TRANSCRITICAL CO2 BASED SYSTEMS FOR REFRIGERATION AND AIR CONDITIONING

Dr. M. Ram Gopal Department of Mechanical Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur Kharagpur, India, PIN: 721 302

Introduction
Due to ozone depletion and global warming, environment friendly refrigerants are needed in refrigeration and air conditioning applications Most of the proposed non-ODS, synthetic refrigerants have high GWP future use uncertain? Natural refrigerants such as air, water, carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons offer a permanent solution to environmental problems Of these natural refrigerants, only CO2 is nonflammable, non-toxic with sub-zero normal boiling point

Background
Carbon dioxide (R744) was widely used during late 19th and early 20th centuries primarily for:
marine refrigeration, cold storages, comfort cooling etc.

Invention of synthetic refrigerants in 1930s replaced most of the older fluids, including CO2 Factors responsible for replacement of CO2 are:
Failure to differentiate CO2 from other refrigerants Problems due to high operating pressures Rapid loss of capacity and efficiency at high heat sink temperatures Aggressive marketing and low cost of CFC systems Failure of the CO2 system manufacturers to adapt improved designs

Revival of CO2 as refrigerant

Prof. Lorentzen patented a transcritical CO2 system with high pressure control in 1989
Lorentzen and Pettersen published results on an automobile air conditioning system based on transcritical CO2 cycle in 1993 CO2 prototype performance found to be comparable or better than the baseline CFC12 system Soon after, many potential applications of CO2 based systems for cooling and heating applications are identified Many systems are successfully commercialized

Current status of CO2 refrigeration systems

a) Systems developed & commercialized
a) b) c) d) e) Beverage coolers (e.g. Coca Cola) Heat pump water heaters (domestic and commercial) Supermarket refrigeration systems Chest freezers Transport refrigeration (bus, train)

b) Systems developed, but not commercialized

a) Mobile air conditioning (MAC) systems

c) Systems under development

a) b) c) d) e) Mobile heat pumps Air conditioning (residential & non-residential) Heat pumps for combined air and water heating Transport refrigeration (containers, trucks) Heat pump dryers (residential & commercial)

CO2 as refrigerant
Advantages:
Environment friendly (ODP =0, GWP=1) Non-toxic and non-flammable Sub-zero normal boiling point Excellent thermo-physical properties Material compatibility Low cost and easy availability

Disadvantages:
Low critical temperature ( 31.0oC) High operating pressures Low theoretical efficiency of the basic cycle

CO2 in mobile air conditioning

Problems and requirements
Relatively large refrigerant leakage Need for compact and light-weight systems Future need for heating, independent of engine heat

R134a is the currently used refrigerant to be replaced due to high GWP Currently proposed alternatives are:
HFO-1234yf (CF3CF=CH2)
Low GWP (=4) Synthetic with relatively unknown impacts Mildly flammable

R744 (CO2)
Need for performance improvement

Thermodynamics of transcritical CO2 cycles

For high sink temperatures, sub-critical cycle has to be replaced by a transcritical cycle
Heat rejection is non-isothermal Gas cooler to replace traditional condenser Discharge pressure independent of refrigerant temperature depends on CO2 charged Possibility of optimizing the discharge pressure to maximize COP, exergetic efficiency or capacity Optimum discharge pressure depends on several parameters Need for modifications in cycles, component design and controls

Variation of refrigeration effect and specific work with discharge pressure [Danfoss, 2004]

Typical COP variation with discharge pressure and gas cooler exit temperature [Bullard, 2004]

Effect of discharge pressure on a simple CO2 cycle performance te=7oC, tgc,exit = 43oC

 Optimum discharge pressure for maximum COP depends on several parameters Large number of studies are carried out to estimate optimum pressure and maximum COP For example, for a given compressor it is shown that [Sarkar et al., 2004]

Where t3 = gas cooler temperature (30oC to 50oC) t4 = evaporator temperature (-10oC to +10oC) Discharge pressure in CO2 systems can be varied in a number of ways

Comparison between R134a & CO2 (R744)

Input parameters:
Single stage cycle with no LSHX

Evaporator temperature =7oC (for R134a & R744) Heat sink temperature = 35oC Condenser temperature (R134a) = 54.4oC Condenser exit temperature (R134a) = 43oC Gas cooler exit temperature (R744) = 43oC
Saturated condition at evaporator exit (R134a & R744) Irreversible but adiabatic compression Isenthalpic expansion No pressure drops in connecting lines & HXs Design refrigeration capacity = 1 TR (3.517 kW)

1. Operating

pressures

are

an

order-of-magnitude

higher

and

the

displacement rate is an order-of-magnitude lower compared to R134a 2. Discharge temperatures are higher than that of R134a (85oC vs 63oC) 3. COP is only about 60 % that of R134a (2.52 vs 4.258) 4. Losses due to throttling are much higher for R744 compared to that of

R134a (37 % vs 13 %) Opportunity to recover throttling losses?

