INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESEARCH

Int. J. Energy Res. 2010; 34:815826

Published online 1 September 2009 in Wiley InterScience
(www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/er.1602

Energy and exergy analysis of novel solar bi-ejector refrigeration

system with injector

Fei Wang,y and Shengqiang Shen

Key Laboratory of Sea Energy Utilization and Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education, Dalian University of Technology,
Dalian 116024, Peoples Republic of China

SUMMARY

Energy and exergy balances were done on a novel solar bi-ejector refrigeration system with R123, whose circulation
pump is replaced by an injector. The analysis result of the novel system was compared with that of the original one. The
effect of operation condition on system energy efciency, exergy efciency and exergy loss was analyzed, and the
dynamic performance of a designed solar bi-ejector refrigeration system was also studied. The comparative results
indicate that under the same operating condition, the novel system and the original system have equal energy efciency,
exergy efciency and exergy loss, and the only difference between them is the exergy losses of the generators and the
added injector. The other conclusions mainly include: the solar collector has the largest exergy loss rate of over 90%
and for the bi-ejector refrigeration subcycle, the ejector has the largest exergy loss rate of about 5%; the total exergy loss
changes inversely proportional to the evaporation temperature and positively proportional to the condensation
temperature; when the other parameters are xed, there exists an optimum generation temperature, at which the overall
energy and exergy efciencies are both the maximum and the total exergy loss is the minimum. The study points out the
direction for optimizing the novel solar bi-ejector refrigeration system. Copyright r 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

KEY WORDS: solar; bi-ejector refrigeration; injector; ejector; exergy analysis; energy analysis

1. INTRODUCTION system, the circulation pump is traditionally the

The solar refrigeration is an attractive solution in
the countries having good sunshine. Among all the
solar refrigeration systems, the solar ejector
refrigeration system is attractive because of its
simplicity in construction, installation and main-
tenance. For the refrigeration subsystem of such
only mechanical moving part, which usually needs
more maintainability work than the other parts. In
recent years, many researchers have tried to utilize
other methods to convey liquid condensate back to
the generator. Riffat et al. [1] provided a new
gravity pumped ejector cycle, which transforms
gravity head of the condensate into pressure

*Correspondence to: Fei Wang, No. 2 Linggong Road, Ganjingzi District, Dalian City, Liaoning Province 116024, Peoples Republic
of China.
y
E-mail: angelwangjj@yahoo.cn

Contract/grant sponsor: National Natural Science Foundation of China; contract/grant number: 50576007

