Investigation of ejector re-compression absorption refrigeration cycle

Wu, Shenyi (1999) Investigation of ejector re-compression absorption refrigeration cycle. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.

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Abstract

This thesis describes a theoretical and experimental investigation of the ejector re-compression lithium bromide absorption refrigeration cycle. In this novel cycle, a steam ejector is used to enhance the concentration process by compressing the vapour to a state that it can be used to re-heat the solution from where it was evolved. Since this cycle recovers the heat otherwise wasted in a conventional absorption cycle, the energy performance of the cycle is improved. The theoretical study shows that the improvement of the efficiency is proportional to the performance of the steam ejector. A COP of 1.013 was achieved from the experiment in this investigation.

The novel cycle does not only improve the energy efficiency but also avoids the corrosion that will happen when high temperature heat sources are used to drive a lithium bromide absorption refrigerator. The steam ejector in the novel cycle acts as an efficient temperature converter in acceptance of different temperature heat sources, which reduces the energy loss when the temperature difference between the solution and the heat source is big. Therefore, the solution temperature can be set to a low level while the heat source temperature is high. This is significant to avoid the corrosion of lithium bromide solution at high temperature. Furthermore, the construction of the machine based on the novel cycle is simpler than that based on the conventional double-effect cycle. This refrigerator will be more reliable and have a lower initial capital cost.

The cycle was investigated comprehensively in this thesis. In the theoretical study, a mathematical model for this novel cycle was established. The theoretical study reveals the operation characteristics and the factors that affect the energy efficiency of the cycle as well as how to design a refrigerator based on the novel cycle. In the experimental study, a concept-approved refrigerator was manufactured and tested. The part-load performance of the novel cycle was investigated from the experiment. The theoretical results had a good agreement with the experimental ones.

NB. This ethesis has been created by scanning the typescript original and contains some inaccuracies. In case of difficulty, please refer to the original text.

Item Type: Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (PhD)
Supervisors: Fames, I.W.
Keywords: ejector re-compression lithium bromide absorption refrigeration cycle
Subjects: T Technology > TP Chemical technology
Faculties/Schools: UK Campuses > Faculty of Engineering > Built Environment
Item ID: 10369
Depositing User: EP, Services
Date Deposited: 02 Nov 2007
Last Modified: 08 May 2020 11:01
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/10369

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