PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF TRANSCRITICAL

CARBON DIOXIDE (CO2) REFRIGERATION SYSTEM

FOR WARMER CLIMATE

RA-7411 PROJECT WORK PHASE II

FIRST REVIEW

Submitted by

A.NAVEENKUMAR 2016251002

SIGNATURE OF THE STUDENT SIGNATURE OF THE PROJECT GUIDE

Dr. P.BALACHANDER
REFRIGERATION AND AIR CONDITIONING DIVISION
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING GUINDY
ANNA UNIVERSITY

REFRIGERATION AND AIR CONDITIONING DIVISION

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
ANNA UNIVERSITY, CHENNAI
 ABSTRACT

Analysing the performance of various CO2 booster refrigeration systems

and substantiating its application for supermarket air conditioning in warmer
climates. Utilising the gas cooler exhaust heat for domestic water heating.
Economic analysis is also done.

INTRODUCTION

Supermarkets have massive cooling load and traditionally employ

synthetic refrigerants. Thus, they contribute significantly towards direct and
indirect global warming. Complying with various environmental regulations that
are getting stricter is a challenge for the supermarkets. About half of the total
energy consumption in a supermarket is by the refrigeration system;
consequently, the focus is on refrigeration system to reduce the energy
consumption and use environmentally benign refrigerants to improve overall
environmental footprint. Attempts have been made to reduce energy consumption
by adopting efficient doored display cabinets and improved control system.
 LITERATURE REVIEW

Dileep Kumar Gupta et. al (2016) performance of the modified system at

temperature zone I, zone II and zone III respectively. The variation of
refrigeration capacity, compressor and COP of the overall system are analyzed at
different operating and gas cooler design conditions. Finally, the percentage
improvement of the COP with work recovery turbine is compared to that without
turbine.

Girotto et al. (2004) presented a comparative study of CO2 refrigeration system

and a R404A direct expansion system using annual energy consumption and
cost.The evaluated CO2 system has parallel configuration, comprising of two
medium temperature levels and one low temperature level. They observed 10%
higher energy consumptions for CO2 system when operated in climatic
conditions of north Italy. Further, the cost of CO2 setup was reported to be higher
than that of R404A

Ge and Tassou (2009) investigated the performance of CO2 booster systems

operated in hot climate.They reported that the amount of flashed vapour at the
intermediate vessel increases with increase in ambient temperature and is a
prominent concern as it leads to increase in compressor power. Further, it was
reported that the performance of such system is better at the minimum possible
intermediate vessel pressure. In their subsequent paper (Ge and Tassou, 2011), an
optimal gas cooler pressure was derived and reported as a function of ambient
temperature, compressor efficiency and effectiveness of internal heat exchanger.

Sawalha et al. (2015) reported field measurements by evaluating five supermarket

refrigeration systems in Sweden. They utilized monthly averaged field data for
performance evaluation.The two main CO2 systems investigated are parallel and
booster. They reported improvement in energy efficiency up to 35 to 40% for
booster system equipped with flash gas removal over parallel configuration.

The improvement in performance of basic CO2 booster cycle by adoption

of various modifications like parallel compression, flooded evaporator and work
recovery expander has already been reported in the literature for high ambient
temperature operation, leading to reduction in both carbon footprint and
operational expense. However, the reported studies on CO2 booster system
evaluate the possible modifications mainly based on energetic perspective. The
major contribution of this paper is to quantify the benefits in energy and economic
perspective for the various modifications to the basic booster configuration.

WORKDONE SO FOR IN PHASE I

The following are the outcomes of the PHASE I of the project work

1) Properties of CO2 as a refrigerant, energy losses in the transcritical

CO2 cycle and the steps to offset such losses by different cycle modifications
were studied with the help of the literature.

2) Working of the ejector expansion device was studied which includes

the detailed thermodynamic analysis of each sub components in the ejector.

