Title: Exergy analysis of advanced transcritical CO₂ air conditioning cycles

Authors: Wendy W. Yang, Amir Fartaj, David S-K. Ting

Addresses: Department of Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada. ' Department of Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada. ' Department of Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada

Abstract: The energy and exergy balance methods were performed on two advanced transcritical CO₂ air conditioning cycles presented in the literature. In addition to the basic transcritical CO₂ air conditioning cycle which has five main components, compressor, gas cooler, evaporator, expansion valve and internal heat exchanger, two advanced cycles are investigated; both have two-stage compressor (low stage and high stage) and intercooler, with one of them has an additional Flash Gas Removal (FGR) chamber. The results demonstrated that the compressor-low stage has the largest exergy loss, while the intercooler has the smallest exergy loss in advanced transcritical CO₂ air conditioning cycles. Moreover, it demonstrated that the FGR had a minimal effect on improving COP of the system.

Keywords: exergy analysis; carbon dioxide; two-stage compressor; flash gas removal; FGR; air conditioning cycles; energy balance; exergy loss; intercooler; evaporator; expansion valve; heat exchanger.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEX.2008.016672

International Journal of Exergy, 2008 Vol.5 No.2, pp.150 - 163

Published online: 12 Jan 2008 *

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