Introduction to Refrigeration

1.1.

The Clausius Statement

Refrigeration and heat pumps are based on the Clausius Statement of the Second Low of thermodynamic (It is impossible to make a cyclic engine whose only effect is to transfer thermal energy from a colder body to a hotter body). Thermal power can be transferred spontaneously from hot reservoir to cold reservoir. However, it is impossible to reverse this process without any external power to support the process. Carnot Refrigeration/heat pump cycle represents the maximum possible performance, even though, the Carnot performance cannot be achieved in practice due to system irreversibility. Thus, any designer has to compare his system performance with Carnot cycle as the reference for Ideal Cycle.

1.2.

Carnot Refr. / H.P.

It is the idealized model for refrigeration and heat pump cycles. The cycle takes the reversed direction of the Carnot engine cycle (it will go anti-clock wise) and work is negative (input work). In Heat pump: useful heat is utilized at the hot reservoir for space heating purpose. In Refrigerator: useful heat is pulled-out from the cold reservoir for space cooling purpose. Since the coefficient of performance (COP) can only depend on the reservoir temperatures, the ratio of heats can only depend on those temperatures:

COP ( Rfr .)

QC QC W QH QC

but for Carnot:

QC QH QC QH

TC TH TC TH

COP ( Rfr .) carnot

TC TH TC TH TH TC

COP ( HP )

QH QH but for Carnot: W QH QC

COP ( HP ) carnot

Carnot Ref. / H.P. cycle consists of four processes: 12: Isentropic compression 23: Isothermal / Isobaric heat rejection 34: Isentropic expansion 41: Isothermal / Isobaric heat gain

1.3.

Actual Refrigeration systems

The performance of the actual refrigeration systems are compared to the Ideal Carnot performance with compression refrigeration system has the highest COP followed by absorption systems then the Bell-Coleman air refrigeration. Actual cycles can be divided based on cooling principle to: Sensible heat (S.H.) cooling and Latent heat (L.H.) cooling.

Under the sensible heat cooling effect, the following two cooling methods are used: 1.3.1. Bell-Coleman cycle It is the reversed cycle of Brayton cycle of gas turbine power system. This cooling effect is based on gas expansion and the cold gas transfers cooling effect through sensible heat. From the first low of thermodynamic for closed system: Q = WdU, and for adiabatic expander (turbine) with Q = 0 W = dU , that presents the temperature drop (as internal energy drop) as the result of gas expansion. The Ideal Bell-Coleman Cycle contains: 12: Isentropic compression (compressor) 23: Isobaric heat rejection (Gas cooler) 34: Isentropic expansion (Turbine) 41: Isobaric heat gain (Refrigerator)

COP of the polytropic Bell-Coleman cycle is:

1 2 3 = 1( )( )[ 1] 1 1 4
For Ideal Bell-Coleman (compared to Carnot) with perfect inter-cooling (T1 = T3), COP is: =

1 < 1 2

Actual Bell-Coleman system: The actual system works efficiently as refrigerator/freezer system at high altitudes were atmospheric temperature can be low or negative. However, for on-ground application, this system is not used for refrigeration application but for air conditioning. Bell-Coleman system advantages and disadvantages compared to compression system: 1. Lower weight for each Ton of refrigeration. 2. Lower volume for each Ton of refrigeration. 3. Main jet compressor of the aircraft is used, thus, it does not require separate compressor. 4. Air is the refrigerant, thus, no toxicity, flammability hazards. 5. Refrigerant (air) leakage does not arise serious problems. 6. Less maintenance requirement. 7. Low COP. Basic Aircraft Air conditioning system: In aircraft at high altitudes, ambient temperature and pressure (point 1) are much lower than normal conditions. The aircraft ram (R) increases air pressure to point 2 where air at this point is used as cooling medium at the shell-side of the heat exchanger. Aircraft main jet compressor compresses air from point 2 to 3. A small amount of compressed air (pint 3) is bled-out to be used in the air-conditioning system. Hot air (point 3) is cooled down via heat exchanger to point 4 and then expanded through a small air turbine down to comfort conditions (i.e. 1 bar and 300K) at point 5 to be introduced to the passengers pressurized cabin.

