Applied Thermal Engineering 110 (2017) 115–125

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Research Paper

Experimental investigation of the first prototype ejector refrigeration

system with HFO-1234ze(E)
Kamil Śmierciew a, Jerzy Gagan a, Dariusz Butrymowicz a,⇑, Michał Łukaszuk a, Henryk Kubiczek b
a
Białystok University of Technology, ul. Wiejska 45C, 15-351 Białystok, Poland
b
EDF Polska S.A., Research and Development Centre, ul. Ciepłownicza 1, 31-587 Kraków, Poland

h i g h l i g h t s

Experimental investigation of ejector refrigeration system for low GWP refrigerant.

Application of heat sources below 70 °C to drive the refrigeration system.

Heat source of 90 kW capacity was used, over 30 kW of cooling capacity was produced.

Entrainment ratio, COP, cooling capacity, and compression ratio were presented.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: One of possibilities of reduction of F-gas emission is application of low grade heat to drive the refriger-
Received 20 May 2016 ation systems as well as application of natural or low GWP working fluids. The own experimental inves-
Revised 16 August 2016 tigation of ejector refrigeration system operating with refrigerant R-1234ze(E) are presented and
Accepted 22 August 2016
discussed. The system is driven with low grade heat source of temperature below 70 °C and thermal
Available online 23 August 2016
capacity approximately 90 kW. The experiments covered the effect of condensation, evaporation and
generation temperatures on the capacity and thermal efficiency of the ejector refrigeration system oper-
Keywords:
ating for air-conditioning purposes. Obtained results showed that the proposed system may be thought
Ejector
Low GWP refrigerants
as the promising thermally driven refrigeration system with application of low grade motive heat
Low-grade heat source sources.
Ejector refrigeration systems Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Coefficient of performance

1. Introduction Air-conditioning creates two sources of environmental pollu-

Buildings represent a very high energy consumption percentage
compared to other economy sectors. Although percentages vary
from country to country, buildings are responsible for about 30–
45% of the global energy demand. Residential air-conditioning
and refrigeration consumes over 21 percent of electric energy used
for household purposes. Compressors use an average of 70% of the
energy consumed by HVAC and refrigeration systems. For build-
ings with applied central air-conditioning systems it comprises a
substantially larger share [1]. Many sources show a significant
increase in the use of air conditioning, especially in southern coun-
tries, creating serious supply difficulties during peak load periods.
Moreover, predictions indicate a massive growth in energy con-
sumption and air-conditioned area in the EU during the next
15 years, increasing approximately in 50% [2].
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: d.butrymowicz@pb.edu.pl (D. Butrymowicz).
tion: (1) direct emission of greenhouse gases, especially for work-
ing fluids belonging to HFC group, and (2) emission of the
greenhouse gases during generation of electric power to drive
the system. Both sources are contributing significantly to the glo-
bal warming effect. Additionally, with energy cost rising con-
stantly, industry is looking for reduction of electric energy
expenses as a means of lowering their fixed costs in order to stay
competitive. Cogeneration is one of the possible way to increase
efficiency of electric energy production. While the production of
electricity and heat can be conducted in an efficient manner during
the heating season due to sale of the heat for the heating systems,
utilization of combined production of electricity and heat
decreases in summer due to the low demand for the heat. This
means that the solution for increasing the share of electricity pro-
duced in combination - is to develop effective ways of managing of
the district heat in the summer. This heat is used for domestic tap
water heating mainly, which involves not only the small amount of
heat that is supplied to the heating system, but also the low or