Received 23 March 2009

Revised 23 June 2009
Copyright r 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Accepted 10 July 2009
816 F. WANG AND S. SHEN
energy. Huang et al. [2] made use of the pressure
change in generator to realize the backow of
liquid condensate and presented a new ejector
cooling system with a multi-function generator.
According to the characteristic of an injector that
the discharged liquid pressure can be higher than
the motive vapor pressure [3], Shen et al. [4]
proposed a novel solar bi-ejector refrigeration
system shown in Figure 1(a), in which an injector
is applied to replace the original pump to transfer
liquid condensate back to generator. Compared
with the original one, the new system works more
stably and needs less maintenance work, and can
more fully utilize the solar energy, because the
injector also uses the high pressure vapor in
generator as its driving vapor.
For evaluating the efciency of the thermal
system, the energy analysis is the most commonly
Figure 1. (a) Schematic diagram of solar bi-ejector
refrigeration system and (b) Ts diagram of solar
bi-ejector refrigeration system.
Copyright r 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
used measure, but during the past few decades,
exergy analysis has appeared to be another
important tool, because it can indicate the possi-
bilities for thermodynamical improvement and
thus optimize the thermal system. In recent years,
many kinds of thermal systems have been studied
by using such method. Bayrakci et al. [5] studied
a vapor compression refrigeration system with
pure hydrocarbon refrigerants by using energy and
exergy analysis and found the energetic and
exergetic efciency values of R1270 and R600 are
higher than those of R600a and R290. Dikici
et al. [6] presented an exergetic performance eva-
luation of heat pump systems having various heat
sources and found that the exergetic performance
coefcient and the rst law efciency are different
and the total exergy loss becomes a minimum
value when the exergetic performance coefcient
has a maximum value. Yoru et al. [7] gave dynamic
energetic and exergetic analyses of an industrial
cogeneration system using the actual operational
data over one-month period. Ameri et al. [8] per-
formed the energy, exergy and exergoeconomic
analysis for a steam power plant and the effects of
the load variations and ambient temperature on
the exergy efciencies and exergy losses were
studied. As far as the studies conducted on exergy
analysis of ejector refrigeration systems are
concerned, Alexis [9] studied in detail the irrever-
sibility in the ejector refrigeration system under
different cycle parameters using water as working
uid. The study shows quantitatively losses
within a system and gives clear trends for
optimization. Pridasawas et al. [10] did an exergy
analysis on a solar-driven ejector refrigeration
system with R600 and found there is an optimum
generation temperature for a specic evaporation
temperature when the total loss in the system is
minimized.
In this paper, energy and exergy balances were
done on the novel solar bi-ejector refrigeration
system with R123. The analysis result of the novel
system was compared with that of the original one.
The effect of operation condition on system energy
efciency, exergy efciency and exergy loss was
analyzed, and the dynamic performance of a
designed solar bi-ejector refrigeration system was
also studied.
Int. J. Energy Res. 2010; 34:815826
DOI: 10.1002/er
 ENERGY AND EXERGY ANALYSIS 817

2. CALCULATION MODEL efciencies:

2.1. Ejector and injector Qe Qe Qg
COPo  COPejc  zsc 3
Figure 2(a) and (b) present the congurations and Asc Isc Qg Asc Isc
related thermodynamic processes in the Ts plane The thermal performance of solar collector is
of ejector and injector. The performance coef- calculated by:
cients can both be expressed by the entrainment
Tin  Ta
ratios, which are deduced as Equations (1) and (2) zsc FR ta  FR UL 4
by using energy conservation. The more detailed Isc
method for calculating them can respectively refer For the original ejector refrigeration subsystem,
to the literatures [11] and [3,12]. the energy consumed by the pump is omitted
ogg me =mgg h2  h3 =h3  h6 1 in this paper because it is much less than that
consumed by the generator. Its performance
ogl mgg =mgl h2  h1 =h1  h4 2 coefcient is calculated by:
Qe h6  h5
COPsejc ogg 5
2.2. Energy efciency of solar bi-ejector Qg h2  h4
refrigeration system
For the novel bi-ejector refrigeration subsystem,
The overall energy efciency of solar ejector the added injector also consumes high pressure
refrigeration system is the product of two vapor in generator. Its performance coefcient is
deduced as:
Qe ogg ogl h6  h5
COPbejc 6
Qg 1 ogl h2  h1

When replacing ogl in Equation (6) with

Equation (2), Equation (7) can be obtained:
ogg h6  h5 h2  h1 =h1  h4
COPbejc
h2  h1 h2  h4 =h1  h4
h6  h5
ogg 7
h2  h4

It can be found from Equations (3), (5) and (7)

that under the same operating conditions, the
overall energy efciency of solar bi-ejector
refrigeration system is equal to that of the original
one because COPbejc is equal to COPsejc.

2.3. Exergy efciency of solar ejector refrigeration

system
For the solar ejector cooling system under steady-
state operation, the radiation exergy of collector
should be equal to the sum of the cold exergy and
the exergy loss of each component. The exergy
balance equation is written as:
Figure 2. (a) Ejector conguration and Ts diagram and X
(b) Injector conguration and Ts diagram.
Esc Eq0 DEi 8

Copyright r 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res. 2010; 34:815826
DOI: 10.1002/er
818 F. WANG AND S. SHEN

