Case study of liquid suction heat exchanger in a mechanical refrigeration system using alternative refrigerants

  • Authors

    • Raid Ahmed Mahmood School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, University of Southern Queensland, Australia
    2020-07-25
    https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v9i3.30777
  • Liquid-Suction Heat Exchanger, Alternative Refrigerant, Subcooling, Superheating.
  • This paper investigates the effect of adding a liquid-suction heat exchanger on the performance of a mechanical refrigeration system using alternative refrigerants. Engineering Equation Solver (EES) was used to simulate a mechanical refrigeration system in two configurations: modified system with liquid-suction heat exchanger and system without liquid-suction heat exchanger. The results revealed that the liquid-suction heat exchanger has a significant effect on the system performance as it influences the subcooling and superheating temperatures. The results also showed that the highest value of the coefficient of performance (COP) was achieved by the modified system with refrigerant type R134a, COP was about 7% and 12% higher than that of refrigerants R600a and R22 respectively. It also presented that R600a has high response to increase the refrigerant effect when the liquid-suction heat exchanger is used. R600a is good alternative refrigerant and it can be used in the mechanical refrigeration system, but its COP is lower than that of R134a.

     

     

  • References

    1. [1] Sunardi, C., et al., Performance improvement using subcooling on freezer with R-22 and R290 as refrigerant for variousambient temperatures. ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 2016. 11(2): p. 931-934.

      [2] Matsumoto, T., T. Chino, and M. Kusama, Heat Exchanger for Refrigeration Cycle. 2014, US Patent 20,140,311,181.

      [3] Bertsch, S.S. and E.A. Groll, Two-stage air-source heat pump for residential heating and cooling applications in northern U.S. climates. International Journal of Refrigeration, 2008. 31(7): p. 1282-1292. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2008.01.006.

      [4] Wang, G.-B. and X.-R. Zhang, Thermoeconomic optimization and comparison of the simple single-stage transcritical carbon dioxide vapor compression cycle with different subcooling methods for district heating and cooling. Energy Conversion and Management, 2019. 185: p. 740-757. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2019.02.024.

      [5] Jain, G., A. Arora, and S. Gupta, Performance characteristics of a two-stage transcritical N2O refrigeration cycle with vortex tube. International Journal of Ambient Energy, 2020. 41(5): p. 491-499. https://doi.org/10.1080/01430750.2018.1472646.

      [6] Llopis, R., et al., Performance evaluation of R404A and R507A refrigerant mixtures in an experimental double-stage vapour compression plant. Applied Energy, 2010. 87(5): p. 1546-1553. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2009.10.020.

      [7] Llopis, R., D. Sánchez, and R. Cabello, Alternative refrigerants for the primary circuit of an indirect commercial refrigeration cascade system. 2018.

      [8] Aized, T. and A. Hamza, Thermodynamic Analysis of Various Refrigerants for Automotive Air Conditioning System. Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, 2019. 44(2): p. 1697-1707. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-018-3646-8.

      [9] Llopis, R., et al., Experimental evaluation of an Internal Heat Exchanger in a CO 2 subcritical refrigeration cycle with gas-cooler. Applied Thermal Engineering, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2015.01.040.

      [10] Siva Reddy, V., N. Panwar, and S. Kaushik, Exergetic analysis of a vapour compression refrigeration system with R134a, R143a, R152a, R404A, R407C, R410A, R502 and R507A. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, 2012. 14(1): p. 47-53. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-011-0374-0.

      [11] Devecioğlu, A.G. and V. Oruç, Improvement on the energy performance of a refrigeration system adapting a plate-type heat exchanger and low-GWP refrigerants as alternatives to R134a. Energy, 2018. 155: p. 105-116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2018.05.032.

      [12] Mohanraj, M., C. Muraleedharan, and S. Jayaraj, A review on recent developments in new refrigerant mixtures for vapour compression-based refrigeration, air-conditioning and heat pump units. International Journal of Energy Research, 2011. 35(8): p. 647-669. https://doi.org/10.1002/er.1736.