Methods to reduce throttling losses

1. Cooling the refrigerant before throttling using an internal heat exchanger (IHX)

2. Use of an expander in place of throttle valve

3. Use of an ejector in place of throttle valve 4. Use of multi-expansion and flash gas removal Reduction in throttling losses also reduces losses in other components Performance improvement of the suggested methods varies depending on operating conditions

Improvement with internal heat exchanger (effectiveness = 90%)

Near the optimum discharge pressure: Throttling loss decreases from 0.515 kW to 0.24 kW Loss in gas cooler increases from 0.214 kW to 0.334 kW Improvement in COP is about 8.33 % (2.73 vs 2.52)

Improvement using an expander

Expanders may be more more beneficial in CO2 systems as most of the expansion takes place in single phase region Expander increases the refrigeration effect and reduces the net work input Expanders may be economically viable in larger systems Combined expander-compressor have also been developed for transcritical CO2 systems

Improvement using a 2-phase ejector

Use of an ejector in place of a throttle valve:

1. 2. 3. Increases refrigeration effect and improves evaporator performance Increases suction pressure thereby improving compressor performance Actual improvement in performance depends on ejector efficiency

4.

Ejectors are preferable as they are inexpensive and do not consist of

any moving components

Comparative performance with throttle valve, expander and ejector

is,exp = 0.8is,comp ejector = 10 %

At optimum discharge pressure: 1. Use of expander improves the COP by about 42 % 2. Use of ejector improves the COP by about 4.5 %

Multi-stage cycle

At evaporator and gas cooler exit temperatures of 7oC and 43oC, respectively: Use of 2-stage system improves the COP by about 12.3 % Optimum discharge pressure also reduces with 2-stage system Other schemes with multi-expansion and multi-compression can be envisaged

Comparison of with baseline R134a system with and without improved heat exchangers

1. Due to excellent thermo-physical properties, highly efficient heat exchangers can be developed for CO2 systems (terminal T 2 to 3 K) 2. With improved heat exchangers the theoretical performance of a basic cycle can approach that of R134a 3. Theoretical performance of CO2 system with expander and improved HXs can exceed that of R134a

Actual performance of refrigeration cycles

Actual performance can be far away from theoretical cycle performance due to various losses in actual components Difference between actual and theoretical performance is much higher in case of R134a
Studies show that with suitable design modification and optimization, actual CO2 systems can outperform synthetic refrigerants The study by Lorentzen is a classic example of how CO2 systems can be made to perform better than the then state-of-art R12 system

Performance under high ambient temperatures

Neksa et al. [2010]
35oC

CO2 systems tend to be less efficient at higher ambient temperatures Data shows that 90% of the time the ambient temperature in most of the cities is less than 35oC Hence seasonal performance of CO2 systems can be better If the system is expected to operate at high sink temperatures for longer periods, then it may be necessary to use advanced cycles or concepts such as expanders etc.

Life Cycle Climate Performance of R134a and R744 based car air conditioners
The equivalent greenhouse gas emission is divided into:
1) Impact due to transportation of the system due to its mass 2) Impact due to release of refrigerant into atmosphere, and 3) Indirect impact due to system performance

Studies carried out by Hafner and Neksa [2006] show that even for typically high ambient temperature conditions, the LCCP of CO2 systems is much better than that of R134a The analysis shows that by using CO2 systems the greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by about: 40 % for Indian conditions, and 55 % for Chinese conditions

Prospects for CO2 based MAC

Studies available in open literature clearly show that CO2 offers the best possible long term solution for car air conditioning [B-Cool Project, Malvicino et al., 2009] With properly matched components, the efficiency of CO2 system can be comparable or better than R134a At projected 2011 costs, the cost of CO2 system may be much higher than the currently used R134a system
Though with volume production costs are likely to come down, still CO2 system may remain costlier

Further studies are required on the issues of reliability and system costs

Safety and other issues

Operating pressures of CO2 systems are an order-ofmagnitude higher than R 134a systems However, internal volume of CO2 systems will be an orderof-magnitude lower compared to R 134a
Hence, explosive energy (depends on the product of pressure and volume) is almost same for both For refrigeration systems, water content in CO2 should be less than 10 ppm Manufacturers recommend specially developed lubricant, filter-driers for CO2

CO2 is compatible with all common metals and alloys

Since in transcritical systems, CO2 can dissolve in some polymers, suitable polymers should be used

Availability of systems & components

Compressors: Dorin, Bock, Bitzer, Mayekawa, Sanyo, Danfoss, Embraco, Obrist Heat exchangers: Alfa Laval, Frascold, Swep etc. Control valve, expansion devices and other accessories: Danfoss, Johnson Controls, Grundfos, etc. The web portal R744.com is developed to showcase manufacturers exclusively for transcritical and subcritical CO2 (R 744) systems and components Transcritical CO2 based systems for other cooling and heating applications are available from Sanyo, Denso, Daikin, Mitsubishi, Hitachi, Matsushita etc.

Conclusions
CO2 along with other natural refrigerants offer a permanent solution to most of the environmental problems caused by synthetic refrigerants To make CO2 systems competitive, the unique properties of CO2 should be recognized and used in the design of operating cycles and components Results obtained so far are very encouraging However, a large scale promotion is needed to alleviate the various, and mostly unfounded apprehensions about this high pressure refrigerant from the minds of the various stakeholders

CO2 related activities at IIT Kharagpur

Design and development of a transcritical CO2 based heat pump for simultaneous water cooling and heating

Theoretical studies on transcritical CO2 based heat pump dryers

Studies on heat exchangers for CO2 applications

Theoretical studies on natural refrigerant based cascade systems with:

a) CO2 as low temperature fluid in subcritical cycle

b) CO2 as high temperature fluid in transcritical cycle

Theoretical and experimental studies on CO2 based natural circulation loops

Thank you for your attention!

Questions are welcome!!!