The exergy efciency of system is dened as the
ratio of the prot exergy to the consumed exergy.
The overall system exergy efciency is calculated by:
Eq0 Eq0 Ein;f
Zo  Zejc  Zsc 9
Esc Ein;f Esc
It can be found that the overall exergy efciency
is the product of the exergy efciencies of the
refrigeration subsystem and the heat-collecting
subsystem.
The radiation exergy of collector is determined
according to the following equation suggested by
Petala [13]:
"   #
1 T0 4 4T0
Esc Asc Isc 1  10
3 Tsun 3Tsun
where Tsun is the solar radiation temperature of
6000 K.
The cold exergy is calculated by:
Eq0 Qe T0 =Tr  1 11
Based on Equations (9)(11), the overall system
exergy efciency is deduced as
T0 =Tr 1
Zo Eq0 =Esc COPo
11=3T0 =Tsun 4 4T0 =3Tsun 
12
It can be found that under the same operating
conditions, the overall system exergy efciency of
the novel system is also equal to that of the original
one due to the equal overall energy efciencies.
2.4. Exergy loss and exergy efciency of each
component
In order to identify the weak links in energy
utilization process, it is far from enough to only
calculate out the overall exergy efciency. There-
fore, the equations for calculating the exergy loss
and the exergy efciency of each component were
also presented in the paper.
2.4.2. Generator. The exergy loss and exergy
efciency are calculated by:
DEg E2  E1  Eout  Ein 16
E2  E1 mgg mgl e2  e1
Zg 17
Eout  Ein Qu 1  T0 =Tsc
2.4.3. Condenser. The exergy efciency of con-
denser is dened as the ratio of the effective
utilization exergy to the consumption exergy. It is
thus always equal to zero under any operation
condition, because there is no effective utilization
exergy in the condenser and all the consump-
tion exergy is exergy loss, which consists of two
parts: one part is internal exergy loss caused by
heat transfer over a nite temperature difference
and the other part is outer exergy loss caused by
heat rejection. The exergy loss is calculated by:
DEc mgg me h3  h4  T0 s3  s4  18
2.4.4. Evaporator. The exergy loss and the exergy
efciency are calculated by:
T0
DEe T0 me s6  s5  me h6  h5 19
Tr
Eq0 Qe T0 =Tr  1
Ze 20
E5  E6 me h5  h6  T0 s5  s6 
2.4.5. Expansion valve. Like the condenser, the
exergy efciency of the expansion valve is always
equal to zero under any operation condition. The
exergy loss is calculated by:
DEexp T0 me s5  s4  21
2.4.6. Ejector. The exergy efciency of ejector is
dened as the exergy output divided by the exergy
input. The exergy loss and the exergy efciency are
calculated by:

2.4.1. Solar collector. The exergy loss and exergy DEgg T0 mgg me s3  mgg s2  me s6  22
efciency are calculated by: E3 mgg me e3
DEsc Esc  Ein;f 13 Zgg 23
Egg2 E6 mgg e2 me e6
Ein;f Qu 1  T0 =Tsc 14
2.4.7. Injector. Like ejector, the exergy efciency
Zsc Ein;f =Esc 15 of injector is dened as the exergy output divided

Copyright r 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res. 2010; 34:815826
DOI: 10.1002/er
 ENERGY AND EXERGY ANALYSIS 819

