Applied Energy 203 (2017) 657–676

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Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

A review of fishing vessel refrigeration systems driven by exhaust heat

from engines
Xu Xiangguo a,b, Li Yishu a,b, Yang ShenYin c, Chen Guangming a,b,⇑
a
Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
b
Key Laboratory of Refrigeration and Cryogenic Technology of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, China
c
Beijing Institute of Aerospace Testing Technology, Beijing, China

h i g h l i g h t s

Application of heat driven refrigeration systems to fishing vessel is reviewed.

Techniques for improving efficiency and stability for onboard application are detailed.

In addition to three basic types of systems, hybrid system is also introduced.

An overall table to summarize and compare the features of various systems is provided.

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

Article history: For a fishing vessel, its diesel engine’s energy efficiency is only at 35–40%, with more than half of the
Received 29 December 2016 energy being wasted as exhaust heat taken away by jacket water, cooling air and exhaust gas. Fishing ves-
Received in revised form 28 May 2017 sel refrigeration systems driven by the exhaust heat from engines can therefore help achieve energy sav-
Accepted 11 June 2017
ing. However, to improve the COP/EER of these heat driven refrigeration systems and to ensure their
Available online 1 July 2017
operational stability under severe conditions on ocean are of challenges. In this paper, the progress
and prospect of utilizing three different kinds of heat driven fishing vessel refrigeration systems, i.e.,
Keywords:
adsorption refrigeration system, absorption refrigeration system and ejection refrigeration system, are
Fishing vessel
Exhaust heat
reviewed with a special focus on the techniques for improving system efficiency and stability. A hybrid
Adsorption heat driven refrigeration system, which combines merits of different types of systems, is then introduced.
Absorption A summary table is provided to summarize and compare the features of adsorption refrigeration systems,
Ejection absorption refrigeration systems and ejection refrigeration systems used in fishing vessels, followed by
Review conclusions and suggestions for future works.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 658
2. Adsorption refrigeration systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 658
2.1. Principles and related research works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 658
2.2. Applications of adsorption refrigeration system to fishing vessels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659
3. Absorption refrigeration systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662
3.1. Principles and related research works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662
3.2. Applications of absorption refrigeration systems to fishing vessels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663
4. Ejector refrigeration systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 664
4.1. Principles and related research works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 664
4.2. Applications of ejector refrigeration systems to fishing vessels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666
5. Hybrid refrigeration system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666
5.1. Related research works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666