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2016.08.140
1359-4311/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
116 K. Śmierciew et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 110 (2017) 115–125
Nomenclature
pg motive vapour pressure, MPa
tgs saturation temperature of motive vapour corresponding
to pg, °C
tg motive vapour temperature, °C
pe evaporation pressure, MPa
tes evaporation temperature corresponding to pe, °C
even very low parameters. This significantly reduces the possibility
of effective use of sorption refrigeration systems for the production
of cold. In addition, sorption systems requires generally very high
investment costs. Moreover, the control possibilities of these sys-
tems are limited. Therefore the application of ejector refrigeration
system can be attractive.
Ejector refrigeration system (Fig. 1) is a modification of a well-
known vapour compression cycle. Instead of pressurizing the
refrigerant by a mechanical compressor, an ejector compresses
refrigerant vapour flowing from the evaporator and discharges it
to the condenser. The motive vapour is generated in the vapour
generator which is heated by low-temperature heat source. This
paper presents development of refrigeration system equipped with
vapour ejector operating with environmentally friendly new refrig-
erant HFO-1234ze(E). Selection of this fluid was based on the com-
prehensive analysis of the working fluids for the ejector system
with respect to Regulation of the European Parliament and the
EU Council No. 517/2014 enacted on April 16th, 2014 [3,4]. It
was shown by several researchers that ejector system can effec-
tively operate with various natural and low GWP synthetic refrig-
erants [5–8].
Ejector refrigeration systems have been extensively investi-
gated numerically and experimentally in recent years. The most
comprehensive state-of-the-art study recent on ejector technology
was presented by Chen et al. [9], while Besagni et al. [10] presented
review on ejector refrigeration. These reviews gave all detail infor-
mation on ejector working principles, selection of the working flu-
ids and ejector technology as well. Elbel and Lawrence [11]
presented review focused on ejectors applied for work recovery.
Butrymowicz et al. [12] presented the first experimental results
of the ejector refrigeration system operating with isobutane driven
by low grade heat source. Results presented in [12] showed that it
is possible to use the ejector refrigeration system driven by heat
gained from the heat distribution network. During summer season
the temperature of hot water is below 70 °C, and sometimes even
below 65 °C. This means that application of the ejector refrigera-
tion system may be thought as an effective solution for the produc-
tion of chilled water with cooperation with district heating system.
The motive heat for the ejector system can be gained directly from
Fig. 1. Schematic of the ejector refrigeration system.
tcs condensation temperature, °C
Qg capacity of motive heat source, kW
Qe cooling capacity, kW
U mass entrainment ratio, –
P compression ratio, –
the heating system. This is much more attractive way for produc-
tion of chilled water in terms of application, because it allows for
utilization of low temperature heat (in summer season) for the
air conditioning purposes. Application of absorption system for
chilled water production may be thought as a common approach.
However, most of absorption systems require temperature of the
heat source tg that significantly exceeds 80 °C. Although it is possi-
ble to find data showing the operation of the absorption systems
under lower generator temperature, they have low value of COP
in such cases. The most recent research on low temperature heat
source absorption refrigeration systems [13,14] deals with temper-
atures in range 110–130 °C, however. These authors showed that
for operating conditions suitable for air-conditioning (evaporator
coupling fluid temperature tev,CF 12 °C ? 8 °C) COP reaches approx-
imately 0.14 under real operating conditions. For higher tempera-
ture tev,CF 18 °C ? 14 °C COP reaches approximately 0.17. These
authors emphasized that reducing the heat source temperature
for absorption systems is possible by adoption of alternate
refrigerant-absorbent pairs. Few references are given for investiga-
tions were several different fluids had been tested. Due to very low
vapour generation temperature inevitably low COP of the ejector
refrigeration systems should be expected for all of the working flu-
ids under conditions of the standard parameters of chilled water
for air-conditioning systems [12].
In reference to ejector refrigeration systems Besagni et al. [15]
have studied the influence of working fluids on the performance
of heat driven ejector refrigeration systems performance by using
a lumped parameter model. These authors have found the refriger-
ant R-134a as suitable for low generator temperature (<100 °C),
hydrocarbons R-600 as suitable for medium generator tempera-
tures (100–130 °C) and R-601 for high generator temperatures
(>130 °C). Experimental investigation of the ejector refrigeration
system operating with R-134a have been made by Zegenhagen
and Ziegler [16]. Hybrid ejector-based refrigeration system with
compressor as a low step compressor operating with R134a was
conducted by Wang et al. [17]. Both papers [16,17] indicated the
automobile air-conditioning as potential application since waste
heat from engine can be utilized as a motive heat for the ejector
system. Unal [18] proposed application of two-phase ejector for
air-conditioning system for midibuses. Again, refrigerant R-134a
was used as a working fluid. The refrigerant R-134a is often used
as a working medium despite its elevated global warming potential
of GWP = 1300, since this refrigerant is commonly used in air-
conditioning systems, However, the use of refrigerants of GWP
exceeding 150 in air-conditioning systems of vehicles was prohib-
ited since 2011 [19]. Other refrigerants in ejector systems has been
also investigated recently. Chen et al. [19] have studied the opera-
tion of the ejector with refrigerant R-236fa. Ejector was equipped
with the movable nozzle in order to enhance the performance of
the ejector. Shestopalov et al. [20] investigated the ejector refriger-
ation machine operating with refrigerant R-245fa at the on-design
and off-design operating regimes. Results presented in [15–20]
were obtained for the ejector system operating with high GWP
refrigerants, which are banned now or will be banned soon. Also,
in near future refrigerants of GWP > 150 will be banned in
 K. Śmierciew et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 110 (2017) 115–125
commercial and domestic air-conditioning whose refrigerant
charge is higher than 3 kg. Therefore it is a clear need to investigate
operation of the ejector systems operating with refrigerants with
low GWP. One of the promising working fluid is HFO-1234. Wang