by the exergy input. The exergy loss and the exergy Table I. Energy balance of solar bi-ejector refrigeration
efciency are calculated by: system.
Energy Energy Energy Energy
DEgl T0 mgg mgl s1 mgl s2 mgg s4  24 received delivered loss efciency
(kW) (kW) (kW) (%)
E1 mgg mgl e1 Heat-collecting 47.56 22.6 25.0 47.5
Zgl 25
Egl2 E4 mgl e2 mgg e4 subcycle
Refrigeration 22.6 5 27.6 22.1
subcycle
Whole system 47.56 5 52.6 10.5
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
In order to investigate the performance of solar
ejector refrigeration system, the following calcula- Table II. Exergy balance of original solar ejector
tion conditions are assumed: (1) a commercially refrigeration system.
available single-glazed selective-surface at-plate Percentage
solar collector whose values of FR ta and FRUL Exergy in the
are 0.8 and 3.5 [14] is selected; the solar radiation loss exergy
Value rate received
incident upon collector is 700 W m2; the inlet (W) (%) (%)
temperature into the solar collector is assumed
101C higher than the generating temperature; (2) Exergy received 44 410 100
from solar
R123 is used as working uid, whose properties Cooling exergy 85.28 0.19
are taken from NIST reference database Solar collector 40 040 90.33 90.16
REFPROP [15]; (3) the ambient temperature to exergy loss
collector is 301C; the dead state temperature and Generator exergy loss 945.02 2.135 2.12
pressure are respectively 251C and 1 bar; the room Ejector exergy loss 2159.69 4.87 4.86
Condenser exergy loss 979.87 2.21 2.21
temperature is 201C; the cooling capacity is 5 kW; Evaporator exergy loss 179.60 0.405 0.404
(4) the generating temperature, condensing Expansion valve 20.33 0.046 0.046
temperature and evaporating temperature are exergy loss
respectively 85, 35 and 101C; the motive vapor
from generator and the entrained vapor from
evaporator are both saturated and the condensate
Table III. Exergy balance of solar bi-ejector refrigeration
in the condenser has 51C subcooling; (5) for system.
injector, the area ratio of the mixing chamber
throat to vapor nozzle throat is 0.5; in order to Percentage
Exergy in the
convey the condensate back to the generator, its loss exergy
discharged pressure is designed to be a little higher Value rate received
than its operating vapor pressure; (6) the heat loss (W) (%) (%)
and ow resistance of equipment and pipeline are Exergy received 44 410 100
neglected. from solar
Table I presents the energy balance of solar Cooling exergy 85.28 0.19
bi-ejector refrigeration system. It can be seen that Solar collector 40 040 90.33 90.16
the overall system energy efciency is 10.5%. exergy loss
Generator exergy loss 659.34 1.49 1.48
Tables II and III respectively present the exergy Ejector exergy loss 2159.69 4.87 4.86
balances of solar bi-ejector and original ejector Condenser exergy loss 979.87 2.21 2.21
refrigeration systems. It can be found that the Evaporator exergy loss 179.60 0.405 0.404
exergy efciencies of the two systems are equal. Expansion valve 20.33 0.046 0.046
Each component of the two systems has equal exergy loss
Injector exergy loss 285.68 0.645 0.643
exergy loss except the generator and the added

Copyright r 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res. 2010; 34:815826
DOI: 10.1002/er
820 F. WANG AND S. SHEN

injector. The generator exergy loss of the novel 3.1. Effect of generation temperature
system is lower because its refrigerant inlet tem-
For the ejector, the cross sectional area of the
perature is higher, but the added injector also has
mixing chamber is one of the most important
exergy loss, which makes the total exergy losses of
structure parameter and the ratio fgg of this value
the two systems are still equal.
to the vapor nozzle throat area is often dened to
It can be seen from Table III that there is great
represent its structure. Figure 3 presents the
difference in the exergy loss rate of each compo-
inuence of generation temperature on ejector
nent, for example, the solar collector has the lar-
area ratio and the performances of ejector and
gest exergy loss rate of 90.33% and the expansion
injector. It can be seen that with the increasing
valve has the minimum exergy loss rate of 0.046%.
generation temperature, the entrainment ratio and
The main reason for the large exergy loss rate of
area ratio of ejector both increase and the
the solar collector is the huge temperature differ-
entrainment ratio of injector decreases.
ence between the sun and the collector. When the
Figure 4 shows the effect of generation tem-
same amount of heat is transferred from the sun to
perature on system energy efciencies. It can be
the solar collector, the effective exergy in the heat
clearly seen that with the increasing generation
will be inevitably reduced greatly. Accordingly, no
matter what kind of collector or calculation
parameters are assumed, the exergy loss rate of the 0.6 16
solar collector will certainly be very large. The gg Te=10C
other reason for the exergy loss of collector is that Tc=35C
0.45 gg 12
the thermal performance of solar collector is re- gl
latively low and most solar energy reached at the

