Thermal Analysis of a Forced Flow Diffusion Absorption Refrigeration System for Fishing-Boat Exhaust Waste Heat Utilization

Ammonia water absorption refrigeration systems are effective in utilizing fishing-boat exhaust waste heat for cryopreservation. However, the liquid level control and the use of a solution pump characterized by small flowrate and high-pressure head result in poor reliability in the traditional system. Besides, the system must necessarily be designed anti-swaying and anti-corrosion. This paper proposes a forced flow diffusion absorption refrigeration system, in which an inherently leak-free canned motor pump and an ejector are employed to provide the driving forces of the gas and liquid loops. The approximate single pressure operation allows for a simple passive liquid sealing control without throttling valves. The system adopts an integrated cooling strategy which allows the system to operate under swaying conditions, and the external seawater cooled heat exchanger avoids internal corrosion and leakage. The thermal analysis shows the system is valid to be operated under wide operating conditions, and the coupled gas and solution circulation ratios determined the performance of the novel system. There is an optimal ammonia mass fraction difference in the gas loop to obtain the optimal COP. The COP reaches 0.4 when the temperatures at the outlets of the generator, evaporator, absorber, and condenser are 160, −15, 35, and 35°C, respectively. The novel system provides a reliable absorption refrigeration system design for fishing-boat applications.

Electrothermal Desiccant Regeneration Technique for Air Dehumidification

Adsorption dehumidification and drying equipment is essential general equipment for domestic and industrial use. The most commonly used type in industry is the compressed air adsorption dryer. The analysis results show that the heat loss of the traditional heat air regeneration system of the compressor dryer is 39.4%, and the exhaust waste heat is 32.4%. The actual use of heat energy for desiccant regeneration is only 28.2%. Therefore, this study uses an innovative electrothermal adsorbent unit (ETAU) to regenerate the desiccant. By directly heating the adsorbent, heat loss can be effectively improved. On the other hand, the composite arrangement of zeolite and activated alumina is used. The inlet compressed air is firstly treated by the activated alumina, which has a high adsorption capacity in the high relative humidity condition, then a zeolite is used as a second part to make the dew point reach –40 °C. In the regeneration step, the airflow direction is reversed, whereby the zeolite is regenerated by the ETAU, and the waste heat of the exhaust air is used to regenerate the activated alumina, which reduces the temperature of the exhaust air. Compared with the traditional heat air compressed air system, the two technologies can save about 27% energy in total.