[21] gives an overview of the system performance of R-1234yf in
air-conditioning and heat-pump technology. Refrigerant R-1234yf
is substitute for R-134a and is currently used in mobile air-
conditioning.
In this paper the own investigation of the ejector refrigeration
system operating with HFO group refrigerant R-1234ze(E) have
been presented and discussed. It was shown by the authors in
[22] that the ejector air-conditioning system driven by solar heat
can effectively operate with low GWP refrigerant R-600a. However,
isobutane is classified as explosive, therefore, it might be consid-
ered as dangerous in large commercial refrigeration or air-
conditioning. Here, ejector based refrigeration system with safe
R-1234ze(E) driven by low temperature heat source with app.
90 kW capacity is presented. It must be pointed out that according
to authors knowledge there are no reports dealing with either
numerical or experimental investigation of ejector operating with
this fluid at this scale.
Fig. 2. Schematic of testing stand: vapour generator (G), condenser (C), evaporator (E), ejector (EJ), refrigerant pump, regenerative heat exchanger (R), throttling valve.
117
2. Testing stand
The experimental rig presented in Figs. 2 and 3 was build at the
Białystok University of Technology in Białystok, Poland. The main
elements of the stand are listed in Fig. 2 caption. The geometry
of the tested ejector is presented in Fig. 4. The motive nozzle throat
diameter was 11 mm. The testing stand was equipped with the
temperature sensors and pressure transducers (marked as (RTD)
and (P) respectively, in Fig. 2) installed at the critical locations
and other locations of interest. The pressure transducers accuracy
0.25% were used during the experiments. The RTD temperature
sensors were applied for the experiments. The Coriolis mass flow
meters accuracy 0.15% were used.
The test rig was equipped with three auxiliary loops: the first
one for the thermal load for the evaporator, the second one for
the condenser cooling, and the third one is the heat source for
the generator. These systems were equipped with mass flow
meters and temperature sensors at inlets and outlets of the heat
exchangers. Auxiliary systems allowed for adjusting refrigerant
flow rates as well as for changing of operation parameters in a wide
range. In the evaporator heat load system glycol was used as a heat
118 K. Śmierciew et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 110 (2017) 115–125
transfer fluid, in the condenser cooling system and the generator
heat source system water was used as a working fluid. The con-
denser cooling system was equipped with an automatically con-
trolled dry cooler. The motive heat load system was equipped
with automatically controlled electrical heater of the capacity
100 kW. The stand is also equipped with the control valves
enabling the adjustment of the operating parameters of the motive
vapour at the inlet to the motive nozzle of the ejector. The dia-
phragm pump HYDRA-CELL with 3 kW/700 RPM motor was used
as a circulation pump for refrigerant. Plate heat exchangers as gen-
erator, condenser and evaporator were used. The testing stand was
also equipped with the regenerative plate heat exchanger located
between the ejector outlet and the condenser.
The data acquisition facility was based on two National Instru-
ment systems. The computer used LabVIEW software. In addition,
software dedicated to the experimental stand was capable to
receive on-line data from software REFPROP [23]. The real time
measurements were shown on the computer screen while all mea-
sured data were stored in a data file. During the experiments 100
readings (one reading per one second) at the steady-state condi-
tions were taken and averaged to make one experimental run.
Fig. 3. Photo of testing stand.
Fig. 4. Tested ejector.
The only exception were the results presented in Figs. 5–8 that
were carried out under the transient operating conditions. Pressure
and temperatures profiles were observed during stabilization and
when no significant changes were observed - excluding, minor
change operating parameters, which are typical for the working
system - the operating conditions were taken as steady-state.
The average operating parameters are listed in Tables 1 and 2.
3. Experimental results and discussion
3.1. Startup investigation
The start-up investigations were conducted in order to inden-
tify the maximum potential performance of the system. The
authors found as interesting to find how low pressure the ejector
can produce for the fixed motive temperature. The present investi-
gations covered the ejector system operation for very low temper-
ature of the motive heat source, therefore the knowledge of lowest
pressure or temperature available for this systems can be taught as
valuable. Note that these issues has not been previously
investigated.
Four series of start-up runs investigations were conducted. Dur-
ing experiments the condensation temperature, and as an effect
condensation pressure were variable parameters, while parame-
ters in the vapour generator were kept constant. Expansion valve
was closed, so the evaporator was refrigerant free. Under such con-
ditions the pressure lift produced by the ejector may be thought as
the maximum possible. Therefore, the parameters in the evapora-
tor were observed in this case. Operating parameters for investiga-
tions are presented in Table 1. As it can be seen in Table 1, the
operation conditions are similar to each other, however, the results
proved that the operation of the ejector is repeatable. In Table 1 the
maximum value of the motive pressure and corresponding satura-
tion temperature and minimum pressure and corresponding tem-
perature produced by the ejector for various temperatures of
condensation are shown. Last column in Table 1 presents the pres-
sure difference between condensation and evaporation pressure,
i.e. pressure lift produced by the tested ejector. In graphic form
the results are shown in Figs. 5–8.
The results shows that the ejector was operating with motive
pressure at the level of approximately 1.2 MPa, which corresponds
to temperature approximately 57–58 °C. For this motive parame-
ters the ejector can produce evaporation pressure at the level of
0.1 MPa corresponding to temperature at the level of 20 °C. The
pressure lift produced by the ejector was in this cases approxi-
mately 0.40–0.45 MPa.
It is seen in these figures that at the beginning of the test run all
pressures were basically the same, therefore the ejector was under
thermodynamic balance. When the ejector was started running the
parameters have been changed. At first motive pressure rises and
evaporation pressure decreases. Steady state have been achieved
at level 1.2 MPa in the generator and 0.11 MPa in the evaporator.
One of the most interesting parameters of the performance of
the ejector is the dependence of the evaporation pressure on the
 K. Śmierciew et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 110 (2017) 115–125 119

