Development of a thermodynamic performance-analysis program for

CO
2
geothermal heat pump system
Young-Jae Kim
a,
*, Keun-Sun Chang
b
a
Department of Bio-Chemical Engineering, Sun Moon University, Asan, Chungnam 337-840, Republic of Korea
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sun Moon University, Asan, Chungnam 337-840, Republic of Korea
1. Introduction
In recent years, refrigeration and air-conditioning equipments
have been being developed for more efcient and compact way in
order to comply with the international movement of energy saving
and regulation reinforcement on environmental protection. This
tendency has promoted the development of geothermal heat pump
systems which are able to correspond efciently to the change of
cooling and heating loads. To develop new environmental-friendly
geothermal heat pump systems, a suitable refrigerant for each
usage must be selected [1].
The fully halogenated chlorouorocarbons (CFCs) have been the
most commonly used until 1980s. However, there is currently a
worldwide trend to seek ozone safe alternative refrigerants to
conventional CFCs [1,2]. For the short-term replacement of CFCs,
HFCs have been being considered as zero ozone depletion (ODP)
refrigerants, but they cannot be free from their high potential of
global warming (GWP) [2]. In this reason, much attention has been
being paid on natural refrigerants such as carbon dioxide,
ammonia, air, water, and hydrocarbons as a long-term solution
of alternative refrigerant with zero ozone depletion and zero global
warming. Natural refrigerants shown in Table 1 are halogen-free
working uids based on molecules that occur in nature and are
environmentally benign due to their very low or zero ODP and
GWP [3].
Currently, ammonia is widely used as a refrigerant for large-
scale freezers. For usage, it should be noted that ammonia has
toxicity though ammability is less. Propane and butane have
strong ammability. Air is used extensively as a refrigerant in
aircraft industry. Its advantages are to require fewer heat
exchangers, but its efciency is quite poor. Water has the potential
to be a very efcient refrigerant, but it requires operation in a deep
vacuum. This leads to costly large-volume vacuum tanks that must
house all the machinery, such as heat exchangers and compressors.
Among natural refrigerants, CO
2
is one of the most promising
alternatives, because it has outstanding thermodynamic, trans-
port, and other environmentally friendly properties. As a result of
continuous efforts to improve efciency, two-stage CO
2
refrigera-
tor was developed in 1889 and the multiple-effect CO
2
cycle was
developed in 1905. However, in the early 19th century, CO
2
was
replaced by CFCs due to their excellent characteristics as a
refrigerant. CO
2
is now becoming attractive again as an environ-
mentally friendly refrigerant. CO
2
has a very low global warming
potential compared to traditional CFCs and HCFCs [46].
The geothermal heat pump is known as a highly efcient
renewable device for heating and cooling houses and buildings as
well as for supplying warm water. During the winter it operates so
as to absorb heat from the underground and reject heat into the
building. Refrigerant is evaporated in coils placed underground
and the vapor is compressed for condensation by water, used to
heat the building, at temperatures above the required heating
level. The geothermal heat pump also serves as air conditioning
during the summer. The ow direction of refrigerant is simply
reversed, and heat is transferred out of the building and back into
the underground coils [7].
Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 19 (2013) 18271837
A R T I C L E I N F O
Article history:
Received 9 October 2012
Accepted 23 February 2013
Available online 4 March 2013
Keywords:
CO
2
Geothermal heat pump systems
Cycle simulation program
Internal heat exchanger
A B S T R A C T
In this research, a steady-state cycle simulation program for thermodynamic performance analysis of
CO
2
geothermal heat pump systems was developed. A series of case studies were conducted by changing
systemparameters and operation conditions in order to investigate the effect of various systemvariables
on the geothermal heat pump cycle including an internal heat exchanger (IHX). The simulation results
were validated by comparing them with experimental data. The mean deviations of the COPs, cooling
capacities, and compressor powers between experimental and simulation results are 4.5%, 3.8%, 6.5%,
respectively at the 5 8C superheated degree and 32% EEV opening.
2013 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights
reserved.
* Corresponding author at: Department of Bio-Chemical Engineering, Sun Moon
University, Asan, Chungnam 337-840, Republic of Korea. Tel.: +82 0415302372.
E-mail address: yjkim@sunmoon.ac.kr (Y.-J. Kim).
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry
j ou r n al h o mepag e: w ww. el sevi er . co m / l ocat e/ j i ec
1226-086X/$ see front matter 2013 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jiec.2013.02.028
A large number of studies have been carried out on heat pump
systems using natural refrigerants in the world. In the early 1990s,
Gustav Lorentzen and his colleagues revived research on the CO
2
refrigeration cycle in order to address the environment problems
of ozone depletion and global warming effect [8]. They have
concentrated on the experimental evaluation and thermodynamic
modeling of mobile air-conditioning systems and developed a
prototype CO
2
mobile air-conditioning system through successive
studies [9].
Bullock [10] carried out theoretical performance analysis of
carbon dioxide as a refrigerant in subcritical and transcritical
cycles in a vapor compression cycle. He concluded that the CO
2
heat pump system would require an efcient expander or
signicantly improved compressor and heat exchangers because
it is less efcient than the HCFC-22 (CHClF
2
) system by 30% in the
cooling mode and 25% in the heating mode.
Hwang and Radermacher [11] theoretically evaluated carbon
dioxide refrigeration cycle by comparing the performance of CO
2
with HCFC-22 for water heating and chilling modes. They showed
that CO
2
is a more desirable refrigerant in the case of water heating
since its performance is about 10% better than HCFC-22.
Brown et al. [12], McEnaney et al. [13,14], and Preissner et al.