⇑ Corresponding author at: Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
E-mail address: gmchen@zju.edu.cn (G. Chen).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.06.019
0306-2619/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
658
5.2. Applications of hybrid refrigeration systems to fishing vessels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6. Discussions and conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Acknowledgement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1. Introduction
According to the data from 2011 Statistical Yearbook of Ocean
and Fishery of China [1], the number of fishing vessels in China
was 1.06 million, and a total of 7.9 million tons of diesel oil per
year was consumed, taking 70% of the total fishery cost [2]. In addi-
tion to powering vessel engines, much energy was also used to
drive vapor compression refrigeration systems for ice making and
air conditioning. Ice is extensively used for preserving fishery har-
vested [3–6] because an ambient temperature from 1 °C to 0 °C is
the best for preventing both bacteria growth and low temperature
damage to the freshness of fishery harvested. Generally one ton of
fish would require 1.5–2.0 tons of ice, leading to a huge demand for
ice during a fishing trip.
In a traditional way, ice was made in ice-making factories
beforehand and loaded into the vessels. It was then chipped using
a machine when there was a requirement for preserving. A large
space would be required by ice storage and the preserving of ice
itself was also a problem. Therefore, on-board ice making machines
driven by electricity produced by vessel engine were invented and
became a standard piece of equipment for large-scale fishing ves-
sels [6,7]. Equipping an ice making machine could save some vessel
space, reduce the cost for buying ice and, more importantly, extend
cruising period which was dependent on the preservation time of
ice. However, the use of an ice-making machine also increased
energy consumption and the load for a fishing vessel engine.
On the other hand, also illustrated by the data from 2011 Statis-
tical Yearbook of Ocean and Fishery of China [1], among all the
fishing vessels, 0.297 million of them were motor fishing vessels
and more than 85% of all were small scale wooden fishing boats.
90% of fishing vessels were more than 5 years old and 40% of all
than 10 years old. The aging of a fishing vessel certainly led to a
low energy efficiency of its engine and thus a high fuel consump-
tion, which is becoming the biggest obstacle in the modernization
of fishery industry [8–10]. Researches suggested that a diesel
engine’s energy efficiency was normally at 35–40% [11–15], with
more than half of the energy being wasted as exhaust heat taken
away by jacket water, cooling air and exhaust gas. Therefore,
recovering the energy from the exhaust heat can be effective for
reducing energy use in fishing vessels.
It has been proposed to use the exhaust heat from a fishing ves-
sel engine for direct heating [16–18], producing electricity [19,20],
desalinating sea water [21,22], charging turbos [23–25] and oper-
ating refrigeration systems [26–28]. As pointed out by Shu et al.
[29], due to their unique characteristics and application tempera-
ture ranges, different waste heat recovery techniques may be
selected based on both the requirements of normal daily routines
and the availability of heat sources aboard a fishing ship. A heat
driven refrigeration system normally require a medium tempera-
ture heat source at as low as 70 °C, thus having a high potential
to be combined with other techniques for the maximization of
energy recovery efficiency. For example, after being applied to a
turbocharger, the temperature of exhaust gas is still high enough
to operate a refrigerating system, then the exhaust heat from the
refrigeration system can be used for heating water for daily use
[16,18].
Due to the facts mentioned earlier, the use of refrigeration
systems driven by exhaust heat from engines for ice making,
X. Xu et al. / Applied Energy 203 (2017) 657–676
669
669
673
673
refrigerating and air conditioning in fishing vessels can help
achieve energy saving. Currently available heat driven refrigeration
systems could be classified into three types, i.e., an adsorption
refrigeration system, an absorption refrigeration system and an
ejection refrigeration system. All of them could utilize low-grade
heat energy. The consumption of electricity, which is normally
regarded as a type of high-grade energy for operating vapor com-
pression refrigeration systems, can be reduced. Furthermore, the
working fluid used in a heat driven refrigeration system is more
environmentally friendly than that used in a vapor compression
refrigeration system, such as CFCs and HCFCs. In order to promote
the use of heat driven refrigeration systems, lots of studies related
to applying heat driven refrigeration systems have been carried
out. However, due to the severe operating conditions that various
heat driven refrigeration systems have to face on ocean and their
different operational principles and system characteristics, appli-
cations of these heat driven refrigeration systems to fishing vessels
would result in different challenges.
In this paper, for each of the three types of heat driven refriger-
ation systems, its fundamentals are firstly presented. Related
researches, where heat sources other than exhaust heat from fish-
ing vessel engines were used to operate refrigeration systems, are
then reviewed to provide references for the research trends and
possible further improvements of heat driven refrigeration sys-
tems applied to fishing vessels. Thirdly, applications of heat driven
refrigeration systems to fishing vessels are extensively reviewed,
focusing on the techniques for improving the operational efficiency
and ensuring their operational stability under severe conditions on
ocean. Finally, hybrid heat driven refrigeration systems which
combine merits of different types refrigeration systems are intro-
duced, followed by conclusions and suggestions for future works.
2. Adsorption refrigeration systems
2.1. Principles and related research works
An adsorption refrigeration cycle is a power conversion system
driven by heat. It uses adsorption couples, one acting as adsorbent
and the other as adsorbate and also refrigerant, as its working