gg
gg

surface of heat collector cannot be effectively ab-

or
0.3 8

gl
sorbed by the heating medium of collector.
Therefore, the basic measure to reduce the exergy
0.15 4
loss of collector is to improve its thermal perfor-
mance and increase its temperature. For the
bi-ejector refrigeration subcycle, the ejector has the 0 0
75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120
largest exergy loss rate of 4.87% and this is mainly Tg (C)
attributed to the large irreversibility occurred in
the mixing chamber of the ejector, which is caused Figure 3. Ejector area ratio and entrainment ratios of
ejector and injector vs generation temperature.
by the mixing of two streams of uid with very
large speed difference; therefore, good ejector
mixing chamber design is especially important. Of 0.6
the three heat exchangers, the condenser has the Te=10C sc
most exergy loss; the generator, whose exergy loss 0.5 Tc=35C COPejc
is caused by heat transfer over a nite temperature COPo
Energy efficiency

difference, takes the second place, and decreasing 0.4

heat transfer temperature difference in generator
0.3
by increasing heat transfer coefcient or enlarging
heat exchange area can help to reduce its exergy 0.2
loss; the evaporator has the least exergy loss,
which is also caused by heat transfer over a nite 0.1
temperature difference. As for the injector and
the expansion valve, the exergy loss of injector 0
75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120
mainly happens in the irreversible mixing process
Tg (C)
and the exergy loss of the expansion valve is due to
friction. Figure 4. Energy efciencies vs generation temperature.

Copyright r 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res. 2010; 34:815826
DOI: 10.1002/er
 ENERGY AND EXERGY ANALYSIS 821

temperature, the thermal efciency of heat-col- Figure 7 presents the effect of generation tem-
lecting subcycle decreases while the performance perature on the exergy efciencies of main com-
coefcient of the refrigeration subcycle increases. ponents. Because the generation temperature does
The whole system has an optimum overall energy not affect the thermodynamic properties around
efciency of 13.2% at Tg 5 1051C. evaporator and thus does not inuence the exergy
Figure 5 presents the effect of generation tem- efciency of evaporator, this gure does not in-
perature on system exergy efciencies. It can be clude the evaporator. The solar collector is also
seen that with the increasing generation tempera- not included because its exergy efciency is already
ture, the exergy efciency of the heat-collecting shown in Figure 5. It can be seen from the gure
subcycle decreases on the whole, while the exergy that with the increasing generation tempera-
efciency of the refrigeration subcycle increases, ture, the exergy efciency of generator increases
and the overall exergy efciency, which has an slightly, the exergy efciency of injector decreases and
optimum value of 0.24% also at Tg 5 1051C, rst the exergy efciency of ejector is almost unchanged.
increases and then decreases. When the generation
temperature increases, the decrease of the exergy
efciency of the heat-collecting subcycle is mainly
attributed to its decreased thermal efciency, and 80 Eg 3.5
the increase of the exergy efciency of the re- Te =10C Esc Ec
70 Eo Ee 3
frigeration subcycle is mainly ascribed to its in- Tc =35C
Eexp
creased performance coefcient. 60 2.5
Exergy loss (kW)

Exergy loss (kW)

Egg
Figure 6 presents the effect of generation tem- 50
Egl
2
perature on exergy losses. It can be seen that the
total exergy loss has the opposite trend with 40 1.5

the overall exergy and energy efciencies, and has 30 1

the minimum value when the overall exergy and
20 0.5
energy efciencies are the maximum. With the
increasing generation temperature, the exergy loss 10 0
75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120
of the collector rst decreases and then increases;
Tg (C)
the exergy losses of the ejector, the generator and
the condenser all decrease; the exergy losses of the Figure 6. Exergy losses vs generation temperature.
injector, the evaporator and the expansion valve
are nearly unchanged.
100
g Te=10C
gg Tc=35C
0.4 12 80 gl
Exergy efficiency (%)

Te=10C
Tc=35C 10
60
Exergy efficiency (%)

Exergy efficiency (%)

0.3
8
40
0.2 6
o sc
ejc
4 20
0.1
2
0
75 95 115
0 0
75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 Tg (C)
Tg (C)
Figure 7. Exergy efciencies of main components vs
Figure 5. Exergy efciencies vs generation temperature. generation temperature.