condensation pressure. This relationship can be also analysed
using saturation temperature instead of pressure. Evaporation
temperature versus condensation temperature for run No. 1 is
shown in Fig. 5, and for run No. 3 is shown in Fig 7. Distributions
of the parameters for runs No. 2 and No. 4 were not shown since
they were very similar for presented runs No. 3 and No. 1, respec-
tively. This similarity results from the motive parameters which
are very close by pairs to each other, namely runs No. 1 and 4
and runs No. 2 and 3. Presented temperature and pressure distribu-
tions correspond to maximum and minimum values of the motive
pressure, see Table 1.
It is seen in Figs. 6 and 8 that when the steady-state operation
was achieved (1.2 MPa in the generator and 0.11 MPa in the evap-
orator) the evaporation temperature was not changing with
increasing of the condensation temperature between approx. 17–
22 °C (see Fig. 6a). Such relationship between evaporation and con-
densation temperatures is typical for the ejector operating under
on-design conditions. In presented cases this relationship is valid
until the condensation temperature is lower than 22 °C for run
No. 1, and lower than 19 °C for run No. 3. For higher condensation
temperatures, pressure in the evaporator increases which may be
thought as typical for the off-design operating conditions.
3.2. Preliminary results of investigations
In this section results of five test runs were shown and dis-
cussed. Experiments cover wide range of the evaporation temper-
atures. Motive parameters, i.e. generation pressure and motive