media. A basic adsorption cooling system mainly consists of a sorp-
tion chamber (ad- and desorber) as a thermal compressor, a con-
denser, an evaporator and a throttle value, as shown in Fig. 1
[30]. Initially, the refrigerant is adsorbed by the adsorbent inside
the sorption chamber, which is alternately heated and cooled dur-
ing the operation of an adsorption refrigeration system. When the
sorption chamber is heated, the desorption procedure occurs. The
input heat separates refrigerant from adsorbent and refrigerant
vapor flows into the condenser. The refrigerant vapor aggregation
in the condenser leads to a high pressure and the refrigerant is con-
densed after releasing its heat to the coolant in the condenser.
Then the high pressure liquid expands to low temperature and
low pressure two-phase flow through the throttle valve and pro-
vides cooling in the evaporator through evaporation. When the
sorption chamber is cooled, the pressure drops down and refriger-
ant vapor at a low temperature and low pressure coming from the
evaporator flows into the sorption chamber and would be
adsorbed by the adsorbent. Cooling water removes the heat of
adsorption through a heat exchanger in the sorption chamber. By
 X. Xu et al. / Applied Energy 203 (2017) 657–676
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of an adsorption cooling system [30].
such a two-step adsorption and desorption process, the refrigerant
could be circulated inside an adsorption refrigeration system, con-
tinuously providing cooling.
An adsorption refrigeration system does not require high-grade
energy. Therefore, low-grade energy sources such as industrial
exhaust heat, solar energy, exhaust heat from vehicle engines or
geothermal energy, could be utilized for driving an adsorption
refrigeration system. However, an adsorption refrigeration sys-
tem’s energy efficiency is relatively low. Its COP normally ranges
from 0.1 to 0.6 [31–33]. The effectiveness of the Ad-/Desorption
process is responsible for the operating performances of the entire
system. To improve its energy efficiency, efforts have been put into
finding effective working couples [34–36]. The prevalent working
couples are: zeolite-water, silicone-water, activated carbon-
methanol, metal hydride-hydrogen and chloride salts-ammonia
[37]. Analysis and modeling on the Ad-/Desorption process of dif-
ferent working couples, such as water and ethanol with zeolite
[38], methane and carbon dioxide with activated carbon [39],
water with CaCl2-in-silica gel [40], water with activated carbon
based composite adsorbent [41] and water with composite mate-
rial (zeolite 13X/CaCl2) [42], were carried out to better understand
their heat and mass transfer characteristics.
Studies were also conducted to enhance adsorption beds’ heat
transfer performances [31,43–46]. Among these studies, Eun
et al. [43] proposed to use composite blocks with silica-expanded
graphite to improve the heat and mass transfer for a cylindrical
adsorption bed. It was pointed out that the radial distribution of
temperature and the axial profile of temperature were affected
by heat and mass transfer, respectively. By utilizing the composite
blocks, the heat and mass transfer and the performance of the
adsorption system were enhanced compared to that of a pure silica
gel packed bed. Wang et al. [44] focused on improving both heat
transfer and mass transfer by utilizing expanded graphite in the
chemisorption beds to make a better use of low-grade thermal
energy at 60–150 °C. They also proposed a novel design of rising
film evaporation coupled with gravity heat pipe for high cooling
output.
In addition to experimental investigations, Yang [45] numeri-
cally investigated the heat and mass transfer process considering
the actual non-equilibrium adsorption processes in an adsorbent
bed. The relationships among various operational parameters, such
as coefficient of performance (COP), specific cooling power (SCP),
adsorption temperature, adsorption velocity, adsorption quantity,
659
desorption temperature, desorption velocity, desorption quantity,
and time were discussed for both cooling and heating absorbent
beds. Moreover, a peak value for adsorption and desorption veloc-
ity and a peak value for SCP in the adsorption processes were
found. By utilizing the local volume averaging method, Solmus
et al. [46] numerically investigated the influence of certain design
parameters, for example, adsorbent particle diameter, adsorbent
bed thickness, absorbent bed total porosity and solid phase ther-
mal conductivity on the transient distribution of temperature,
pressure and adsorbed mass in an adsorbent bed. A non-
equilibrium thermal model was developed and the simulation
results indicated that reducing the transfer resistances of heat
and intra-particle (interior) mass transfer would be more effective
than reducing the resistances of inter-particle (exterior) mass
transfer for improving the performance of adsorbent beds.
Furthermore, since an Ad-/Desorption process is intermittent,
continuous operation of an absorption system requires multiple
adsorbent beds. Therefore, in addition to the common one-staged
two-bed systems, new system cycles were developed, such as a
two-staged four-bed cycle [47], to improve the COP of system or
utilize very low driving temperatures.
2.2. Applications of adsorption refrigeration system to fishing vessels
Applying an adsorption refrigeration system to fishing vessels
to utilize exhaust heat from engines for energy saving not only
faces the challenge of improving energy efficiency to make it eco-
nomically viable, but also has to ensure its operational stability
under the severe condition of ocean.
A medium-size prototype of an adsorption chiller utilizing
zeolite-water as working pairs was made by Zhu et al. in 1992
[48]. The proto type was an early attempt of utilizing the exhaust
heat from engine, for preserving aquatic products in a fishing ves-
sel. Preliminary operating performances of the prototype with an
associated diesel engine were obtained through laboratory tests.
In 1997, a laboratory prototype of an adsorption refrigeration sys-
tem powered by waste heat was made using new working pairs of
activated monolithic carbon-ammonia [49]. Both simulation and
experimental results were provided with an evaporating tempera-
ture varying from 20 °C to 0 °C and condensing temperature