Copyright r 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res. 2010; 34:815826
DOI: 10.1002/er
822 F. WANG AND S. SHEN

3.2. Effect of evaporation temperature
Figure 8 presents the inuences of evaporation
temperature on ejector area ratio and the perfor-
mances of ejector and injector. It can be seen that
with the increasing evaporation temperature, the
entrainment ratio of injector remains unchanged,
but the entrainment ratio of ejector increases while
the ejector area ratio is almost constant.
Figure 9 shows only the effect of evaporation
temperature on the overall system energy and
exergy efciencies, because the evaporation tem-
perature does not affect the efciency of the heat-
collecting subcycle. It can be seen that with the
increasing evaporation temperature, the two ef-
ciencies both improve. The reason for this is the
0.4
entrainment ratio of ejector increases with the in-
creasing evaporation temperature.
Figure 10 presents the effect of evaporation
temperature on exergy losses. It can be clearly seen
that the total exergy loss and the exergy loss of
each component all decrease with the increasing
evaporation temperature. This is mainly attributed
to that when the evaporation temperature in-
creases, the performance coefcient of refrigera-
tion subcycle increases and hence the mass ow
rate of refrigerant, the heat added into the gen-
erator and the condensation load all decrease.
Figure 11 shows the effect of evaporation
temperature on the exergy efciencies of main
Eg
55 3
Tg=85C Esc Ec
Tc=35C Eo Ee
7 Eexp
Egg
Exergy loss (kW)

Exergy loss (kW)

Tg=85C gg
45 2
Tc=35C
gg
gl Egl
0.35 6.5
gg
gg

35 1
or

0.3 6
gl

0.25 5.5
25 0
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
0.2 5 Te (C)
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Te (C) Figure 10. Exergy losses vs evaporation temperature.
Figure 8. Ejector area ratio and entrainment ratios of
ejector and injector vs evaporation temperature. 60

e Tg=85C
50
0.2 0.3 gg Tc=35C
Exergy efficiency (%)

o Tg=85C 40
Tc=35C
Exergy efficiency (%)

COPo
Energy efficiency

0.15 0.25 30

20
0.1 0.2
10

0
0.05 0.15 7 11 15
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Te (C) Te (C)

Figure 9. Overall energy and exergy efciencies vs Figure 11. Exergy efciencies of main components vs
evaporation temperature. evaporation temperature.

Copyright r 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res. 2010; 34:815826
DOI: 10.1002/er
 ENERGY AND EXERGY ANALYSIS 823

components. Because the evaporation temperature
does not affect the thermodynamic properties
around the solar collector, generator and injector,
this gure does not include them. It can be seen
from the gure that with the increasing evapora-
tion temperature, the exergy efciency of ejector
increases slightly and the exergy efciency of the
evaporator increases greatly, which increases from
26.6% at Te 5 71C to 49.2% at Te 5 151C.
3.3. Effect of condensation temperature
Figure 12 presents the effect of condensation
temperature on ejector area ratio and the
performances of ejector and injector. It can be
seen that with the increasing condensation tem-
perature, the entrainment ratios of injector and
ejector both decrease and the ejector area ratio
also decreases.
Figure 13 presents the effect of condensation
temperature on the overall system energy and ex-
ergy efciencies. It can be seen that they both de-
refrigeration subcycle gets worse and thus the
mass ow rate of refrigerant, the heat added
into the generator and the condensation load all
increase.
Figure 15 shows the effect of condensation
temperature on the exergy efciencies of main
components. This gure does not include the
solar collector, generator and evaporator, because
the condensation temperature does not affect the
exergy efciencies of the solar collector, and
the exergy efciencies of generator and evaporator
are almost unchanged with the increasing con-
densation temperature. It can be seen from the
gure that with the increasing condensation
temperature, the exergy efciencies of ejector and
injector both increase.
0.2 0.25
o
Tg=85C
Te=10C