Fig. 5. Parameters distribution during experiments for run no. 1: (a) pressure distribution, (b) saturation temperature distribution.
120 K. Śmierciew et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 110 (2017) 115–125

vapour temperature were kept constant. Saturation temperature in
the vapour generator was fixed at 56 °C with superheating of 15 K.
Condensation pressure was varied by means of control of cooling
conditions of the condenser. Parameters for each run are presented
in Table 2.
Motive heat flux (Q_ g ) was calculated as follows:
Q_ g ¼ m
_ g  Dh g
where m_ g is refrigerant mass flow rate, and Dhg is enthalpy differ-
ence at the vapour generator outlet and inlet. As it is seen from
Table 2 the capacity of the vapour generator was in the range 78–
89 kW.
Mass entrainment ratio was calculated as:
_e
m Maximum mass entrainment ratio Umax = 0.45 was reported for
U¼
_g
m
where m _ e is mass flow rate of vapour flows through the evaporator
and m_ g is mass flow rate of the motive vapour.
The motive stream was chocked in motive nozzle of the ejector
under all of the operating conditions during the tests. Therefore
vapour velocity exceeded the critical velocity. This velocity as well
as critical mass flow rate were calculated using classic gas dynamic
equations. We have proved that this approach gives the results that
differ within the measurement error for the measurement with use
of the Coriolis flow meter. Therefore in the present investigations
we have decided to not use flow meter to measure motive vapour
mass flow rate but we have applied the above procedure. In Fig. 9
the performance line in relation of mass flow ratio vs. condensation
ð1Þ temperature is shown. Saturation temperatures of primary (gener-
ator) and secondary (evaporator) flows were given in the figure
caption. It is shown in Fig. 9 that the ejector operated in both on-
design and off-design regimes. Critical temperature at which the
ejector is changing the operation regime can be easily identified,
e.g. for test runs No. 1 and No. 2 it is tccrit1 = tccrit2 = 24 °C, and for
the test run No. 4 it is tccrit4 = 19 °C.
ð2Þ test run No. 5 with tes5 = 5.7 °C and tgs5 = 53.4 °C. Note that
tgs5 = 53.4 °C is the lowest value of all runs. However, for run No.
5 the superheating of the motive vapour is the highest, therefore
motive temperature is tg = 73.4 °C. The opposed results should be
expected in that case. The mass entrainment ratio should increase
with increase of the motive pressure since the motive fluid reaches
higher velocity and momentum. On the other hand increase of the

Fig. 6. Parameters distribution in evaporator during experiments as a function of temperature of condensation for run no. 1: (a) pressure distribution, (b) saturation
temperature distribution.
 K. Śmierciew et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 110 (2017) 115–125 121

Fig. 7. Parameters distribution during experiments for run no. 3: (a) pressure distribution, (b) saturation temperature distribution.

motive pressure results in increase of the motive mass flow rate. It
is also reflecting on the motive vapour momentum. Since the sec-
ondary fluid is also chocked, and the operating conditions for the
evaporation have not changed so that the mass flow rate of the sec-
ondary fluid is fixed. According to the definition of the mass
entrainment ratio increase of the primary (motive) fluid when sec-
ondary fluid is not changed should cause the increase of the
entrainment ratio. However, on the basis of CFD simulations it
was found that the increasing of the motive pressure for the fixed
geometry of ejector causes reflection in geometry of the supersonic
jet at the nozzle outlet [24,25]. When the motive pressure
increases then the cross-section of the supersonic jet at a certain
distance from the nozzle outlet also increases; this distance is often
called as the hypothetical throat of the ejector. This affects the
attainable cross-section area for the secondary fluid inside the
ejector. Due to the above effect this cross-section area decreases
that deteriorates mass entrainment ratio.
For run No. 5 the critical flow temperature tccrit5 = 22.5 °C and
ejector malfunction occurred at 25 °C. The lowest critical tempera-
ture tccrit4 = 19 °C for run No. 4 was reported. This can be result of
very low evaporator parameters, i.e. tes4 = 6.7 °C. Corresponding
evaporation pressure was 0.168 MPa, which means that for that
evaporation parameters at such low level the motive parameters
may be thought as inadequate for operation at higher condensation
parameters. Note that such low evaporation parameters are not
needed frequently in industry where the ejector system can be
applied. The highest critical flow temperature tccrit3 = 29 °C for test
run No. 3 was reported. On the other hand, the mass entrainment
122 K. Śmierciew et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 110 (2017) 115–125

Fig. 8. Parameters distribution in evaporator during experiments as a function of temperature of condensation for run no. 3: (a) pressure distribution, (b) saturation
temperature distribution.