varying from 20 °C to 45 °C, respectively, corresponding to an ice
maker operating conditions for tropical use, and a COP of 0.12
was achieved. With the evolution of techniques of adopting an
660 X. Xu et al. / Applied Energy 203 (2017) 657–676
adsorption refrigerator to produce ice [50–52], the use of adsorp-
tion ice-makers driven by exhaust heat for fish vessels became
commercially available [53].
Ongoing studies have been carried out to enhance the energy
performance of adsorption ice-making machines. In 2003, Wang
et al. [54] used activated carbon-methanol as working pairs for a
prototype of an adsorption ice-making machine and obtained a
mean COP of 0.18, as shown in Fig. 2. The design was focused on
its adsorber containing adsorbent blocks which were made of acti-
vated carbon mixed by a binder and copper finned tubes to
improve heat transfer. Experimental results validated its applica-
bility for ice making. Furthermore, a prototype of a two-bed
adsorptive ice-making machine, was also developed for onboard
adsorption refrigeration in fishing boats with the ability of produc-
ing 18–20 kg h1 of flake ice at a mean temperature of 7 °C.
Wang et al. carried out research studies [55–57] to optimize the
working pair and adsorber for fishing vessels’ adsorption ice mak-
ers. There were three kinds of adsorption ice makers, with different
adsorption pairs, activated carbon–methanol, CaCl2–NH3 and com-
pound adsorbent (made by CaCl2 and activated carbon)-NH3,
respectively. The energy performances, advantages and disadvan-
tages of the three types of ice makers were compared [55]. Using
ammonia as refrigerant, the operating performances of an ice
maker using three different adsorbents, CaCl2 with different expan-
sion space, simple compound adsorbent and solidified compound
adsorbent made of CaCl2 and activated carbon, respectively, were
also tested [56]. Among these adsorbents, the solidified compound
adsorbent was found to have the smallest size and stabilize with-
out deterioration. And a new type of heat pipe adsorber was devel-
oped to avoid the direct contact and corresponding incompatibility
between seawater, steel, ammonia and copper [57].
Similarly, utilizing ammonia as adsorbate, the adsorption per-
formances and thermal conductivity of three kinds of adsorbents,
Fig. 2. Adsorption ice-maker developed by SJTU [54].
i.e., pure CaCl2 powder, simple composite adsorbent and consoli-
dated composite adsorbent, were compared by Wang et al. [58].
In 2006, Wang et al. [59] experimentally examined the perfor-
mance of another working pair – methanol and solidified activated
carbon, which could be properly deployed in both a refrigeration
system and an ice maker powered by exhaust heat from the engine
onboard.
Recently, among a number of studies [60–65] of developing
novel sorbents, an adsorbent of ammonia working with BaCl2 + -
BaBr2 binary salt system inside vermiculite pores was proposed
for an adsorption ice-making cooling cycle [64]. Theoretical results
implied that the maximum cooling power realized at a short sorp-
tion cycle using this adsorbent was assessed at 1.2 kW/kg with
2 kg/(kg h) (2 kg ice per kg adsorbent per hour) rate of ice produc-
tion. Such promising estimated outputs demonstrated encouraging
opportunities of a target-oriented design of adsorbent with prede-
termined properties matching the particular conditions of an
adsorptive cooling cycle [64].
In addition to the optimization of working pairs, it was demon-
strated innovation of heat management was an effective way to
save energy, by enhancing an adsorption refrigeration system’s
COP (coefficient of performance) and SCP (specific cooling power).
Researches showed that the utilization of split heat pipes could
both benefit the performances of an adsorption system, by enhanc-
ing the efficiency of the heat transfer between heat source and an
adsorber, and avoid the direct contact between them to prevent
corrosion, especially when the heat source was sea water or
exhaust gas [31,66–70]. For example, a multifunctional adsorption
ice maker of heat pipe type was proposed by Li et al. [66]. Experi-
mental results showed a 68.7% improvement in COP, when com-
pared to that of a traditional adsorption cycle [66].
Wang et al. [69] developed three kinds of heat pipe type adsorp-
tion systems with heat and mass recovery, one thermosiphon
adsorber and the other two split heat pipe adsorption systems.
Fig. 3 shows the working process of one of the two split heat pipe
adsorption systems. In this system, compound sorbent CaCl2/acti-
vated carbon-ammonia pair was employed. Between two adsor-
bent beds, multifunctional heat pipes performed cooling, heating
and heat recovery. During a desorption process, an exhaust heat
device served as an evaporator and the adsorber as a condenser,
while the adsorber worked as an evaporator and the cooler worked
as a condenser in the adsorption part, and the high temperature
bed as an evaporator and the low temperature bed as a condenser
during heat recovery process. Wang et al. [70] further investigated
the same system previously studied in [69], and its working pro-
cess is shown in Fig. 4. Similarly, it was proposed by Wang et al.
[71] to use compound sorbent CaCl2/activated carbon-ammonia
pair in an adsorption chiller, which had a novel design of double
heat pipe adsorber. One heat pipe was used to heat the adsorber
at desorption phase and the other to cool the adsorber at adsorp-
tion phase.
It is worth mentioning that a review on adsorption ice product-
ing systems driven by low-grade heat was recently published by
Sah et al. [72]. One section of the review focused on the technolo-
gies of adsorption ice making systems powered by waste heat.
However, all the eight papers reviewed in that section were pub-
lished prior to 2008. What could enrich current review is that a
reviewed on a spilt heat pipe type ice maker powered by exhaust
heat from engine onboard to produce 1032 kg ice per day with
low power consumption was included. Methanol, acetone and
water worked as heat pipe media were compared under unsteady
heating source. It was also pointed out that a further advantage of
using spilt heat pipe was to enhance volume cooling density to
reduce the volume of system.
Although lots of research work have been conducted on improv-
ing the laboratory based adsorption refrigeration systems’
 X. Xu et al. / Applied Energy 203 (2017) 657–676 661