[15] explored experimental results for prototype CO
2
automotive
air conditioner (AC) and compared the results with conventional
HFC-134a (C
2
H
2
F
4
). Hermann and Rene [16] and Hanfner [17]
performed experimental study on water heating CO
2
mobile air
conditioning system. They studied the performance of the CO
2
cycle with an internal heat exchanger, and compared their results
with other refrigerant cycle. Adriansyah [18] theoretically and
experimentally investigated a combined air conditioning and tap
water heating plant using CO
2
. He concluded that the optimum
condition at which the system reaches the highest coefcient of
performance (COP) for cooling is determined by component
parameters such as gas cooler conguration and percentage of
heat recovery. The results showed the total COP of the combined
system is higher than that of the air conditioning system without
heat recovery.
CO
2
is a refrigerant that operates at very high pressures in a
transcritical cycle in most operating conditions compared to HFC
refrigerants. Therefore the piping needs to be 25% thicker for a CO
2
refrigeration system than for an HFC system in order to withstand
the higher pressure. For the successful replacement and use of
natural refrigerants such as CO
2
, thermodynamic performance
evaluations of geothermal heat pump systems must be carried out
since CO
2
has signicantly different thermodynamic properties
from those of conventional refrigerants. For such evaluations, it is
important to develop a thermodynamic performance-analysis
program for predicting the performance of geothermal heat pump
systems. In addition, development of the geothermal heat pump
system requires complex experiments because it includes various
complex variables and their interactions. Therefore, a thermody-
namic performance-analysis program for geothermal heat pump
systems can be effectively used for saving time and reducing the
risk, which may take place during experiment [19].
In this study, a thermodynamic performance-analysis program
to predict the steady-state performance of the CO
2
geothermal
heat pump has been developed and was tested using a series of
case studies to validate the program accuracy. It can simulate the
thermodynamic performance parameters such as COP, cooling and
heating capacities of the indoor and outdoor heat exchangers,
compressor power consumption, etc. This program utilized Visual
Basic for the graphic user interface (GUI), consisted of pre-
processor for input data and post-processor for the output data and
Digital Visual Fortran for the main analysis code. The National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) REFPROP V6.01 was
used for estimating the CO
2
thermodynamic and transport
properties and equilibrium behaviors.
2. Modeling of the CO
2
geothermal heat pump cycle
The CO
2
geothermal heat pump system in this study is mainly
composed of the water cooled indoor and outdoor heat exchangers,
an internal heat exchanger, a compressor, an expansion device, and
a 4-way valve as shown in Fig. 1. The concept shown in Fig. 1
basically represents a vapor compression heat pump cycle.
Depending on the mode of operation (cooling or heating), either
heat exchanger can serve as the evaporator or gas cooler. The
indoor unit serves as an evaporator in cooling mode and as a gas
cooler in heating mode, but the outdoor unit serves as a gas cooler
in cooling mode and an evaporator in heating mode.
The word of cooling mode in heat pumping implies a system
managing the indoor temperature below that of the surroundings.
This requires continuous absorption of heat from a low tempera-
ture level, usually accomplished by evaporation of a refrigerant in a
steady-state ow process. The vapor formed in the evaporator may
be returned to its original liquid state for reevaporation. The
refrigerant vapor leaves the evaporator and enters the compressor
at the vaporizing temperature and pressure and it is simply
compressed and then cooled in the gas cooler without condensa-
tion in the case of the transcritical CO
2
cycle as shown in Fig. 2. The
cooled liquid leaves the gas cooler and enters the expansion device.
The pressure of the liquid is reduced to the evaporating pressure as
the liquid passes through the expansion device. In the CO
2
heat
pump cycle a liquid evaporating at constant pressure provides a
means for heat absorption at constant temperature. Likewise,
cooling of the vapor in the transcritical state, after compression to a
higher pressure, provides for the rejection of heat. The liquid from
the gas cooler is returned to its original state by an expansion
process.
3. Heat exchangers
In the present study, a multi-tube heat exchanger, which
contains a number of parallel smaller tubes enclosed in a larger
tube, was used for the gas cooler, evaporator, and internal heat
exchanger. The high pressure CO
2
ows through the inner tubes
and the low-pressure water ows through the annular space
between the inner tubes and the outer tube. The heat exchangers
Table 1
Characteristics of some natural refrigerants [4].
Refrigerant R744 R717 R290 R600 R600a R1270
Chemical formula CO
2
NH
3
C
3
H
8
n-C
4
H
10
i-C
4
H
10
C
3
H
6
Molar mass 44.01 17.03 44.10 58.12 58.12 42.08
Critical temp. (8C) 30.98 132.25 96.68 152.0 134.67 92.40
Boiling point (8C) 78.40 33.33 42.09 0.5 11.67 47.7
Critical pres. (kPa) 7384 11,333 4247 3796 3640 4665
ODP 0 0 0 0 0 0
GWP 1 0 3 3 3 3
Toxicity No Yes No No No No
Y.-J. Kim, K.-S. Chang / Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 19 (2013) 18271837 1828
were designed with the counter-ow pattern where CO
2
and water
streams are owing in opposite directions in order to maximize the
heat transfer efciency. In the case of the gas cooler, CO
2
in
the transcritical state enters the inner tubes and then is cooled by
the countercurrently owing cold water through the annulus of the
gas cooler.
The section-by-section method [21,22] shown in Fig. 3 was
used for performance analysis of a countercurrent multi-tube heat
exchanger. Performance analysis using the section-by-section
method can be applied to very complex refrigerant circuits
including superheated phase, two-phase, and subcooled region
as well as transcritical region. The energy balance equation that
describes the ow of CO
2
and water for each discretized node via
the section-by-section method may be written as
D

