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a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: In a water-ammonia absorption refrigeration system, the rectification heat is dissipated to the sur-
Received 7 March 2016 roundings without recovering in traditional single-effect cycle. An improved cycle is proposed for the
Received in revised form utilization of rectification heat when the chiller is operated under a large temperature lift or low heat
4 November 2016
source temperature when GAX (Generator-Absorber heat eXchange) effect is not available. This cycle
Accepted 4 November 2016
Available online 12 November 2016
combines the solution recirculation and heat integration of rectifier to improve the COP. The rectification
heat recovery is implemented through separating the strong solution leaving the absorber. One branch
flows through the solution heat exchanger while the other branch flows through the rectifier. The result
Keywords:
Water-ammonia absorption refrigeration
shows 24% increase in COP compared with traditional single-effect cycle under certain working condi-
Solution recirculation tions. In this paper, the selection of split ratio is investigated by varying the working condition. The effect
Rectification heat recovery of solution recirculation and rectification heat recovery is comparatively studied through case studies. In
Large temperature lift general, the most operations in traditional single-effect cycle can be replaced by the improved cycle. A
graphic aid for the assistance of the choosing suitable cycle is presented as well.
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2016.11.014
0360-5442/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1362 X. Chen et al. / Energy 118 (2017) 1361e1369
Nomenclature Subscripts
w weak solution
COP Coefficient of Performance s strong solution
SHE Solution heat exchanger cond condensation
COND Condenser evap evaporation
REC Rectifier rec rectification
GEN Generator b bubble temperature
RHE Refrigerant heat exchanger upper upper value
ABS Absorber opt optimum value
EVAP Evaporator max maximum value
q heat load, kW H heat source
x split ratio T Traditional
f circulation ratio SR Solution Recirculation
h enthalpy, kw/kg SRS Solution Recirculation with Split
ε improvement in COP S Split
T temperature, C WSRS Weak Solution Recirculation with Split
P pressure, bar
absorption compression cycle provides a solution to large tem- carried out on a commercial package called Engineering Equation
perature lift applications, an extreme low evaporation temperature Solver (EES) [23] with excellent thermodynamic equations solving
of 80 C can be achieved without undermining the GAX effect capacities. The main feature of EES is the built-in thermodynamic
with the assistance of compressor [14]. The additional installation properties of water-ammonia. Besides, a user defined code and
of electrical equipment, however, makes the system unreliable and graphical user interface (GUI) can be established and performed on
costly. Another alternative is resorted to higher temperature heat the platform.
source, but the generation exit temperature is limited to 200 C to
avoid the corrosion caused by chemical reaction of ammonia, on
2. Improved cycle description
the other hand, the very large irreversibilities at higher heat tem-
perature would deteriorate the thermal performance, resulting in
There are two major features in this improved cycle as can be
slowly increasing of COP [15]. WGAX cycle is developed to reduce
seen from Fig. 1. The first is solution recirculation (SR), the weak
this high temperature [16]. This approach relies on the high tem-
solution is cooled down to a temperature T15 at state 15 before it
perature heat source and complex implementation.
enters the SHE whereas the strong solution leaving the solution
Unlike LiBr/water absorption systems, the purification of
pump at state 2 flows through the absorber for preheating at state
ammonia plays a critical role in water-ammonia absorption sys-
16. The SR feature shown in Fig. 1 is a simplified configuration, a
tems so as to guarantee better thermal performance [17]. In fact, the
more detailed implementations of weak solution precooling and
quantity and quality of rectification heat monotonically increases as
strong solution preheating can be found in Fig. S1 from
the evaporation temperature goes down. Hence, the extraction of
the rectification heat for improving the performance is feasible. The
research on the internal heat recovery mainly involves with ab-
sorption heat recovery [18,19]. A somewhat related on the sepa-
ration of strong solution was studied by Fontalvo et al. in the
combined power/cooling application (Goswami cycle) [20]. The
rectification heat is intuitively extracted by the total strong solu-
tion, but the improvement is insignificant due to the negative
impact on the heat received inside the SHE. A considerable amount
of heat extracted in the rectifier is ultimately released through the
absorber [21]. A more systematical way for utilization of rectifica-
tion heat is to divide the strong solution into two separated
branches. An optimum cycle which integrates rectification heat is
derived through pinch technology by Du et al. [22]. A portion of
strong solution is used to extract rectification heat and the
improvement in COP is at least 20% compared with a traditional
single-effect one. The derived cycle is presented graphically,
nevertheless, the fundamental and mechanism behind cannot be
directly understood from the graph. The interaction of heat re-
covery in rectifier and SHE is not revealed. More importantly, the
split ratio of the strong solution is needed to be fully elaborated.