Fig. 3. Working process of a split heat pipe type adsorber [69].

Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of a multifunction heat pipe adsorption ice maker [70].

Fig. 6. Ice-maker installed on the fishing boat [73].

Fig. 5. Experimental rigs of an adsorption ice-maker on the coast [73].

performance, only a few field tests to examine the long term oper-
ational stability of adsorption refrigeration systems under the sev-
ere condition of ocean were carried out. Zhou [73] developed an
adsorption ice-maker which used exhaust heat from engine, as
shown in Fig. 5, and installed it in a fishing boat, as shown in
Fig. 6, for a 6-month long field test to examine its operational sta-
bility. The sloshing and vibration caused by ocean waves may
influence the circulation of refrigerant and the interaction between
adsorbent and adsorbate. However, the deterioration in system
performance could be limited by using both a compact structure
of adsorber and a solid adsorbent. Field test results showed that
both the mechanical and electrical components in the ice-maker
662 X. Xu et al. / Applied Energy 203 (2017) 657–676
could function normally during the test, ensuring a stable perfor-
mance. During the field tests, the average cooling capacity of was
79.6% of its theoretical cooling capacity. It was suggested that fur-
ther researches should be carried out to investigate how the sys-
tem performance and utilization efficiency of exhaust heat were
influenced by the adsorption temperature, pressure and the
adsorption rate, when the ice-maker is actually applied to fishing
vessels.
In 2016, Lu et al. [74] built and tested three generations of fish-
ing vessels sorption refrigerators. They managed to solve the prob-
lems of corrosion caused by seawater cooling and that of
performance degradation due to fishing boats’ shaking by using
small-channel heat exchanger. The first and second generations
were of adsorption type, and the third generation was designed
as an absorption system, having the highest COP and refrigeration
capacity per unit volume among three generations.
3. Absorption refrigeration systems
Apart from adsorption refrigeration systems, absorption refrig-
eration systems may also be applied to fishing vessels and the
review of their applications to fishing vessels are reported in this
section.
3.1. Principles and related research works
A basic absorption refrigeration cycle consists of a refrigerant
loop and a solution loop as shown in Fig. 7 [75]. The solution cycle
loop, which includes an absorber, a generator, a solution pump and
a solution throttle valve, acts as a thermal compressor. The absor-
bent used in the solution loop has a strong absorbability to the
refrigerant and could absorb the refrigerant vapor coming from
the evaporator, which is characterized by a low temperature and
a low pressure. After absorbing the refrigerant vapor in absorber
and dissipating absorption’s heat to a cooling medium, the absor-
bent becomes a weak solution and is then pumped to the genera-
tor. Inside the generator, the solution is heated and the refrigerant
with a lower boiling point is boiled, thus a high temperature and
high pressure refrigerant vapor will be separated from the absor-
bent, and supplied to the condenser. On the other hand, after
releasing the refrigerant, the absorbent becomes a strong solution
again and is sent back to the absorber through throttle valve by the
difference between the pressures in generator and in absorber. By
Fig. 7. Schematic diagram of an absorption refrigeration cycle [75].
the solution loop, the refrigerant vapor could be continuously com-
pressed, thus cooling capacity could be continuously provided in
the refrigerant loop. Furthermore, the basic absorption refrigera-
tion loop provides flexibility for modification to enhance the sys-
tem performance. The simplest way is to add a heat exchanger of
solution between the absorber and generator, thus strong solu-
tion’s heat could be recovered to preheat the weak solution.
Researches on enhancing the performance of an absorption
refrigeration system focus on two aspects. One is to find a proper
pair of working fluid (absorbent and refrigerant). According to a
survey on absorption fluids carried out in 1988, there were 200
absorbent compounds and 40 refrigerant compounds available
[75]. The works for finding new absorption refrigeration working
pairs are ongoing [76–78]. The other is to design a novel structure
of an absorption refrigeration cycle that has higher COP or a lower
requirement on heat source grade. As previously mentioned,
installing a heat exchanger of solution between absorber and gen-
erator could reduce the amount of heat required by the generator,
therefor, the COP could be increased. However, the direct heat
exchange between hot strong solution and cold weak solution
across a large temperature difference would have a large irre-
versibility. To minimize the temperature difference between
strong solution and weak solution, a GAX (Generator-absorber-
exchanger) absorption refrigeration cycle was developed in 1911
[79] by utilizing the hot absorbent solution leaving the generator
to pre-heat generator’s colder section, and the cold solution leaving
the absorber to pre-cool absorber’s hotter section. Such a system
was further modified by others. For example, a GAX-R (Genera
tor-absorber-exchanger-Resorption) absorption cycle was ana-
lyzed in 2004 [80]. The cycle was theoretically proved to be more
beneficial than a single effect vapor absorption and vapor resorp-
tion cycle, as reflected by an increased in COP. However, the heat
source needed shall be at a higher grade.
The COP of single-effect absorption refrigeration systems are
less than unity because energy added in the generator is normally
larger than the cooling capacity provided in evaporation at all
times. This evoked the development of multi-effect absorption
refrigeration system. The prototype of double-effect unit was
firstly introduced in 1956–58 by Southwest Research Institute
[81]. The schematic diagram of a double-effect absorption system
is shown in Fig. 8 [82]. After leaving the first generator, the super-
heated refrigerant was used to produce additional refrigerant as a
heat source in the second generator whose pressure was lower
than that in the first generator. A higher COP could be achieved
since more refrigerant vapor was produced. However, the disad-
vantages were still the requirement for higher heat source temper-
ature and more complex system structure.
To utilize low grade heat, which could be more easily provided
by solar energy or exhaust gas, absorption refrigeration system
was configured in stages. In 1982, Alefeld presented the principles
of multistage absorption machines’ design [83]. The flowchart of a
double-stage absorption refrigeration system is shown in Fig. 9
[84]. It is divided into two stages, i.e., a high and a low pressure
stage. Both stages contain an absorber, a generator and a heat
exchanger. Test results have suggested that such a double-stage
absorption system could be powered by hot water varying from
60 to 75 °C, which was relatively at a low temperature [84]. How-
ever, the COP of a double-stage system would be lower than a con-
ventional single-stage system [85].
Based on these early efforts for absorption cycle design, novel
system structures and cycles have been emerging with the devel-
opment of absorption refrigeration technology. Multi-effect sys-
tems, from half to triple effect, have been developed to suit
various heat sources and operating conditions [86,87]. A novel
EAX (Evaporator-Absorber-Exchanger) absorption refrigeration
cycle was designed in 2010 [88] to utilize heat sources of median
 X. Xu et al. / Applied Energy 203 (2017) 657–676 663