Q
n
= m
c
(H
c; j
H
c; j1
) = m
w
(H
w; j
H
w; j1
) (1)
In the case of the gas cooler, the CO
2
inlet temperature (T
c,1
) of
the rst section (n = 1) is known from the compressor outlet
conditions estimated through compressor simulation. Therefore,
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the CO
2
geothermal heat pump system.
Fig. 2. Temperatureentropy diagram of the CO
2
heat pump cycle [20]. Fig. 3. Control section for section-by-section method.
Y.-J. Kim, K.-S. Chang / Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 19 (2013) 18271837 1829
if the water inlet temperature (T
w,2
) at the rst section is assumed
as the initial guess, the outlet temperatures of CO
2
and water ow
are calculated through the above energy balance equation
including quantity of heat transfer calculated by e-N
tu
method.
At every control section (nth) after the rst section, the CO
2
inlet
temperature (T
c,j
) is known from the previous simulation at the
(n 1)th control section and then, the water inlet temperature
(T
w,j+1
) can be iteratively calculated by nding the value of
convergence to the target value (T
w,j
) known from simulation at
the previous control section. In the last control section the
iteratively estimated water inlet temperature is compared to the
water inlet temperature given as input data. If the difference
between two values is not fall within the error limit, the water
inlet temperature (T
w,2
) assumed at the rst control section as an
initial guess is iteratively changed until the convergence is
reached.
In e-N
tu
method, quantity of heat transfer (

Q
n
) in a control
section can be obtained using heat exchanger effectiveness (e) and
the number of transfer units (N
tu
).

Q
n
= eC
min
(T
c;in
T
w;in
) (2)
N
tu
=
U
n
A
n
C
min
(3)
where C is heat capacity mC
p
, C
min
means the smaller value among
heat capacities of the water and CO
2
.
Heat transfer effectiveness (e) for the countercurrent ow in the
gas cooler without phase change is estimated with the number of
transfer units (N
tu
) as follows:
e =
1 exp(N
tu
(1 C
r
))
1 C
r
exp(N
tu
(1 C
r
))
(4)
C
r
=
C
min
C
max
If the CO
2
ow in a control section at the evaporator is a two-phase
uid, C
r
becomes zero. Therefore, Eq. (4) can be written as Eq. (5).
e = 1 exp(N
tu
) (5)
The equation to calculate overall heat transfer coefcient, U
n
, of
each control section is given as follows:
1
U
n
=
DA
o
DA
i
h
n;c

DA
o
ln(r
o
=r
i
)
2pkDz

1
h
n;w
(6)
where k is the thermal conductivity of tube wall.
The heat transfer rate in a control section can be determined
from an energy balance on the CO
2
and water ows and can be
expressed as:

Q
n;CO
2
= m
CO
2
C p
CO
2
(T
CO
2
(i)
T
CO
2
( j1)
) (7)

Q
n;H
2
O
= m
H
2
O
C p
H
2
O
(T
H
2
O( j)
T
H
2
O( j1)
) (8)
Therefore, the outlet temperatures of the CO
2
and the water ows
are determined to be
T
CO
2
( j1)
= T
CO
2
( j)

Q
n;CO
2
m
CO
2
:C p
CO
2
(9)
T
H
2
O( j)
= T
H
2
O( j1)

Q
n;H
2
O
m
H
2
O
C p
H
2
O
(10)
The CO
2
geothermal heat pump system incorporates an internal
heat exchanger (IHX) which is installed between the outlet of the
gas cooler and the evaporator. Thus, the CO
2
ow at the high-
pressure side of the gas cooler is liqueed from the transcritical
state due to heat rejection through IHX and the CO
2
ow at the
low-pressure side of the evaporator becomes a superheated gas
state by heat absorption. One purpose of the internal heat
exchanger is to further cool the CO
2
ow from the gas cooler by
exchanging heat with the CO
2
owing out from the evaporator.
This increases the amount of CO
2
in liquid phase (lower quality)
owing into the evaporator, and thus increases the cooling
performance, which in turn results in increase of the COP of the
geothermal heat pump system. In this research, a countercurrent
multi-tube heat exchanger was used as an internal heat exchanger
and the performance of the internal heat exchanger was also
analyzed by section-by-section method.
The overall heat transfer coefcient (U) shown in Eq. (6) was
calculated based on the waterside and CO
2
-side heat transfer
coefcients. The Gnielinski [23] or Petukhov [24] equations were
used for estimating the CO
2
-side heat transfer coefcient at
transcritical region in the gas cooler. The Gnielinski correlation
shown in Eq. (11) is used for 2300 _ R
e
_ 10
4
.
h
i
=
( f =2)(R
e
1000)Pr
1 12:7