In this paper, an improved cycle is proposed. The theoretical
insights on the key parameters like split ratio, the size of SHE and
COP are investigated through parametric studies. Two case studies
are accompanied to prove the validity of the theory presented for Fig. 1. The schematic of the improved cycle SHE- Solution heat exchanger, COND-
the improved cycle, the interaction of heat recovery from rectifier, Condenser, REC- Rectifier, GEN-Generator, RHE- Refrigerant heat exchanger, ABS-
SHE and solution recirculation is studied. The simulations are Absorber, EVAP-Evaporator.
X. Chen et al. / Energy 118 (2017) 1361e1369 1363
xavoid ¼ 1 cp;w ðf 1Þ cp;s f (4)
Where cp,w and cp,s is the specific heat capacity of weak and
strong solution, respectively.
The maximum heat recovered from the weak solution not only
depends on the heat transfer area but also the split ratio. Typically,
the Log Mean temperature and NTU-ε method is not applicable as
the strong solution would undergo phase change inside SHE [26].
Alternatively, Yohanis et al. proposed a simple method that uses
enthalpies instead of temperatures which can be applied to analyze
the maximum heat flow in the heat exchanger with phase change
[27]. If the strong solution splits, the maximum possible amount of
heat can be expressed as follows:
q1 DTpinch ¼ ðf 1Þ h15 h T16 þ DTpinch ; Pcond ; εw (5)
q2 x; DTpinch ¼ f ð1 xÞ h T15 DTpinch ; Pcond ; εs h16
Fig. 2. The variations of q1, q2, q3, qmax and qrequired with respect to split ratio at the
(6) working condition of TH ¼ 150 C, Tevap ¼ 30 C and Tcond ¼ 30 C.
q3 x; DTpinch ¼ ðf 1Þ h15 h Tb þ DTpinch ; Pcond ; εw bubble temperature. The two lines intercepts at a limit value of split
ratio, defined as xsheupper . The existence of envelop between these two
þ f ð1 xÞðhb h16 Þ (7) lines exhibits that the maximum heat available is larger than the
The ammonia mass fraction for weak and strong solution is required heat. Accordingly, the line of qmax can be shifted down-
denoted as εs and εw respectively. Tb and hb is the bubble temper- wards to yield a higher COP as can be seen from Fig. 3. The
ature of the strong solution and corresponding enthalpy. Pcond is the maximum allowable split ratio is either xshe rec
upper or xupper , whichever
condensation pressure. DTpinch is the minimum temperature dif- is smaller, but it is observed that the maximum allowable split ratio
ference inside the heat exchanger. Eq. (5) indicates the maximum is always constrained by xshe upper .
possible heat removed if the hot weak solution is cooled down to
T16 þ DTpinch, while Eq. (6) indicates that the maximum possible xmax ¼ min xshe rec she
upper ; xupper ¼ xupper (10)
heat recovered if cold strong solution is heated up to T15DTpinch.
Eq. (7) represents the maximum possible heat flow when pinch The optimum split ratio exists when the gap inside envelop is
point is created inside SHE. The first and second term in Eq. (7) largest, which happens to be a split ratio at which the rectification
corresponds to the heat flow above and below the pinch point, heat is entirely extracted:
respectively. In the following analysis DTpinch is set to be 0 C, which
although would yield a heat exchanger with infinite heat transfer xopt ¼ qrec =f ðhb h2 Þ (11)
area, it provides the insight on how much the theoretical
improvement can be achieved, especially at the preliminary design In practical operation, the optimum split ratio maybe not
stage. If this improvement is insignificant, then the improved cycle guaranteed, the selected split ratio may deviate around the opti-
should be discarded. Taking the three possible maximum heat mum one, for instance, point A and B shown in Fig. 3 deliveries the
flows into account, the maximum amount of heat inside SHE as a same enhanced performance. But split ratio at A and B would
function of x can be expressed as follows with DTpinch ¼ 0: generate totally different system configurations. The rectification
qmax ðxÞ ¼ minðq1 ðx; 0Þ; q2 ðx; 0Þ; q3 ðx; 0ÞÞ (8)
On the other hand, the outlet of cold strong solution must be
heated up at least to its bubble temperature as discussed previ-
ously, the required amount of heat extracted from SHE is then:
Fig. 5. COP of improved cycle varies with split ratio at the working condition of
Fig. 4. Pressure-Temperature diagram. TH ¼ 150 C, Tevap ¼ 30 C Tcond ¼ 30 C and DTpinch ¼ 0 C.
1366 X. Chen et al. / Energy 118 (2017) 1361e1369
3. Feasibility analysis
Fig. 6. The contours of improvement in (a) SR cycle and (b) improved cycle in
TevapTcond plane under TH ¼ 150 C.
Fig. 9. The effect of Tcond on (a) split ratio and (b) improvements at TH ¼ 150 C and
Fig. 8. The effect of Tevap on (a) split ratio and (b) improvements at TH ¼ 150 C and Tevap ¼ 30 C.
Tcond ¼ 30 C.
4. Case studies
Fig. 11. Case studies on the cycle of: (I) rectification heat recovery only (II) rectification heat recovery with weak solution recirculation only.
5. Conclusion
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