Fig. 8. Schematic diagram of a double-effect absorption refrigeration system [82].

Fig. 9. Flowchart of a two-stage absorption refrigeration system [84].

temperature, which was between the limited generation tempera-
ture of traditional single effect cycle and that of double effect cycle.
In 2012, Yan et al. [89] developed a highly efficient absorption
refrigeration cycle to increase the thermal energy utilization effi-
ciency from engines’ exhaust gas or water. Such a novel design
was regarded as an enhanced single-effect or double-lift
configuration.
3.2. Applications of absorption refrigeration systems to fishing vessels
As the COP (coefficient of performance) of an absorption refrig-
eration system could be greater than 0.5, which is normally higher
than that of an adsorption refrigeration system, applications of
absorption systems to fishing vessels may be regarded as more
economic. However, unlike a solid adsorbent bed used in an
664 X. Xu et al. / Applied Energy 203 (2017) 657–676
adsorption system, all the components in an absorption system
were normally filled with liquid or gas, which were more suscepti-
ble to the influence of the sloshing and vibration caused by ocean
waves. Therefore, it would be more challengeable to maintain the
operational stability of an absorption refrigeration system installed
in fishing vessels.
Fernández-Seara et al. [90] developed an absorption refrigera-
tion plant using ammonia-water for producing cooling in a trawler
chiller fishing vessel in 1998, using engine exhausts. It was con-
cluded that due to the high and constant engine load during fishing
periods, adequate heat from exhausts of engine was available to
drive the absorption refrigeration system. 2–4% of fuel consump-
tion could be saved compared to that when using a traditional
vapor compression system. However, the initial cost was also
increased by 50%.
In 2013, a thermodynamic analysis on the feasibility of an
ammonia-water absorption cooling system powered by waste heat
from marine diesel engines was presented by Ahmed and Youcef
[91]. In this investigation, a thermodynamic model was built up
on the basis of the first thermodynamic law, and the analysis car-
ried out under different operating conditions by varying tempera-
tures within absorber, evaporator, generator and condenser. It was
found that a higher generator and evaporator temperature or a
lower condenser and absorber temperature can result in a better
performance of absorption refrigeration system while its COP
could also be improved by increasing the effectiveness of solution
heat exchanger without effect on the circulation ratio. More impor-
tantly, the waste heat provided for driving absorption system was
proved to be sufficient by the energy balance evaluation for the
diesel engine. This was also proven by a study investigating the
feasibility of utilizing waster heat from a RoRo ship engine to drive
an absorption cooling system and an ice slurry refrigeration stor-
age system [92]. It was indicated that the ship engine can provide
exhaust heat with a relatively high temperature at 300 °C at a suf-
ficient quantity to drive the absorption system.
Practically, if using ammonia-water working pair in an absorp-
tion refrigeration system, there should be a distillation column at
the top of its generator, otherwise the water vapors would leave
the generator and enter the condenser. However, the distillation
column operation can be affected by the inclination of the ship,
and as Fernández-Seara et al. [90] pointed out, ammonia with a
significant water content would reach the evaporator where the
water tended to accumulate, deteriorating the efficiency of whole
system. Therefore, in 2014, Táboas et al. [93] eliminated the
requirement for a distillation column by changing the working pair
into NH3/LiNO3 mixture or the ternary mixture NH3/(LiNO3 + H2O).
In addition, at a higher generator temperature above 90 °C, the use
of both NH3/(LiNO3 + H2O) and NH3/LiNO3 working pairs would
result in similar COP, which were higher than that when using
NH3/H2O working mixture. By solving the mathematical model,
they concluded that at the same activation temperature of 85 °C
and a condensing temperature of 25 °C, the cycle with NH3/LiNO3
or NH3/(LiNO3 + H2O) could reach lower evaporation temperatures
compared to that with NH3/H2O. Mao [94] investigated another
working pair of TFE/TEGDME for an absorption refrigeration sys-
tem powered by the exhaust heat from engine on board. TFE/
TEGDME working pairs could also work effectively without distil-
lation equipment, at also a high level of COP.
At 2015, Cao et al. [95] modeled the whole structure of a ship
which included two exhaust heat recovery systems using TRNSYS.
The first was an engine cooling system and the other an exhaust
economizer. It was concluded that applying absorption cooling
cycle system driven by exhaust heat from the engine to cruise ves-
sels would help save the energy consumption by 8.23%. In 2016,
Cao et al. [96] analyzed container ship modeling in more details
also using TRNSYS. It was revealed that the proposed waste heat
powered systems could reduce fuel consumption of diesel genera-
tor by 38%.