f =2
p
(Pr
2=3
1)

k
i
D
i
(11)
where f = (1:58ln(R
e
) 3:28)
2
.
The Petukhov correlation for 10
4
_ R
e
_ 5 10
6
is expressed as
h
i
=
( f =8)R
e
P
r
1:07 12:7

f =8
p
(Pr
2=3
1)

k
i
D
i
(12)
where f = (0.79 ln(R
e
) 1.64)
2
.
The waterside heat transfer coefcient for the gas cooler was
calculated by using the DittusBoelter correlation [25] for as
shown in Eq. (13).
h
o
=
0:023R
0:8
e
Pr
0:4
k
o
D
h
(heating) (13)
The CO
2
-side heat transfer coefcient in two-phase region at
the evaporator was estimated with the Gungor and Winterton
correlation [26] and the waterside heat transfer coefcient was
calculated by using DittusBoelter correlation expressed in
Eq. (14).
h
o
=
0:023R
0:8
e
Pr
0:3
k
o
D
h
(cooling) (14)
In the case of the internal heat exchanger, the CO
2
-side heat
transfer coefcient in high pressure was calculated with the
Gnielinski or Petukhov equations and that in low pressure was
estimated by using the DittusBoelter correlation for heating.
4. Compressor
The compressor simulation was carried out on the basis of the
loss and efciency-based compressor model [27]. The loss and
efciency-based compressor model estimates the internal energy
balances in a compressor from design, internal efciency, and heat-
loss values specied by user. A schematic diagram of the loss and
efciency compressor model is represented in Fig. 4. Ten unknown
variables shown in Fig. 4 are: (1) CO
2
mass ow rate ( m
c
), (2)
enthalpy at the suction port (h
suction port
), (3) enthalpy at the
discharge port (h
discharge port
), (4) enthalpy at the shell outlet
(h
outlet
), (5) work done on the CO
2
(

W
c
), (6) work done on the shaft
(

W
s
), (7) work input to the compressor (

W
cm
), (8) rate of heat loss
due to cooling of compressor and motor (

Q
cooling
), (9) rate of
compressor shell heat loss (

Q
can
), and (10) rate of heat transfer from
the discharge gas to the suction gas (

Q
hillo
). These ten unknowns
are iteratively calculated from the following 10 independent
equations:
Y.-J. Kim, K.-S. Chang / Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 19 (2013) 18271837 1830
v energy balance equations
(1) energy balance between the compressor shell inlet and
suction port
input = output
m
c
(h
suctionport
h
inlet
) =

Q
hilo

Q
cooling

Q
can
(15)
(2) energy balance between the suction port and discharge port
m
c
(h
discharge port
h
suctionport
) =

W
c
(16)
(3) energy balance between the discharge port and compressor
shell outlet
m
c
(h
outlet
h
discharge port
) =

Q
hilo
(17)
v seven dening equations
(4)

Q
hilo
= a
hilo

W
cm; actual
(18)
where a
hilo
is the fraction of compressor power consump-
tion transferred from the discharge line to the suction line
(specied by user or 0.03 as a default value)
(5)

Q
can
= a
can

W
cm; actual
(19)
where a
can
is the fraction of the compressor power
consumption which is rejected from the shell to the
ambient air (specied by user or 0.9 (1.0 h
motor
h
mech
))
(6)

Q
cooling
= (1 h
motor
h
mech
)

W
cm
(20)
(7) energy balance between the suction port and discharge port

W
c
=
m
c
(h
isen; discharge port
h
suction port
)
3413 h
isen
(21)
where h
isen
is the isentropic efciency based on the suction
port
(8)
h
mech
=

W
c

W
s
;

W
s
=

W
c
h
mech
(22)
(9)
h
motor
=

W
s

W
cm
;