3) Working of the expander expansion device was studied which includes the
detailed thermodynamic analysis of each sub components in the ejector.

4) The influence of various parameters such as gas cooler pressure, gas

cooler exit temperature, component efficiency and the evaporator temperature,
on the system performance was studied and the proposed cycle showed a 20 %
to 25% increase in COP over the basic transcritical cycle.
WORK PLANNED FOR THIS REVIEW
Literature review done

Thermodynamic analysis of all proposed Trans-Critical CO2 booster

system

Work planned for second review

Design a heat exchanger for utilising the waste heat rejected from the gas
cooler

Work planned for third review

Economic analysis on booster refrigeration system

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

• LT Evaporating Temperature = 255K

• MT Evaporating Temperature =276K

• Receiver Pressure =47.55 bar

• Capacity of LT evaporator =65 kW

• Capacity of MT evaporator =120 kW

Assumption

• Compression process having isentropic efficiency of 65%

• Pressure drop in gas cooler and evaporator are negligible

• Expansions processes are constant enthalpy process

Simple transcritical cycle P-h diagram

For Te =263K , TGC , out= 313K

2.5
2
COP , QE

1.5 cop
1 qe
0.5 we
0
70 90 110 130
Gas cooler pressure (bar)

From the diagram we can know every different ambient condition there is one
optimum pressure for which COP is maximum

This pressure is found out by empirical relation PGC = 2.7 TGC, exit – 6 (swalha
et al 2012)
Transcritical booster cycle P-h diagram
 If ambient temperature is 40°C, heat rejected from the gas cooler is
294.45 kW i.e. compressor outlet temperature is 113°C and optimum gas cooler
pressure is 102 bar. Hence there is a huge potential to utilise this waste heat to
heat the water. De-superheater is added to utilise the waste heat rejected from the
gas cooler.
CONCLUSION

Thermodynamic analysis is done for transcritical CO2 booster refrigeration

cycle. From the analysis it is evident that more amount of heat energy is wasted
from the gas cooler. This gas cooler exhaust heat can be used for domestic water
heating.

REFERENCE

1. Gupta, D.K., Dasgupta, M.S., 2014. Simulation and performance

optimization of finned tube gas cooler for trans-critical CO2 refrigeration
system in Indian context. Int. J. Refrigeration 38, 153–167.

2. Girotto, S., Minetto, S., Neksa, P., 2004. Commercial refrigeration

system using CO2 as the refrigerant. Int. J. Refrigeration 27, 717–723.

3. Ge, Y.T., Tassou, S.A., 2009. Control optimisation of CO2 cycles for
medium temperature retail food refrigeration systems. Int. J.
Refrigeration 32, 1376–1388.

4. Ge, Y.T., Tassou, S.A., 2011. Thermodynamic analysis of transcritical

CO2 booster refrigeration systems in supermarket. Energy Convers.
Manag. 52, 1868–1875.
5. Sawalha, S., 2008a. Theoretical evaluation of trans-critical CO2 systems
in supermarket refrigeration. Part I: modeling, simulation and
optimization of two system solutions. Int. J. Refrigeration 31, 516–524.

6. Sawalha, S., 2008b. Theoretical evaluation of trans-critical CO2 systems

in supermarket refrigeration. Part II: system modifications and
comparisons of different solutions. Int. J.Refrigeration 31, 525–534.
7. Sawalha, S., 2008c. Carbon dioxide in supermarket refrigeration.
Sawalha, S., Palm, B., 2003. Energy consumption evaluation of indirect
systems with CO2 as secondary refrigerant in supermarket refrigeration.
In: Proceedings of the 21st IIR International Congress of Refrigeration.

8. Sawalha, S., Karampour, M., Rogstam, J., 2015. Field measurements of

supermarket refrigeration systems. Part I: analysis of CO2 trans-critical
refrigeration systems. Appl.Therm. Eng. 87, 633–647.