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Performance optimization of a transcritical CO2 heat pump.

Author(s) : RULLIERE R., COLASSON S., HABERSCHILL P.

Summary

CO2 refrigeration systems aim at reducing the refrigerant impact on the environment in comparison with synthetic fluids and at limiting the problems of toxicity and flammability of other natural refrigerants. Furthermore, CO2 is a good alternative for air-conditioning and residential heat pumps systems due to its attractive physical and transport properties. This paper presents an experimental characterization of the thermal behaviour of a transcritical CO2 heat pump. The influence of the refrigerant charge amount and the high pressure on performances of the system is investigated for steady-state conditions. In the experimental set-up, no accumulator is used in order to have more insight on the influence of the refrigerant charge. The gas cooler is a compact spiral heat exchanger where CO2 is cooled by water. The heat pump was tested at different water temperatures. Depending on refrigerant charge, the CO2 system showed larges variations of performance particularly capacity. The COP trends indicate that the heat pump is very sensitive to the refrigerant charge and high pressure. A numerical model was developed to allow the study of the gas cooler by the calculation of the heat transfer coefficient and the heat flux transferred to the water. Good agreement between model predictions and experimental results is found. The model is used to calculate the gas cooler efficiency and to determine optimum working conditions.

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Pages: 2009-5

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Details

  • Original title: Performance optimization of a transcritical CO2 heat pump.
  • Record ID : 2009-2162
  • Languages: English
  • Source: 3rd Conference on Thermophysical Properties and Transfer Processes of Refrigerants
  • Publication date: 2009/06/23

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