W
cm
=

W
s
h
motor
(23)
(10) h
vol,suction port
: volumetric efciency based on the suction
port
m
c
= h
vol; suction port
D S
oper
=y
suction port
(24)
h
vol; suction port
=
m
c;actual
y
suction port
D S
oper
where D is the total compressor displacement [in
3
]; S
oper
is the
actual compressor motor speed [rpm]; y
suction port
is the
specic volume at suction port.
Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of compressor energy balance.
Y.-J. Kim, K.-S. Chang / Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 19 (2013) 18271837 1831
5. Expansion device
One important device in the geothermal heat pump cycle is the
expansion device. The purpose of the expansion device is to reduce
the pressure of the refrigerant and to control refrigerant mass ow
rate in the system. The common expansion devices widely utilized
in geothermal heat pump systems are capillary tubes, short tube
orices, thermostatic expansion valve (TXV), and electronic
expansion valve (EEV). Among the expansion devices, the EEV
genders attention recently due to a wide range of operating
condition and high capability of load control.
In this research, the electronic expansion valve was used and its
performance was evaluated with the equation given by Hwang
et al. [28]. The mass ow rate for CO
2
at the EEV can be estimated
with following equations:
p
1
= c
1
(p
2
)
c
2
(p
3
)
c3
(p
4
)
c
4
(p
5
)
c
5
(25)
Five dimensionless p-numbers and the coefcients used in this
correlation are shown in Table 2. The parameters in Table 2 are
dened as follows:
m, mass ow rate, A
t,m
, minimum area of orice, r
in
, density at
the EEV inlet, Dp, pressure drop across expansion valve, L,
effective orice length, D
m
, minimum orice diameter, D
o
,
orice diameter, p
in
, pressure at the EEV inlet, p
c
, critical
pressure of CO
2
, T
in
, temperature at the EEV inlet, T
c
, critical
temperature of CO
2
. It was reported that this empirical
correlation derived from Buckingham p-theorem predicts the
CO
2
mass ow rate through the EEV within 5.4% errors.
6. Thermodynamic performance analysis for the CO
2
geothermal heat pump cycle
6.1. Procedures for thermodynamic performance analysis
Fig. 5 shows the ow diagram for the thermodynamic
performance-analysis program developed in the present study.
The input data required to start the program are as follows: tube
diameter and length for outer and inner tubes, number of inner
tubes, ow rate and inlet temperature of water as a secondary uid,
expansion device specications, and the degree of superheat at the
inlet of the compressor. Furthermore, the performance-analysis
program requires the geometric dimensions (diameter and length)
of the pipes in the cycle in order to predict the pressure drops in the
geothermal heat pump cycle. Thermodynamic performance
analysis is based on the following assumptions:
(1) steady state operation;
(2) countercurrent ow in all type of heat exchangers;
(3) neglecting the heat loss through the heat exchangers and
expansion devices;
(4) neglecting the change of kinetic and potential energy;
(5) neglecting pressure drop of the water ow as a secondary uid.
The compressor suction and discharge pressure are assumed to
be the main iterative variables as shown in Fig. 5. Based on
assumed compressor suction and discharge pressures, the CO
2
ow
rate at the compressor and the conditions at compressor outlet are
estimated using the compressor module. The compressor inlet
conditions are also estimated by the degree of superheat given in
input datum. The gas cooler inlet conditions are calculated from
the compressor outlet conditions by considering the pressure drop
between the compressor outlet and the gas cooler inlet. And then,
the outlet conditions of the gas cooler including heat duty in the
gas cooler are estimated by using the gas cooler module on the
basis of the conditions at gas cooler inlet. Based on gas cooler outlet
and compressor inlet conditions estimated earlier, the inlet
conditions of the expansion device and the outlet conditions of
the evaporator are calculated using the internal heat exchanger
module. CO
2
ow rate in the expansion device is computed using
expansion device module and it is compared with the CO
2
ow rate
estimated at the compressor module. The compressor discharge
pressure is iteratively adjusted using Secant method until the
difference between the CO
2
ow rate at the compressor and the
CO
2
ow rate in the expansion device is within a prescribed
tolerance. After simulating the evaporator on the basis of outlet
conditions at the expansion device and evaporator specications
given as input data, the compressor suction pressure is iteratively
adjusted using Secant method until the difference between the
evaporator outlet enthalpy computed at evaporator simulation
and enthalpy estimated at internal heat exchanger simulation is
within a prescribed limit.
The output of the thermodynamic-performance program
includes the COP, the CO
2
ow rate, compressor power consump-
tion, cooling capacity in the evaporator, heating capacity in the gas
cooler, line pressure drops, etc.
7. Experimental apparatus
The experimental apparatus as shown in Fig. 6 is comprised of a
compressor, indoor and outdoor heat exchangers, an internal heat
exchanger, an expansion device, an oil separator recovering the oil
from the compressor, and accumulator located at the exit of the
evaporator. In addition, a by-pass line was installed to carry out the
comparative experiments according to the existence of the internal
heat exchanger. The specications for the CO
2
geothermal heat
pump system are summarized in Table 3. A 4-way valve was also
equipped to choose the operation mode such as cooling and
heating. As shown in Table 3, all the equipment in the cycle was
designed to withstand 40 MPa pressure and all instruments and
ttings are able to safely operate at more than 20 MPa pressure.
The temperatures, pressures, ow rates, and power consump-
tions at the important points of the cycle were measured using T-
type thermocouple probes, pressure transducers, and a mass ow
meter. The uncertainties for the instruments are estimated as
0.2% for the pressure measurements, 0.2 8C for the temperature
measurements, 0.2% for the ow measurements, and 0.01% for the
integrating W-m.
Before operating the experiment, the system was vacuumed
rst by the vacuum pump, and then proper amount of CO
2
was
charged. Optimum amount of refrigerant charge was determined
at the highest COP, and found to be 2200 g without the internal
heat exchanger and 2400 g with the internal heat exchanger. All
data were collected when they reached the steady state. After
receiving sufcient amount of data, the EEV opening was changed
for the next test condition. A set of experiments for various EEV
openings were performed, in order to analyze the thermodynamic
Table 2
Five dimensionless p-numbers and coefcients in the correlation.
p
1
p
2
p
3
p
4
p
5
m
At;m

