See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/303370423

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW OF CASCADE HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS

Conference Paper · May 2016

CITATIONS READS
0 1,254

5 authors, including:

Samuel Boahen Kofi Owura Amoabeng

Hanbat National University Hanbat National University
6 PUBLICATIONS   1 CITATION    6 PUBLICATIONS   4 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Kwesi Mensah
Hanbat National University
15 PUBLICATIONS   25 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Development of a Novel Heat Recovery Technology for Energy Savings and Energy Efficiency in Conditioned Environments View project

Design and Development of an Energy Efficient Constant Temperature and Humidity System View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Kwesi Mensah on 18 June 2016.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 th
Proceedings of the 8 Asian Conference on Refrigeration and Air Conditioning
ACRA2016
May 15-17, 2016, Taipei, TAIWAN

ACRA2016-094

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW OF CASCADE HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS

Samuel Boahen1), Kofi Owura Amoabeng1), Kwesi Mensah1), Han Byeoul Jang1), Jong Min Choi2)*
1)
Graduate School of Mechanical Engineering, Hanbat National University, Dongsuh- Blvd, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon,
34158, Korea
2)
*Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hanbat National University, Dongsuh- Blvd, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 34158,
Korea

ABSTRACT: As residential buildings require cooling and hot temperature heating systems, most
commercial and industrial facilities require very low temperatures and very high temperatures for
refrigeration and hot water purposes respectively. Single stage heat pumps are not able to satisfy these
temperature demands resulting in low system performance. Cascade heat pump has been found to meet these
very low and high temperature demands. This paper reviews works done by researchers on cascade heat
pumps. The refrigerant charge amount of the low stage and high stage cycles and the optimization of design
and operating parameters for higher performance of the cascade heat pump has been discussed. It was found
that for the cascade heat pump to operate at higher performance, each design parameter and refrigerant charge
amount at the low stage and high stage cycles must be optimized.