1.3.2. Gas throttling system

It is one if the lowest COP and cooling capacity systems and it can be used to drop few temperature degrees for compressed gases without any moving mechanical parts using throttle. The adiabatic gas throttling doesn't cause any change in enthalpy. For actual gases, temperature may increase or decrease or remain constant after throttling. The term that indicates the magnitude and sign of the temperature change is known as Joule Thomson Coefficient presenting the change in temperature with respect to pressure at constant enthalpy. If the throttling process on constant enthalpy line goes from point (a to b), temperature increase. However, from (b to c) temperature decreases. Maximum temperature occurs at point (b) where = 0 and the cooling effect starts when > 0. This process can be used for air conditioning but not for refrigeration. The resulting temperature will be quite high unless the starting temperature is low. Under the Latent heat cooling effect, the following Five cooling methods are used:

1.3.3. Ice / Dry ice system

Using ice for keeping food, meat and fish, etc. is the oldest method of cooling since the Romanian empire, as they used to refrigerate their food using ice brought from the Icy top of mountains. Ice/water mixture is always at 0C and the latent heat of melting is used to remove the cooling load. Mixing ice with salt lowering ice melting temperature. One of the basic modern Ice refrigeration system is the direct contact system, where ice is kept in upper tray and food is kept in lower tray, and all shelves are contained in insulated cabinet. Air is circulated naturally since cold air at the top drops by its higher density and warmer air is pushed to the top. this system can keep food in the range or 5-10C. For large cooling loads and more efficient cooling, the indirect cooling system is used. This system has higher initial and operation cost and occupies larger volume. cooling medium (commonly water) is used to transfer cooling load from the storage house to the ice storage.

Different temperature levels can be set for different type of foods by adjusting water flow rate in the valves (a, b, etc.). This system has the advantage of :(i) Lower temperature. (ii) Better load and temperature control. (iii) No contamination between food and non-pure ice. Dry Ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide (CO2) at 78C and it transfers from solid state directly to gaseous state.

1.3.4. Steam / Gas Jet (evaporation systems)

These systems use the steam or gas pressure to create vacuum through a venture-based vacuum generator. Water in a container is subjected to the vacuum effect. Lowering water pressure lowers the boiling temperature to room temperature and water starts to evaporate drawing out the cooling load with the Latent heat of evaporation. In the steam jet system, water is sprayed to the flash chamber under vacuum and some of water evaporates cooling the rest of water, then chilled water is re-circulated to the air conditioning plant. Compressed gas or air can work exactly as the steam-jet system but without the steam condenser. The other system is the snow maker shown below to create snow using compressed air based on same principle.

1.3.5. Liquid gas containers

Containers with liquefied gases such as Nitrogen and Carbon dioxide can keep an insulated space at freezing temperatures as low as 30C and the warm gas can then be released into environment safely. Thus, such system can be installed at lower costs in lorries carrying frozen foods. Plate cooling system: One of the designs is to cool the food indirectly via plate heat exchanger at the walls of the container. The valve of the liquefied gas tank is controlled by a temperature sensor and releases the gas when temperature increases above set point (e.g. 30C). liquid gas evaporates inside the cold plates and it is pushed by the high pressure inside container until it is released to the atmosphere outside the vehicle. Spray cooling system: It is similar to the previous system but with more efficient heat transfer since gas is sprayed directly to the food providing extreme contact surface area but with the risk of contamination. Moreover, the spray system has much lower system cost since no heat exchanger is required.

1.3.6. Compression system

This system has the highest COP among refrigeration systems and the cooling effect is based on latent heat of the refrigerant agent. How close could compression system be to Carnot cycle? Carnot cycle cannot be applied in practice for the following reasons: Two-phase (wet) compression (1-2) is not practical since it will damage the compressor. The use of expander (turbine) (3-4) is more efficient but usually not desirable due to its high cost. Throttling is used but it increases entropy significantly. Heat transfer (2-3 & 4-1) can be almost isothermal but in any heat exchanger, there will be temperature difference between the two heat transfer fluids (Th & Th'), thus, reducing the cycle efficiency.

 Also, pressure drop and heat losses causes a deviation in all the straight line processes.

Ideal Compression cycle:

The area under 4-1 presents the cooling load and it is lower than Carnot cooling (d-a). The area 1-2s -3-4 presents the required net work and it is significantly higher than Carnot new work (a-b-c-d). The area under 2s-3 presents the heat rejection and it is significantly higher than Carnot (b-c).

How to increase compression cycle performance?

Elevating TL. lowering TH. Increasing cooling load QL by: 1. Sub-cooling the condenser. 2. Using flash tank. 3. Using turbo expander instead of throttling. Reducing the net work by: A. Using turbo expander instead of throttling. B. Using multistage compression with inter-cooling.

1.3.7. Absorption system

This system works on the exact same method of the compression system except for the gas compression. The gas compressor takes a considerable amount of power, thus, gas is absorbed by a suitable liquid absorber and the compressor is replaced by a pump to increase its pressure but with much lower required power. Pumping power is negligible, however, high amount of thermal power is required to separate the refrigerant from the absorbent. This system will be discussed thoroughly in the following chapters.

1.4.

Cooling capacity

One of the main factors in the design of the refrigeration system is the cooling capacity and load. The common standard to describe system capacity is Ton Refrigeration that is equivalent to the thermal power to be removed from one ton of ice (as Latent heat only) within 24 hours. 1Ton Refrigeration 3.5 kW