r
in
Dp
q
L
Dm
Dm
D
0
p
in
p
e
T
in
Tc
Constant Value
C
1
1.17 10
0
C
2
3.99 10
2
C
3
7.27 10
2
C
4
3.86 10
1
C
5
4.55 10
0
Units: m (kg/s), A
t,m
(m
2
), r
in
(kg/m
3
), Dp (Pa), L (m), D
m
(m), D
o
(m), p
in
(Pa), p
c
(Pa),
T
in
(K), T
c
(K).
Y.-J. Kim, K.-S. Chang / Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 19 (2013) 18271837 1832
performance parameters of the geothermal CO
2
heat pump system
such as COP, compressor power, and the CO
2
ow rate.
Experimental test conditions are presented in Table 4. The
experimental data were collected by averaging data measured
at every 10 s for 5 min, and decided to be valid when the
uncertainties were simultaneously maintained within the limits of
range for temperatures with 0.1 8C, pressures with 5 kPa, and
ow rate with 0.2 g/s error bound.
8. Results and discussion
In the present study, thermodynamic performance character-
istics of the CO
2
geothermal heat pump were investigated using the
computer simulation. A number of case studies were carried out to
validate the simulation program. System performance character-
istics such as COP, cooling and heating capacities, CO
2
ow rates,
and compressor powers were expressed for various EEV openings
and for over a range of compressor frequencies.
In Fig. 7, simulation results are compared with experimental
data for the COP, cooling capacity, and compressor power in
cooling mode to validate the thermodynamic performance analysis
of the simulation program. The mean deviations of the COPs,
cooling capacities, and compressor powers between experimental
and simulation results are 4.5%, 3.8%, 6.5%, respectively at the 5 8C
superheated degree and 32% EEV opening. The comparison
indicated that the simulation results were in good agreement
with those from the experiment with reasonable accuracy.
Variations of COP and cooling capacity with respect to
compressor frequencies ranged from 30 Hz to 55 Hz for 4 different
EEV opening positions at 5 8C of superheated degree in cooling
mode are shown in Fig. 8, and for compressor power in Fig. 9. As
shown in Figs. 8 and 9, the cooling capacity and compressor power
increase as compressor frequency increases as generally expected.
However, the consistent linearity of the increasing rate indicates
the stable operability of the heat pump system. On the contrary,
the COP decreases upon increasing compressor frequency. In
general, the increase of compressor frequency induces an increase
of the refrigerant ow rate and pressure difference or compression
ratio. Increasing rate of high-pressure side due to frequency
increase is more noticeable than the decreasing rate of the low-
pressure side. The refrigerant ow rate increase leads to cooling
capacity increase, whereas the increase of pressure difference or
compression ratio results in required compressor power increase.
Since the increasing rate of compressor power is higher than that of
cooling capacity, the consequent calculation of COP becomes
smaller with the compressor frequency increase in most cases.
In the case of EEV opening, it was observed that the COP, cooling
capacity, and compressor power all decrease with increasing EEV
Fig. 5. Flow chart of the thermodynamic-performance analysis program.
Y.-J. Kim, K.-S. Chang / Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 19 (2013) 18271837 1833
opening. The CO
2
inlet temperature at the evaporator increases
with increasing EEV opening and the heat exchanging rate is
reduced due to the decrease in the inlet temperature difference
between CO
2
and secondary uid of water. On the other hand, CO
2
ow rate increases with the increase of EEV opening, and
consequently cooling capacity increases with the increase of ow
rate. For the just given operating conditions in this study, these
combined effects result in the decrease of the COP and cooling
capacity with increasing EEV opening.
Fig. 10 shows variations of CO
2
ow rate with respect to
compressor frequency and EEV opening at the 5 8C superheated
degree in cooling mode. As seen in Fig. 10, CO
2
ow rate increases
with increasing compressor frequency and EEV opening. As
explained earlier, CO
2
ow rates increase with the increase of
compressor frequency and EEV opening due to expansion of the
throat area of EEV.
Variation of COP with respect to superheated degree and
compressor frequency at 20% EEV opening in cooling mode is
represented in Fig. 11. It is indicated that the COP decreases
linearly with respect to the increment of the superheated degree in
the range of 39 8C when EEV opening is kept at a value of 20%. This
can be interpreted from the fact that COPs of the cycle are reduced
because compressor power increases more rapidly than cooling
capacity with an increase in the superheated degree.
Fig. 12 represents the comparison of COPs of the system with an
IHX (internal heat exchanger) and a basic cycle without the IHX.
Fig. 6. Schematic diagram of experimental apparatus.
Table 3
Specications of the geothermal heat pump system.
Compressor Rotary type
Maximum pressure: 45 MPa
Power requirement: 10.5 kW
Frequency response: 3070 Hz
Expansion valve Maximum pressure: 40 MPa
Allowable ow rate: 0100 g/s
4-way valve Maximum pressure: 40 MPa
Heat exchangers Types Outer tube Inner tube Path
OD/thickness (mm) OD/thickness (mm) No. No. L (m)
Outdoor exchanger Multitube 25.4/1.2 4/0.5 8 2 1.7
Indoor exchanger Multitube 19.05/1.2 4/0.5 8 2 1.65
Internal exchanger Multitube 19.05/1.2 4/0.5 8 2 1
Table 4
Test conditions for the geothermal heat pump system.
Test conditions Operation
Cooling Heating
Compressor freq. (Hz) 3060
Compressor (rpm) 18003600
CO
2
charge (g) 18002400
EEV opening (%) 1050
Water inlet temperature at the evaporator (8C) 17 12
Water ow rate at the evaporator (kg/s) 0.283 0.217
Water inlet temperature at the gas cooler (8C) 25 30
Water ow rate at the gas cooler (kg/s) 0.333 0.283
Y.-J. Kim, K.-S. Chang / Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 19 (2013) 18271837 1834
The comparison was carried out at 20% EEV opening for the cycle
with IHX and 32% EEV opening without IHX on the basis of
optimum conditions determined by the experiments. Optimum
EEV opening condition was achieved with the use of optimum
refrigerant charge and at optimum cycle condition in which
approximately 5 8C of superheated degree was reached. When IHX
is installed, the system volume (or refrigerant charge) increases,
but the temperature (or specic volume) of CO
2
at the gas cooler
exit decreases due to heat loss through IHX, which in turn together
causes the increase of CO
2
ow rate. The optimum CO
2
charge and
EEV opening were founded to be 2400 g and 20% for the system
with IHX, and 2200 g and 32% without IHX, respectively. As seen in
Fig. 12, COPs of the cycle with IHX are 26% higher than those of
basic cycle for all compressor frequency range of 3055 Hz.
The COP, heating capacity and compressor power with respect
to variation of compressor frequency for 14% and 20% EEV openings
at the 5 8C superheated degree are shown in Figs. 13 and 14,
respectively. Both of the compressor power and heating capacity
increase with respect to the increase of compressor frequency as
presented in Figs. 13 and 14. Heating capacity at the gas cooler
increases with the increase of CO
2
ow rate resulted from the
increase in compressor frequency. However, COPs decrease with
compressor frequency because the rate of compressor power
increase is steeper than that of heating capacity increase. The COPs
were in the range of 2.913.26 for 14% EEV opening and 2.722.9
for 20% EEV opening. As mentioned earlier in cooling mode, the CO
2
4
5
6
7
8
9
2.0
2.2
2.4
2.6
2.8
3.0
3.2
3.4
3.6
3.8
4.0
4.2
4.4
25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
C
O
P
c
o
o
l
i
n
g
Compressor frequency[Hz]
C
o
o
l
i
n
g

