli ◽  
Mauro Reini ◽  
Rodolfo Taccani

The aim of the paper is to study the thermodynamic behavior of a non-conventional power cycle, named Carbon Carrier Cycle (CCC), which is expected to obtain interesting performance with low temperature heat source. The CCC may be regarded as derived from an absorption machine, where an expander replaces the condenser, the throttling valve and the evaporator. The working fluid is a mixture of CO2 and a proper absorber. In the paper, the thermodynamic model of this kind of cycles is described, and the results obtained considering Acetone as the absorber are discussed. A first performance comparison is then conducted with a more conventional Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC).


Author(s):  
Kenneth C. Brown

A remote area power supply using cold thermal storage and wind as the energy source is proposed. The primary objective is to provide a renewable energy remote area power supply with cheaper and more robust storage than lead-acid batteries. The proposal amalgamates a vapour compression refrigeration system with a Rankine cycle engine, both using the same working fluid. A tank of freezing brine acts as the condenser in the Rankine cycle and as the evaporator in the refrigeration cycle but also provides the “energy storage”. Analysis of the system indicates that it is practical and that its performance is comparable with existing battery based systems.


Author(s):  
Afsaneh Noroozian ◽  
Abbas Naeimi ◽  
Mokhtar Bidi ◽  
Mohammad Hossein Ahmadi

Depleting fossil fuel resources and the horrible environmental impacts due to burning fossil fuels emphasize the importance of using renewable energy resources such as geothermal and solar energies. This paper compares performance of CO2 transcritical cycle, organic Rankine cycle, and trilateral Rankine cycle using a low-temperature geothermal heat source. Thermodynamic analysis, exergetic analysis, economic analysis, and exergoeconomic analysis are applied for each of the aforementioned cycles. In addition, a sensitivity analysis is performed on the system, and the effects of geothermal heat source temperature, evaporator pinch point temperature, and turbine inlet pressure on the cycle's performance are evaluated. Finally, the systems are optimized in order to minimize product cost ratio and maximize exergetic efficiency by using the genetic algorithm. Results indicate that the maximum thermal efficiency is approximately 13.03% which belongs to organic Rankine cycle with R123 as working fluid. CO2 cycle has the maximum exergetic efficiency, equals to 46.13%. The minimum product cost ratio refers to the organic Rankine cycle with R245fa as working fluid. Moreover, sensitivity analysis shows that increasing geothermal heat source temperature results in higher output power, product cost ratio, and exergy destruction ratio in all cycles.


Author(s):  
Wahiba Yaïci ◽  
Evgueniy Entchev ◽  
Pouyan Talebizadeh Sardari

Abstract Globally there are several viable sources of renewable, low-temperature heat (below 130°C) particularly solar energy, geothermal energy, and energy generated from industrial wastes. Increased exploitation of these low-temperature options has the definite potential of reducing fossil fuel consumption with its attendant very harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Researchers have universally identified the organic Rankine cycle (ORC) as a practicable and promising system to generate electrical power from renewable sources based on its beneficial use of volatile organic fluids as working fluids (WFs). In recent times, researchers have also shown a preference for/an inclination towards deployment of zeotropic mixtures as ORC WFs because of their capacity to improve thermodynamic performance of ORC systems, a feat enabled by better matches of the temperature profiles of the WF and the heat source/sink. This paper demonstrates both the technical feasibility and the notable advantages of using zeotropic mixtures as WFs through a simulation study of an ORC system. The study examines the thermodynamic performance of ORC systems using zeotropic WF mixtures to generate electricity driven by low-temperature solar heat source for building applications. A thermodynamic model is developed with an ORC system both with and excluding a regenerator. Five zeotropic mixtures with varying compositions of R245fa/propane, R245fa/hexane, R245fa/heptane, pentane/hexane and isopentane/hexane are evaluated and compared to identify the best combinations of WF mixtures that can yield high efficiency in their system cycles. The study also investigates the effects of the volumetric flow ratio, and evaporation and condensation temperature glides on the ORC’s thermodynamic performance. Following a detailed analysis of each mixture, R245fa/propane is selected for parametric study to examine the effects of operating parameters on the system’s efficiency and sustainability index. For zeotropic mixtures, results showed that there is an optimal composition range within which binary mixtures are inclined to perform more efficiently than the component pure fluids. In addition, a significant increase in cycle efficiency can be achieved with a regenerative ORC, with cycle efficiency ranging between 3.1–9.8% and 8.6–17.4% for ORC both without and with regeneration, respectively. Results also showed that exploiting zeotropic mixtures could enlarge the limitation experienced in selecting WFs for low-temperature solar organic Rankine cycles.


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