In 2017, Salmi et al. [97] carried out a study for an absorption
system, using water/LiBr and ammonia/water as absorption work-
ing fluids, for providing cooling from the thermal energy of exhaust
gas, jacket water and scavenge air under both ISO and tropical con-
ditions in a bulk carrier ship. The simulation results showed that
using absorption refrigeration system powered by waste energy
from ship engine had a potential to save electricity use by up to
70%.
As previously mentioned, the vibration and sloshing motion
caused by the roughness of ocean could significantly influence
the operation of absorption systems. The successful application
of absorption refrigeration systems to fish vessels depends on not
only the quantity and quality of waste heat from the engine but
also their operational stability during a sea cruising period.
A simulation and experimental investigation of ammonia/water
absorption ice producing system for fishing vessels [98] addressed
the effect of vibration on its performance. A shaking device was
applied to simulating the navigating condition of fishing vessels.
Test results showed that although the heat exchange between liq-
uid and other media may be slightly enhanced under mild vibra-
tion condition, severe vibration could have serious impact on the
capacity, reliability and safety of an onboard absorption ice-
making system. Moreover, the period of vibration simulated in this
study was 15 s. As indicated by Faltinsen [99], the mean period of
sea wave was usually between 4 s and 20 s [99]. The increased
vibration frequency with a shorter period may lead different influ-
ence on the operation of an onboard absorption refrigeration sys-
tem, which was expected to be further investigated.
On the other hand, in 2008, Maleki and Ziyaeifar [100] estab-
lished a theoretical sloshing damping model to assess the hydrody-
namic damping ratio of liquid sloshing caused by horizontal
movement in baffled tanks. Simulation results at two kinds of baf-
fles indicated that in sloshing mode the damping ratio depended
on the location and geometric structure of baffle, dimensions of
tank and sloshing amplitude [94]. In 2009, Panigrahy et al. [101]
experimentally investigated the sloshing behavior of liquids in baf-
fled tanks, as shown in Fig. 10. The primary objective of this
research was to explore the pressure distribution at different loca-
tions on the tank walls and three-dimensional effects on liquid
sloshing. It was found that baffles installed to the internal of tank
can considerably reduce the influence of sloshing. Furthermore, it
was more efficient to use ring baffles than traditional horizontal
baffles in decreasing sloshing effect. In 2010, a theoretical and
experimental investigation on the sloshing phenomena carried
out by Abbaspour and GhodsiHassanabad [102]. The experimental
rig used in this study are shown in Fig. 11. A parabolic plane was
initially placed on the water surface and then taken away quickly
to create sloshing phenomenon. The observation of water surface
behavior showed that in a rectangular container utilizing porous
media was an effective way to rapidly damp the sloshing phe-
nomenon. Although these studies were not directly related to
absorption refrigeration systems, their results provided references
for minimizing the impact of sloshing motion on absorption sys-
tem performance.
4. Ejector refrigeration systems
4.1. Principles and related research works
A steam ejector refrigeration system contains an ejector, a gen-
erator (or a boiler), a condenser, a throttle valve, an evaporator and
a circulation pump. To increase system efficiency, as shown in
Fig. 12, a precooler and a regenerator are usually added to the sys-
 X. Xu et al. / Applied Energy 203 (2017) 657–676
Fig. 10. Experimental facilities of investigating sloshing behavior in baffled tanks [101].
Fig. 11. Image of experimental devices for investigating the sloshing phenomena in a rectangular container [102].
Fig. 12. Schematic diagram of an ejector refrigeration system [103].
tem [103]. The ejector is made of three sections, namely a nozzle
whose inlet is connected to the outlet of the generator, a suction
chamber which is connected to the outlet of evaporator, and a mix-
ing chamber which is connected to the inlet of condenser. The ejec-
tor and generator jointly act as a thermal compressor [103]. The
refrigerant vapor generated is at a fairly high temperature and
pressure due to the heat added to the generator. This is called pri-
mary or actuating vapor, which then enters the ejector. Inside the
ejector there is a nozzle, where the refrigerant vapor expand
665
through, and at the exit of the nozzle forms low pressure super-
sonic flow, having the refrigerant vapor from the evaporator, called
secondary vapor, sucked into the suction chamber. Then, the pri-
mary and the secondary vapors at the mixing chamber mix with
each other. An aerodynamic shock would be induced, when the
mixed vapors enter a constant-area section, causing a major com-
pression effect. Further compression of vapor to the back pressure
of the ejector can be achieved when the mixed vapors pass through
the subsonic diffuser section. By this process in the ejector, the