Table 1 Table 2
Operating parameters of the system during start-up investigations. Operating conditions of the ejector refrigeration system.

pg (max) tgs pe (min) tes tcs pc-pe Run pg tgs tg pe tes Qg tcs (°C)
(MPa) (max) (MPa) (min) (variable) (max) no. (MPa) (°C) (°C) (MPa) (°C) (kW)
(°C) (°C) (°C) (MPa)
1 1.15 55.7 72.2 2.37 2.3 83.4 22.8–
Run no. 1 1.236 58.6 0.088 22.7 10.1–28.1 25.2
0.459 2 1.14 55.3 70.8 2.35 2.1 83.2 23.0–
Run no. 2 1.190 57.1 0.095 20.9 11.9–24.8 25.0
0.401 3 1.17 56.5 70.3 3.38 12.5 82.2 27.5–
Run no. 3 1.189 57.0 0.094 21.1 12.2–27.0 30.2
0.435 4 1.17 56.4 72.1 1.69 6.7 89.1 18.0–
Run no. 4 1.221 58.2 0.098 20.2 12.8–29.7 20.0
0.477 5 1.09 53.4 73.4 2.68 5.7 78.1 22.0–
24.5

ratio is the lowest in this case, Umin = 0.12. High critical tempera-
ture might be result of high evaporation temperature, tes3 = 12.5 °C.
For high evaporation temperature or pressure the mass entrain-
ment ratio at higher level might be expected. However, it must be
pointed out, that the ejector was designed for evaporation param-
eters corresponding to approximately +5 °C. Also, result presented
in Section 3.1 showed that the ejector can produce very low pres-
sure, therefore there is a large pressure difference between nozzle
outlet and suction chamber (or evaporator). For such conditions
nozzle might be over-expanded and oblique shocks might occur
decreasing the ejector efficiency. For all test runs the performance
line is steep in off-design operating regime.
 K. Śmierciew et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 110 (2017) 115–125 123

Fig. 9. Performance line U = f(tc).

Analogically, for performance line U ¼ f ðtc Þ characteristics
Q_ e ¼ f ðt c Þ and COP ¼ f ðtc Þ were shown in Figs. 10 and 11, respec-
tively. Cooling capacity (Q_ e ) of the tested ejector was calculated as:
Q_ e ¼ m
_ e  Dh e ð3Þ
where m _ e is refrigerant mass flow rate, and Dhe is enthalpy differ-
ence at the evaporator outlet and inlet. Coefficient of performance
of the system was calculated as:
Q_ e
COP ¼ ð4Þ
_
Q g þ Pp
where Pp is circulation pump input power. For analysis presented
here the maximum motor input power of 3 kW was measured.
Shape and slope of presented in Figs. 10 and 11 lines are the
same as shown in Fig. 9. The ejector and testing stand were
designed for cooling capacity of app. 20–22 kW. Motive heat was
design as 80 kW, therefore coefficient of performance of 0.20 was
expected. As it can be seen from Fig. 10 only for the test run No.
3 required cooling capacity was not achieved, Q_ emin = 10 kW. For
the other test runs at least 25 kW of cooling capacity was produced
with maximum Q_ emax = 36 kW. The coefficient of performance of
0.30 and higher were achieved under reported tests excluding test
run No. 3. Maximum cooling capacity Q_ emax and COPmax = 0.45 cor-
responding to the maximum mass entrainment ratio U, and mini-
mum cooling capacity Q_ emax and COPmin = 0.12 corresponded to the
minimum mass entrainment ratio.
It is seen in Fig. 11 that COP for tes1 = 2.3 °C is less than that of
tes2 = 3.4 °C, at on-design operating regime, despite the fact
that the motive temperature is the same for both runs,
tgs1 = tgs2 = 55.7 °C. The reason is the evaporation temperature, for
the series S2 it was higher than for the series S1, namely tes1 = 2.3 °-
C, and tes2 = 3.4 °C. Such conditions could be thought as more
favourable for the ejector operation since the ejector has to cover
the lower pressure difference at the same motive parameters. In
that case the performance of the ejector, i.e. entrainment ratio
and COP increased. Note that for both runs (S1 and S2) transition
from on-design into off-design operating regime occurs at conden-
sation temperature approximately 24.3 °C. On the other hand it is
also seen in Fig. 11 that for temperature 24.3 °C COP is much lower
for the series S5 than for the series S1 and S2 despite the fact that
the evaporation temperature was higher for series S5 than for

