Energetic and exergetic investigation of a novel refrigeration system utilizing ejector integrated subcooling using different refrigerants

Abstract

Increase in coefficient of performance of refrigeration systems is eminently important for various applications such as household refrigerator, tumble dryer, and more in practical applications. A new ejector subcooling system is described and investigated numerically without using an extra pump or compressor. After condenser, some part of the liquid (by-pass refrigerant) is expanded so that its temperature could be lower than the intended subcooling temperature. By using this by-pass refrigerant, the main flow of the refrigerant is subcooled. After evaporation, the by-pass refrigerant is expanded using an ejector. Seven different refrigerants are considered as working fluids (namely; R32, R1234yf, R290, R134a, 8717, R600a and R245fa). R1234yf, R290, R600a and R717 are considered as low global warming potential refrigerants in European Union regulation. For each refrigerant, the values of coefficient of performance, relative increment in coefficient of performance and exergy efficiencies are calculated and demonstrated graphically for different condenser temperatures between 30 degrees C/70 degrees C and evaporator temperatures between -20 degrees C/10 degrees C. Results show that the best performance is obtained for R1234yf with an increment of about 20% in coefficient of performance and 18% in exergy efficiency. These efficiencies can be higher or lower approximately by 3% using ejector with higher or lower component efficiencies. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.