Exergy efficiency (%)

0.15 COPo 0.2
Energy efficiency

crease with the increasing condensation

temperature. The reason for this is that the per-
0.1 0.15
formance of ejector gets worse with the increasing
condensation temperature.
Figure 14 presents the effect of condensation 0.05 0.1
temperature on exergy losses. It can be clearly seen
that with the increasing condensation temperature,
0 0.05
the total exergy loss and the exergy loss of each 33 35 37 39 41
component except the evaporator all increase. This Tc (C)

is mainly attributed to that when the condensation Figure 13. Overall energy and exergy efciencies vs
temperature increases, the performance of the condensation temperature.

0.35 6.5
100 Eg 4.5
Tg=85C Ec Esc Tg=85C
0.3 Te=10C 6 Ee Eo Te=10C
Eexp
Egg
Exergy loss (kW)

Exergy loss (kW)

70 3
gl or gg

0.25 5.5
Egl
gg

0.2 gg 5

gg 40 1.5
0.15 4.5
gl

0.1 4
33 35 37 39 41
10 0
Tc (C) 33 35 37 39 41
Tc (C)
Figure 12. Ejector area ratio and entrainment ratios of
ejector and injector vs condensation temperature. Figure 14. Exergy losses vs condensation temperature.

Copyright r 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res. 2010; 34:815826
DOI: 10.1002/er
824
80
gg Tg =85C
gl Te =10C
60
Exergy efficiency (%)
40
20
0
33 37
Tc (C)
Figure 15. Exergy efciencies of main components vs
condensation temperature.
3.4. Dynamic performance of solar bi-ejector
refrigeration system
For a designed solar bi-ejector refrigeration
system, if no auxiliary burner is used, the vapor
generator temperature will change due to variation
in solar radiation during daytime. When the
operating temperatures are altered, the geometries
of the ejector should be changed to provide
optimum operating conditions and the perfor-
mance of injector will also be changed. However,
the structures of ejector and injector of a designed
system cannot be changed arbitrarily with the
variation in solar radiation. Therefore, the system
operating temperatures should be xed by using an
auxiliary burner, which is shown in Figure 1(a). In
order to maintain the design generation tempera-
ture, the regulating principle of a solar system with
an auxiliary burner is as follows: when solar
radiation is insufcient and the generation tem-
perature is lower than the design value, the
auxiliary burner is started up, while when solar
radiation is excess and the generation temperature
is higher than the design value, the ow rate of
heating medium is regulated.
The overall exergy efciency of the dynamic
system is:
Eq0 Eq0
Zo
Esc Eaub Esc Qaub 1  T0 =Taub
26
Copyright r 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
F. WANG AND S. SHEN
2 0.3
Isc
1.5 0.25
f
Isc (kW/m2) or f
o
1 0.2
o
0.5 0.15
0 0.1
8:30 10:30 12:30 14:30 16:30
t (h)
41 Figure 16. Dynamic performance of solar bi-ejector
refrigeration system.
The solar guarantee rate is dened as
Qu
f 27
Qg
where Qu is the effective heat from collector.
If f is less than 1, the auxiliary heat is evaluated
by Equation (28).
Qaub 1  fQg 28
In order to investigate the dynamic perfor-
mance of a solar bi-ejector refrigeration system,
the following calculation conditions are assumed:
(1) dynamic solar radiation upon collector is cal-
culated according to the meteorological data of
one city in China; (2) design generation tempera-
ture, condensation temperature and evaporation
temperature are respectively 85, 35 and 101C;
design solar radiation incident upon collector is
700 W m2; design cooling capacity is 5 kW; (3) the
temperature of the auxiliary burner is 951C; (4) the
inlet uid temperature of collector is unvaried with
time.
Figure 16 presents the dynamic performance of
the solar bi-ejector refrigeration system. It can be
seen that the solar guarantee rate is above 1 in the
time segment of 8:3014:30, and is less than 1 in
the rest time segment due to low solar radiation.
The system overall exergy efciency decreases
from 8:30 and has the minimum value at 12:30.
The reason for this is that from 8:30, the radiation
exergy of collector increases with the increasing
time because of the increasing radiation, but the
cold exergy of system is constant; therefore, the
Int. J. Energy Res. 2010; 34:815826
DOI: 10.1002/er
 ENERGY AND EXERGY ANALYSIS 825