Fig. 10. Performance line Qe = f(tc).

124 K. Śmierciew et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 110 (2017) 115–125

Fig. 11. Performance line COP = f(tc).

Fig. 12. Performance line P = f(U).

series S1 and S2, namely tes5 = 5.4 °C. However, for the series S5, it
can be seen that the motive temperature is lower than for other
two compared series, namely tgs5 = 53.4 °C. As a result of such oper-
ating conditions the pressure difference for the motive nozzle
between the inlet and outlet was lower, and as an effect the lower
momentum for the motive vapour was produced. This was the rea-
son for decrease of the performance of the ejector. Note that for the
series S5 condensation temperature 24.3 °C lies in the off-design
operating regime. Under such conditions the ejector operation
was very limited as it was close to the malfunction point of the
ejector.
Performance of the ejector system is usually presented as a rela-
tionship between the compression ratio versus mass entrainment
ratio, P ¼ f ðUÞ. This relation is shown in Fig. 12. Compression ratio
was calculated using equation:
pc  pe
P¼
pg  pe
where pc is condensation pressure, pg – generator pressure, pe –
evaporator pressure.
It is seen in Fig. 12 that operation of the ejector system pro-
ceeded typically for all of the test runs. Experimental results pre-
sented in Fig. 12 not clearly shows the on-design operation
conditions, therefore vertical part of performance lines were
approximated on the basis of the results presented in Fig. 9. Com-
pression ratio achieved by the ejector was in the range 0.23–0.30.
4. Conclusions
The results of the first experimental investigations of the ejector
refrigeration system operating with HFO-1234ze(E) were pre-
sented in the paper. This fluid was selected on the basis of the anal-
ysis of the working fluids for ejector system with respect to
Regulation of the European Parliament and the EU Council No.
517/2014.
The low temperature motive heat source of 90 kW was used in
ð5Þ investigation. The influence of the operating parameters such as
condensation and evaporation temperature for given motive tem-
perature on the performance of the ejector refrigeration system
were presented and discussed.
 K. Śmierciew et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 110 (2017) 115–125
At first the results of limiting parameters were investigated, e.g.
the minimum pressure which can be produce by the ejector for
given motive parameters. It was found that for motive saturation
temperatures at level 55 °C the ejector is able to produce pressure
corresponding to temperature 20 °C. For this condition was found
also that the critical temperature under on-design operating
regime was in the range of 19–22 °C.
Secondly, the typical ejector investigations have been con-
ducted and performance lines according to the following relation-
ships: U ¼ f ðt c Þ, Q_ e ¼ f ðtc Þ, COP ¼ f ðt c Þ, P ¼ f ðUÞ were analysed.
The experimental investigations confirmed that the ejector cycle
operating with HFO-1234ze(E) can effectively be driven by low
temperature heat source, e.g. lower that tg = 70 °C. Under this range
of motive temperature heat sources the ejector cycles can be con-
sidered as truly competitive in comparison with most of the ther-
mally driven refrigeration systems.
On the basis of the experimental results it can be concluded that
for the case of HFO-1234ze(E) as the working fluid the motive sat-
uration temperature at level approximately 55 °C ejector system
can be applied if required amount of cooling is 20–25 per cent of
the motive heat source capacity.
The system was operating with COP higher than 0.30 for motive
temperature 56 °C and evaporation temperature 2–5 °C. For this
cases of the critical flow temperature was found at level 24 °C,
however. Moreover, HFO-1234ze(E) may be thought as prospective
working fluid for low grade ejector refrigeration systems. Therefore
future developments of the ejector refrigeration system operating
with this fluid may be expected.
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