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ABSTRACT
This paper presents the experimental results of a commercial refrigeration plant for supermarkets
working with R744. The system was installed for testing purpose in a test area, simulating a 300 m2
supermarket. The system has a total capacity of 31 kW in medium temperature (MT - evaporation
temperature –10°C) and about 15 kW in low temperature (LT - evaporation temperature –35°C).
The swept volume of the compressors is 5.4 m3/h for MT and 5.9 m3/h for LT, the MT and the LT
circuits are completely separated. The MT unit has two single stage compressors in parallel, while
the LT unit has two compressors in parallel of two-stage internal compound type. In both LT and
MT units on the high pressure side, the heat is rejected to water. The throttling system includes a
differential valve or a step-motor electronic valve (acting as a controlled back-pressure valve) in
alternative, coupled with a liquid receiver and thermostatic electronic valves as the final stage. The
experimental tests were run, both in subcritical and transcritical conditions, using the two valves
varying the gas-cooler water inlet temperature from 15 to 35 °C. Different setting of the differential
valve spring were used.
1. INTRODUCTION
Carbon dioxide is one of the oldest refrigerants, as it was already employed at the end of the
nineteenth century, mainly where safety was essential. However when synthetic refrigerants, around
1931, came into use, CO2 began its decline, because the new fluids provided best energy efficiency
with cheaper and more reliable equipment. High critical pressure (73.84 bar) and rather low critical
temperature (31.06°C) summarise the main drawbacks. Nevertheless today CO2 is gaining more and
more favour thanks to its very low environmental impact. In 1994 the Norwegian prof. Lorentzen
first proposed again this refrigerant as a working fluid for compression vapour inverse cycles and
since then many other authors has extensively studied such applications. Although CO2 shows poor
thermodynamic properties with reference to the energy efficiency of a traditional vapour
compression inverse cycle, it is seen as an effective solution to the problem of the global warming
of anthropic origin, since its ODP is zero and its GWP is negligible, even zero, if the fluid is
recovered from waste of industrial processes.
The system was installed for testing purpose in a test area, simulating a 300 m2 supermarket. The
MT and LT plant are built according to the diagrams shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2 respectively.
International Congress of Refrigeration, 2007, Beijing
2
In both circuits there is a shell and plate heat exchanger internal suction/liquid heat exchanger
(SGHX: Suction Gas Heat Exchanger): it is placed after the liquid receiver before the electronic
expansion valve on the liquid side and after the evaporators on the suction line. The
condenser/gas-cooler, intercooler and SGHX shell and plate heat exchanger operate with 1 °C
approach between fluids in design conditions (80 bar high pressure and 30 °C dry-cooler inlet air
temperature).
Thermocouples and pressure transducers are placed according to Figure 1 and Figure 2. Refrigerant
mass flow rates are measured with two Coriolis mass-flow meters placed immediately after SGHX
on the liquid line. All the measurements are acquired and elaborated by five Eurotherm Chessel
model 5000B.
3. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The experimental tests were carried out using both the differential valve and the step-motor
100
Discharge pressure [bar]
90
80
70
60
50
10 15 20 25 30 35 40
D.V. (10 bar) D.V. (15 bar) D.V. (20 bar) E.V.
Figure 4. Discharge pressures for the MT system with differential valve set at different Δp and
electronic valve.
2.6
COP [-]
2.2
1.8
1.4
1.0
10 15 20 25 30 35 40
D.V. (10 bar) D.V. (15 bar) D.V. (20 bar) E.V.
Figure 5. MT system efficiency (COP) with differential valve set at different Δp and electronic
valve.
100
Discharge pressure [bar]
90
80
70
60
50
10 15 20 25 30 35 40
D.V. (10 bar) D.V. (15 bar) D.V. (20 bar) E.V.
Figure 6. Discharge pressures for the LT system with differential valve set at different Δp and
electronic valve.
2.0
1.6
COP [-]
1.2
0.8
0.4
0.0
10 15 20 25 30 35 40
D.V. (10 bar) D.V. (15 bar) D.V. (20 bar) E.V.
Figure 7. LT system efficiency (COP) with differential valve set at different Δp and electronic
valve.
4. CONCLUSIONS
As a conclusion, the electronic throttling system appears to be an optimal solution to manage the
control of the upper pressure of a transcritical cycle in a wide range of secondary fluid temperatures.
The differential expansion valve seems to be a cheaper and simpler solution but can realize optimal
COP only in a narrow temperature range. The electronic throttling system could be further
improved taking into account more cycle parameters (i.e. evaporation temperature, superheating,
power absorption). An adaptive system able to measure and evaluate the efficiency of the entire
plant would be the final solution to optimise the energy consumption and cooling capacity of CO2
transcritical plants.
REFERENCES