c
a
p
a
c
i
t
y

[
k
W
]







COP_cooling
Cooling capacity
30%
34%
40%
24%
EEV opening
24%
30%
34%
40%
Superheated degree: 5

C
Fig. 8. Variation of COP
cooling
and cooling capacity for compressor frequency
(cooling, superheated degree: 5 8C).
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2.0
2.2
2.4
2.6
2.8
3.0
25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
C
o
m
p
r
e
s
s
o
r

p
o
w
e
r

[
k
W
]
Compressor frequency[Hz]
EEV opening 24%
EEV opening 30%
EEV opening 34%
EEV opening 40%
Superheated degree: 5C
Fig. 9. Variation of compressor power for compressor frequency (cooling,
superheated degree: 5 8C).
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.07
0.08
25 30 35 40 45 50 55
C
O
2

f
l
o
w

r
a
t
e

[
K
g
/
s
]
Compressor frequency[Hz]
EEV 24%
EEV 28%
EEV 32%
EEV 40%
Superheated degree: 5C
Fig. 10. CO
2
ow rate with EEV opening and compressor frequency (cooling,
superheated degree: 5 8C).
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
25 30 35 40 45 50
C
O
P
c
o
o
l
i
n
g
Compressor frequency[Hz]
C
o
o
l
i
n
g

c
a
p
a
c
i
t
y

&

P
o
w
e
r
[
k
W
]
COP_cooling(sim)
COP_cooling(exp)
Compressor power(sim)
Compressor power(exp)
Cooling capacity(sim)
Cooling capacity(exp)
EEV opening: 32%
Superheated degree: 5C
Fig. 7. Comparison between experimental and simulation results for compressor
frequency (cooling, superheated degree: 5 8C, EEV opening: 32%).
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
C
O
P
c
o
o
l
i
n
g
Compressor frequency[Hz]
3C
5C
7C
9C
EEV opening: 20%
Superheated degree
Fig. 11. Variation of COP
cooling
for superheated degree and compressor frequency
(EEV opening: 20%).
Y.-J. Kim, K.-S. Chang / Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 19 (2013) 18271837 1835
inlet temperature at the evaporator just after the EEV increases
with increasing EEV opening, so that the heating capacity is
decreased due to the increase of the inlet temperature difference
between CO
2
and water. However, in the case of heating mode,
compressor power was kept almost constant as the EEV opening
increased. As a result, the COPs were reduced as the EEV opening
increased.
The CO
2
ow rate as a function of various EEV openings and
compressor frequencies at the 5 8C superheated degree in heating
mode is represented in Fig. 15. As shown in Fig. 15, the CO
2
ow
rate has a tendency to increase as the compressor frequency and
EEV opening increase.
Fig. 16 shows variation of COPs with respect to superheated
degree and compressor frequency at the 16% EEV opening in
heating mode. The COPs in heating mode decrease as the
superheated degree increases in the range of 39 8C due to the
same reason mentioned for cooling mode. However, COPs in
heating mode more steeply decrease than the case of cooling mode
with the increase of compressor frequencies.
Fig. 17 indicates the comparison of COPs as a function of
compressor frequency for the cycle with IHX (internal heat
exchanger) and a basic cycle without IHX in heating mode. The
22% EEV opening was determined to be optimum value for the
basic cycle and 16% EEV opening for the cycle with the IHX in
heating mode. In contrast to the cooling mode, the COPs of the
heating cycle with the IHX were slightly smaller than those of basic
cycle at all compressor frequencies (1.32.4% smaller with IHX in
the frequency range of 3055 Hz). With the use of IHX, the heating
capacity increases due to the decrease of CO
2
quality at the
evaporator inlet resulting from the lowered temperature of CO
2
leaving from the gas cooler. On the contrary, the heating capacity
2.5
2.7
2.9
3.1
3.3
3.5
3.7
3.9
4.1
4.3
4.5
25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
C
O
P
c
o
o
l
i
n
g
Compressor frequency[Hz]
no internal heat exchanger
with internal heat exchanger
(EEV opening : 32%)
(EEV opening : 20%)
Fig. 12. Cooling performance with compressor frequency for IHX.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1.8
2.0
2.2
2.4
2.6
2.8
3.0
3.2
3.4
3.6
3.8
25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
C
O
P
h
e
a
t
i
n
g
Compressor frequency[Hz]
H
e
a
t
i
n
g