system overall exergy efciency decreases. For the both worsen; the total exergy loss and the
similar reason, the system overall exergy efciency exergy loss of each component except the
rises from 12:30 to 14:30 due to the decrease of evaporator all increase.
radiation exergy. For the time segment of
14:3016:30, because the solar guarantee rate is
less than 1 and thus the auxiliary heat with higher NOMENCLATURE
exergy efciency is started up, the system overall
exergy efciency increases greatly. A 5 area (m2)
COP 5 coefcient of performance; ther-
mal performance
E 5 exergy (kW)
4. CONCLUSIONS
Ein,f 5 effective exergy absorbed by solar
A novel solar bi-ejector refrigeration system was collector (kW)
studied with R123 by using the method of energy e 5 specic exergy (kJ kg1)
and exergy analyses. The analysis result of the FRUL 5 heat dissipation coefcient of solar
system was compared with that of the original one. collector (kW m2 K1)
The comparative results indicate that under the FR(ta) 5 absorption coefcient of solar
same operating condition, the two systems have collector
equal energy efciency, exergy efciency and total h 5 specic enthalpy (kJ kg1)
exergy loss, and the only difference is the exergy m 5 mass ow rate (kg s1)
losses of the generators and the added injector. Q 5 heat transfer rate (kW)
The other conclusions mainly include: Qu 5 effective heat absorbed by solar
collector (kW)
(1) The solar collector has the highest exergy I 5 radiation intensity (kW m2)
loss rate of over 90% and has the lowest s 5 specic entropy (kJ kg1 K1)
exergy efciency of less than 10%. The main T 5 temperature (K)
reason for this is the huge temperature DE 5 exergy loss (kW)
difference between the sun and the collector.
The basic measure for improvement is to Subscripts
further enhance its thermal performance
and temperature. bejc 5 bi-ejector refrigeration subsystem
(2) For the bi-ejector refrigeration subcycle, the c 5 condenser
ejector has the largest exergy loss rate of e 5 evaporator
about 5%, and has a relatively low exergy ejc 5 ejector refrigeration subsystem
efciency of less than 40%. Optimizing exp 5 expansion valve
ejector structure especially the mixing cham- g 5 generator
ber is especially important. gg 5 ejector
(3) When the other parameters are xed, there gl 5 injector
exists an optimum generation temperature, in 5 inlet of solar collector
at which the overall energy and exergy o 5 overall
efciencies are both the maximum and the out 5 outlet of solar collector
total exergy loss is the minimum. q0 5 cooling
(4) With the increasing evaporation temperature, r 5 room
the overall energy and exergy efciencies sc 5 solar collector
both improve; the total exergy loss and the sejc 5 traditional ejector refrigeration
exergy loss of each component all decrease. subsystem
(5) With the increasing condensation tempera- 0 5 environment
ture, the overall energy and exergy efciencies 1, 2y 5 cycle locations

Copyright r 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Energy Res. 2010; 34:815826
DOI: 10.1002/er
826 F. WANG AND S. SHEN
Greek letters
o 5 entrainment ratio
z 5 thermal performance
Z 5 exergy efciency
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was supported by the project of National
Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 50576007).
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