Air Cycle Refrigeration

Introduction The primary compressor is driven by a high speed electric

Refrigeration is a world wide multi-billion pound business, motor, operating at a speed of up to 25,000 rpm, whilst the
with applications ranging from food processing to air combined secondary compressor and turbine module,
conditioning. This industry is under massive pressure to arranged in the ‘bootstrap’ configuration, is powered
develop new ideas, technologies and methods of work that completely by the flow of the air through it, eliminating the
will meet the demands of an ever changing world. need for further power input. To maximise mechanical
efficiency, the design utilises the latest magnetic bearing
One major driver for the industry is technology. Losses due to non-isentropic processes have
the impending legislation resulting
been minimised by designing optimised components using
from the Kyoto and Montreal
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software.
Protocols, which will outlaw the use of
the most common chlorofluorocarbon
(CFC) and hydrofluorocarbon (HFC)
refrigerant gases currently being used
in the world today, in an attempt to
reduce global warming and its effects.

CFCs and HFCs are toxic and have large global warming
and ozone depletion potentials; consequently an
environmentally-friendly alternative is urgently required. A
solution to this problem has been designed in the form of an
Figure 2 – CFD and CAD were used to optimise the design
air cycle refrigeration system for blast freezing applications,
which uses air as the refrigerant in place of CFCs and Advantages
HFCs. The air cycle refrigeration system for blast freezing
applications offers the following main benefits:
Design
• the system is immune to the impending phase out of
Air cycle refrigeration manipulates the fact that when air
CFCs and is environmentally-friendly.
expands, there is an associated drop in its temperature.
• it is effectively leak-free, eliminating the need for costly
Intercooler refills and potential fines associated with refrigerant leaks
C1
Primary Secondary C2
Compressor Compressor
T Turbine • air cycle refrigeration systems offer better performance at
Work Cold off-design conditions than existing systems
Input Space
Aftercooler
• the lower temperatures offered by the system lead to
shorter freezing times and hence improved process
throughput, whilst also reducing moisture loss and
Regenerator improving food quality
Figure 1 – Cycle diagram for air cycle refrigeration system
Air cycle refrigeration is the subject of ongoing research at
Figure 1 shows a simple cycle diagram for the air cycle Queen’s University, Belfast, by Dr. S. W. T. Spence et al.
system. Before the air can be expanded to produce a
cooling effect, it must first be compressed; this is achieved
by passing the air through two stages of turbomachinery
compressors. The compression of the air results in its
temperature rising, so to provide very cold air at the end of
the cycle, it is necessary to remove heat from the air; this is
achieved by passing the air through heat exchangers
immediately after each stage of compression. The final
stage of the cycle is to expand the air using a turbine,
yielding an instantaneous drop in the temperature of the air
to around -60oC, dependent upon necessary cooling
requirements. Figure 3 – Prototype system delivering air at -42oC

Project
Project By:
By: Derek
Derek Bell
Bell Robert
Robert McClure
McClure Supervised
Supervised By:
By: Dr.
Dr. S.
S. W.
W. T.T. Spence
Spence
Allister
Allister Bloomer
Bloomer David
David Scott
Scott Prof.
Prof. J.
J. F.
F. Orr
Orr
Kris .
Wanda
Wanda ChanChan Kris Skarp
Skarp
Richard
Richard Hyland
Hyland

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