c
a
p
a
c
i
t
y

&

P
o
w
e
r
[
k
W
]
COP_heating
Heating capacity
Compressor power
EEV opening: 14%
Superheated degree: 5C
Fig. 13. Variation of COP
heating
, heating capacity and compressor power for
compressor frequency (heating, superheated degree: 5 8C, EEV opening: 14%).
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
2.5
2.6
2.7
2.8
2.9
3.0
25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
C
O
P
h
e
a
t
i
n
g
Compressor frequency[Hz]
H
e
a
t
i
n
g

c
a
p
a
c
i
t
y

&

P
o
w
e
r
[
k
W
]
COP_heating
Heating capacity
Compressor power
EEV opening 20%
Superheated degree: 5C
Fig. 14. Variation of COP
heating
, heating capacity and compressor power for
compressor frequency (heating, superheated degree: 5 8C, EEV opening: 20%).
0.02
0.025
0.03
0.035
0.04
0.045
0.05
25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
C
O
2

f
l
o
w

r
a
t
e

[
K
g
/
s
]
Compressor frequency[Hz]
EEV 16%
EEV 20%
EEV 24%
EEV 28%
Superheated degree: 5C
Fig. 15. CO
2
ow rate with EEV opening and compressor frequency (heating,
superheated degree: 5 8C).
2.7
2.8
2.9
3
3.1
3.2
3.3
25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
C
O
P
h
e
a
t
i
n
g
Compressor frequency[Hz]
3C
5C
7C
9C
EEV opening: 16%
Superheated degree
Fig. 16. Variation of COP
heating
for superheated degree and compressor frequency
(EEV opening: 16%).
Y.-J. Kim, K.-S. Chang / Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 19 (2013) 18271837 1836
decreases with the decrease of CO
2
ow rate due to the reduction of
the EEV opening from 22% without IHX to 16% with IHX. As a result,
the heating capacity increases by about 8.7% with the use of IHX,
whereas the required compression power increases by about 10.6%
due to the increase of the compressor outlet pressure resulted from
the reduction of EEV opening. In overall, it was founded that the
use of IHX in heating mode is not helpful to increase the COP of the
CO
2
geothermal heat pump system.
9. Conclusions
In the present study, a thermodynamic-performance analysis
program for CO
2
geothermal heat pump system incorporating the
internal heat exchanger was developed. It consists of several
subroutines for modeling an evaporator, gas cooler, internal heat
exchanger, compressor, and electronic expansion valve and
estimating the thermodynamic and transport properties of CO
2
and water. This program can be used to simulate the steady-state
thermodynamic performances of CO
2
geothermal heat pump system
such as COP, heating and cooling capacity, power consumption, etc.
A number of case studies were carried out in order to validate the
thermodynamic analysis program and the simulation results were
compared with the experimental results. It was found that this
program may be highly advantageous to save time and to reduce the
risk, which may take place in experiment. This simulation program is
intended to serve as a useful tool for a thermodynamic performance
analysis when optimizing complex system variables and establish-
ing efcient operating conditions in the CO
2
geothermal heat pump
systems. In the future the capabilities of this program will be more
improved for geothermal heat pump systems using natural
refrigerants such as ammonia and hydrocarbons. The following
important results were obtained in this study:
(1) e-N
tu
method was used for simulating the heat exchangers such
as the evaporator, gas cooler, and internal heat exchanger.
(2) The compressor simulation was carried out on the basis of the
loss and efciency-based compressor model which estimates
the internal energy balances in a compressor from design,
internal efciency, and heat-loss values specied by user.
(3) The performance of the electronic expansion valve was
evaluated with the empirical equation derived from Bucking-
ham p-theorem.
(4) The mean deviations of the COPs, cooling capacities, and
compressor powers between experimental and simulation
results are 4.5%, 3.8%, 6.5%, respectively. The comparison
indicated that the simulation results were in agreement with
those from the experiment with reasonable accuracy.
(5) It was found that the COPs of the cycle with the IHX were
improved than those of the basic cycle by 26% in cooling
mode.
(6) In contrast with the cooling mode, the COPs of the heating
cycle with the IHX were slightly smaller than those of basic
cycle. It indicated that the use of IHX in heating mode has no
effect to increase the COP of the CO
2
geothermal heat pump
system.
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2.5
2.6
2.7
2.8
2.9
3
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
C
O
P
h
e
a
t
i
n
g
Compressor frequency[Hz]
no internal heat exchanger
with internal heat exchanger
(EEV opening : 22%)
(EEV opening :
Fig. 17. Heating performance with compressor frequency for IHX.
Y.-J. Kim, K.-S. Chang / Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 19 (2013) 18271837 1837