      [13] Agrawal, N., S. Patil, and P. Nanda, Experimental Studies of a Domestic Refrigerator Using R290/R600a Zeotropic Blends. Energy Procedia, 2017. 109: p. 425-430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.051.

      [14] Mota-Babiloni, A., et al., Experimental drop-in replacement of R404A for warm countries using the low GWP mixtures R454C and R455A. International Journal of Refrigeration, 2018. 91: p. 136-145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2018.05.018.

      [15] Lord, R.G. and C. Rahhal, Internal liquid suction heat exchanger. 2017, Google Patents.

      [16] Klein, S., D. Reindl, and K. Brownell, Refrigeration system performance using liquid-suction heat exchangers. International Journal of Refrigeration, 2000. 23(8): p. 588-596. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-7007(00)00008-6.

      [17] Vaghela, J., Experimental Evaluation of an Automobile Air-Conditioning System with and without Liquid Suction Heat Exchanger. SAE International Journal of Passenger Cars-Mechanical Systems, 2016. 9(2016-01-9110): p. 1279-1288. https://doi.org/10.4271/2016-01-9110.

      [18] Prayudi, N. and R.A. Diantari. The effect the effectiveness of the liquid suction heat exchanger to performance of cold storage with refrigerant R22, R404A and R290/R600a. in American Institute of Physics Conference Series. 2017. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4968320.

      [19] Hermes, C.J., Heat transfer and pressure drop trade-offs in liquid-to-suction heat exchangers. International Journal of Refrigeration, 2019. 104: p. 496-500. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2019.05.011.

      [20] Getu, H.-M. and P.K. Bansal, Simulation Model of a Low-Temperature Supermarket Refrigeration System. HVAC&R Research, 2006. 12(4): p. 1117-1139. https://doi.org/10.1080/10789669.2006.10391454.

      [21] Dalkilic, A., et al., Comparison of frictional pressure drop models during annular flow condensation of R600a in a horizontal tube at low mass flux and of R134a in a vertical tube at high mass flux. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 2010. 53(9): p. 2052-2064. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2009.12.051.

      [22] Lee, Y. and C. Su, Experimental studies of isobutane (R600a) as the refrigerant in domestic refrigeration system. Applied Thermal Engineering, 2002. 22(5): p. 507-517. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1359-4311(01)00106-5.

      [23] Feng, C., et al., Investigation of the heat pump water heater using economizer vapor injection system and mixture of R22/R600a. International Journal of Refrigeration, 2009. 32(3): p. 509-514. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2008.06.012.

      [24] Gill, J. and J. Singh, Experimental analysis of R134a/LPG as replacement of R134a in a vapor-compression refrigeration system. International Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration, 2017. 25(02): p. 1750015. https://doi.org/10.1142/S2010132517500158.

      [25] Prayudi, R. Nurhasanah, and R.A. Diantari. The effect the effectiveness of the liquid suction heat exchanger to performance of cold storage with refrigerant R22, R404A and R290/R600a. in AIP Conference Proceedings. 2017. AIP Publishing LLC. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4968320.

      [26] Qureshi, M.A. and S. Bhatt, Comparative Analysis of COP using R134a & R600a Refrigerant in Domestic Refrigerator at steady state condition. International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), 2014. 3(12).

      [27] Adelekan, D., et al., Experimental Investigation of a Vapour Compression Refrigeration System with 15nm TiO2-R600a Nano-Refrigerant as the Working Fluid. Procedia Manufacturing, 2019. 35: p. 1222-1227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2019.06.079.

  • Downloads

    Additional Files

  • How to Cite

    Ahmed Mahmood, R. (2020). Case study of liquid suction heat exchanger in a mechanical refrigeration system using alternative refrigerants. International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 9(3), 644-649. https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v9i3.30777