NOMENCLATURE Fig. 1. These two single stage cycles are connected

COP: Coefficient of performance
EEV: Electronic expansion valve
HS: High stage cycle
HVAC: Heating, ventilation and air conditioning
LS: Low stage cycle6
1. INTRODUCTION
Single-stage heat pumps are unreliable at low
ambient temperature conditions and over high pressure
ratios, resulting in deteriorated heating capacity and low
COP. This makes them unpopular for use in the
generation of hot water, especially above 65℃, for both
domestic and industrial use. For purposes of reliability
and maximum system performance, the cascade heat
pump is preferred to single stage heat pumps. The
cascade heat pump has higher heating capacity, higher
hot water temperature and much stable water heating
capacity than single stage heat pumps [1]. They also
have lower compressor discharge temperature, lower
evaporating temperature, lower compression ratio and
higher compressor volumetric efficiency than single
stage refrigeration systems at the same cooling capacity
[2]. An informed knowledge of the design, operation and
control of the cascade heat pump is therefore very
important for HVAC professionals. This paper reviews
recent works on cascade heat pumps with the aim of
equipping beginners, engineers and designers with the
right knowledge for effective system design and control.
2. SYSTEM STRUCTURE AND OPERATION
Conventionally, cascade heat pumps have a low
stage cycle (LS) and a high stage cycle (HS) as shown in
together by a cascade heat exchanger, which serves as
condenser and evaporator for the LS and HS respectively.
The LS and HS cycles have evaporator and condenser
respectively. There is also compressor, and an expansion
device in each cycle for effective compression and
expansion of the refrigerants. Researchers have made
several modifications to the conventional cycle in the
quest to increase the performance of the cascade heat
pump. Notable thing among such modifications is the
addition of internal heat exchangers to the LS and HS of
the cascade heat pump. Cascade heat pumps can be air-
to-air, air-to-water or water-to-water depending on the
end use.
3. REFRIGERANT CHARGE AMOUNT
Refrigerant charge amount affects the energy
consumption, reliability and performance of a heat pump
system. Insufficient or excessive refrigerant charge
results in the deterioration of the performance of a heat
pump system. Each cycle of the cascade heat pump
system has an optimum refrigerant charge amount that
corresponds to the optimum COP of the system.
The performance of the cascade heat pump
decreases when the HS is operating at overcharge or
undercharge conditions. Undercharge and overcharge
conditions refer to charging the cascade heat pump
below and above the optimum charge respectively.
Heating capacity decreases at HS refrigerant undercharge
conditions and total power consumption increases at HS
overcharge conditions. These causes a reduction in the
COP of the system at both HS overcharge and
undercharge conditions [3]. However, the LS refrigerant
charge greatly affects the heating capacity than the HS
refrigerant charge. Mostly, the LS refrigerant charge
greatly affects the refrigerant mass flow and the HS
 refrigerant charge affects heat transfer in the HS
condenser. But refrigerant mass flow affects the heating
capacity greatly than the heat transfer in the HS
condenser [4].
4. System Operation
The intermediate temperature, temperature
difference in the cascade heat exchanger, LS evaporating
temperature and the HS condensing temperature are very
important parameters that affect the performance of the
cascade heat pump. Each of these parameters needs to be
optimized for the cascade heat pump to produce an
optimum performance. These optimum performance
parameters are inter-dependent. For instance, the
optimum intermediate temperature depends on the HS
evaporating temperature, LS condensing temperature,
temperature difference in the cascade heat exchanger and
the efficiency of the LS and HS cycles [5].
Effective system control results in the maximum
performance of the cascade heat pump. The electronic
expansion valve (EEV) has been used to control the
cascade heat pump. The EEV is used to control the
capacity and COP by controlling the superheat and
refrigerant mass flow of the cascade heat pump.
Individual control or simultaneous control of the LS and
HS EEV have differing effects on the performance of the
cascade heat pump [6]. Recently, variable speed
compressors are being used to control the performance of
cascade heat pumps. Lot of research is therefore needed
on their use to give the right direction of their control
especially at part load conditions [7].
5. CONCLUSION
For a laid down guidelines to effectively control
and operate cascade heat pumps for maximum
performance, the cascade heat pump has been reviewed
from various literature. It is observed that the refrigerant
charge amount and all performance parameters need to
be optimized for maximum performance. Also more
research should be done on the modulation of
compressors to provide a guide for their effective use
and control in cascade heat pumps especially at part load
conditions.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by the New &
Renewable Energy of the Korea Institute of Energy
Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) grant
funded by the Korea government Ministry of Trade,
Industry & Energy, Republic of Korea.
(No. 20143030111000)
REFERENCES
[1] Jung, H. W., Kang, H., Yoon, W. J., Kim, Y., 2005,
Performance comparison between a single-stage and
a cascade multi-functional heat pump for both air
heating and hot water supply, International Journal
of Refrigeration, Vol. 36, pp. 1431-1441.
[2] Hosoz, M., 2005, Performance comparison of single-
stage and cascade refrigeration systems using R134a
as the working fluid, Turkish Journal of Engineering
and Environmental Science, Vol. 29, pp. 285 – 296.
View publication stats
Condenser
S
Expansion High stage
High stage cycle compressor
device
Cascade heat
exchanger
Expansion
S
Low stage
Low stage cycle
device compressor
Evaporator
Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of cascade heat pump unit
[3] Chae, J. H., Choi, J. M., 2006, Evaluation of the
impacts of high stage refrigerant charge on cascade
heat pump performance, Renewable Energy, Vol. 79,
pp. 66 – 71.
[4] Kim, D. H., Park, H. S., Kim, M. S., 2014, The effect
of the refrigerant charge amount on single and
cascade heat pump systems, International Journal of
Refrigeration, Vol. 40, pp. 254-268.
[5] Kim, D. H., Park, H. S., Kim, M. S., 2013, Optimal
temperature between high and low stage cycles for
R134a/R410A cascade heat pump based water heater
system, Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science,
Vol. 47 pp. 172-179.
[6] Bhattacharyya, S., Mukhopadhyay, S., Kumar, A.,
Khurana, R.K., and Sarkar, J., 2008, Optimization of
a CO2–C3H8 cascade system for refrigeration and
heating International Journal of Refrigeration, Vol.
28, pp. 1284 – 1292.
[7] Getu, H. M. and Bansal, P. K., 2008, Thermodynamic
analysis of an R744–R717 cascade refrigeration
system, International Journal of Refrigeration, Vol.
31, pp. 45 – 54.
[8] Sachdeva, G. , Jain, V. , and Kachhwaha, S. S., 2014,
Performance study of cascade refrigeration system
using alternative refrigerants. International Journal of
Mechanical, Aerospace, Industrial and Mechatronics
Engineering, Vol. 8 pp. 1577-1583.
[9] Jung, H. W., Kang, H., Chung, H., Ahn, J. H., Kim, Y.,
2014, Performance optimization of a cascade
multifunctional heat pump in various operation
modes, International Journal of Refrigeration,. Vol.
42, pp. 57 – 68.
[10] Adhikari, R. S., Aste, N., Manfren, M., Marini, D.,
2012, Energy savings through variable speed
compressor heat pump systems, Energy Procedia Vol.
14, pp. 1337 – 1342.