refrigerant vapor which acts as the secondary vapor is compressed
aerodynamically from the lower pressure in evaporator to the
higher pressure in condenser. The inflow of the internal energy
associated with the primary vapor serves as the energy input
required for the compression operation. To obtain a cooling effect,
part of the refrigerant condensate in the condenser is allowed to
expand in evaporator to absorb heat from environment. The rest
is recirculated by a liquid circulation pump to generator to com-
plete the cycle.
The fundamental principle of an ejector refrigeration cycle is
similar to that of other heat driven refrigeration cycles. The ther-
mal compressor, i.e. ejector, is the most essential component of
the whole system. Pioneer research work for the performance
characteristics of ejectors was carried out by Keenan et al.
[104,105]. They first introduced one dimensional ejector theory
according to fluid dynamics of ideal gas as well as the laws of mass,
momentum and energy conservation, with friction and heat losses
ignored [104] and proposed two feasible theoretical models to deal
with the momentum conservation equation during mixing. One
was a constant-pressure mixing model and the other a constant-
area mixing model [105]. Since then, this theory has been used
as a theoretical foundation in designing an ejector. However,
666 X. Xu et al. / Applied Energy 203 (2017) 657–676
experimental studies by Khoury et al. [106], Emanuel [107] and
Chen [108] showed that the calculation results did not match very
well with experimental results. Therefore, the Keenan’s theory was
further modified by others, including Munday and Bagster [109],
Eames et al. [110] and Aly et al. [111].
In addition to above mentioned single-phase flow models,
which assumed superheated primary gas and compressible
single-phase flow in an ejector, two-phase flow models were later
also developed [112–115], by considering that phase change could
occur in many real applications and might cause a condensation
shock. With the development of CFD (computational fluid dynam-
ics) modeling techniques, dynamic models of ejectors attracted
research attention to reveal the local interactions between bound-
ary layers and shock waves, bringing about a better understanding
of ejector’s hydrodynamics [116–120].
Working fluid also plays an important role in ejector refrigera-
tion systems. The very early ejector systems used steam as the
working fluid, which may cause rusting and corrosion. In 1954,
Martynowsky proposed using R11 and R12 as the working fluid
to avoid these problems [121]. Earlier experimental analyses for
ejectors’ operation showed that the performances of a fixed ejector
were very similar with different working fluids at different operat-
ing temperatures [122–124]. However, the results of later
researches [125–127] indicated that system efficiency depended
heavily on the choice of refrigerants. A large number of working
fluids, such as R11, R12, R113, or R114 have been previously sug-
gested for use in ejector refrigeration systems. However, now these
have been banned because of their environmental impacts. New
refrigerants are therefore developed, for example, carbon dioxide
(R744), hydrocarbon compounds (R290, R600 and R600a), ammo-
nia and halocarbon compounds (R134a, R152a, R245fa, etc.)
[128–130].
To investigate the performance of ejector refrigeration system,
Dahmani studied the optimal heat transfer temperature difference
and the corresponding optimal working pressure of different
refrigerants in an ejector refrigeration system [131]. His work
can help select the appropriate refrigerant and confirm their
parameters at different operational conditions. In addition, there
have also been studies on the optimization of the cycle loop and
the structure of an ejector [132–141].
4.2. Applications of ejector refrigeration systems to fishing vessels
The concern on the stability of a refrigeration system onboard
led also to the application of ejector refrigeration systems, which
have the advantages of stability and simple structure, for harvest-
ing the exhaust heat from fishing vessel engine. Dong et al. [142]
built a model of an ejector system to evaluate its performance
when driven by exhaust heat from jacket water and exhaust gas
in fishing boats. It was suggested that an ejector refrigeration sys-
tem using the waste energy of engine had a great potential for
energy recovery and environmental protection. However, the COP
of this system may be further improved.
Shao [143] carried out a study on an ejector refrigeration sys-
tem for fishing vessel application with several different refriger-
ants, and pointed out that compared with R134a, R123, R11 and
R12, R600a led to the best performance. Tian [144] provided a spe-
cial design for an ejector using waste heat of marine engine. In this
design, part of refrigerants was bypassed from the condenser, and
two ejectors were cascaded in order to reduce the load on the gen-
erator by 28%. Hua [145] used a ship as an example to investigate
an ejector refrigeration system utilizing ship waste energy. It was
revealed that for this specific application, an ejector having a diam-
eter of 90 mm constant section was better than that of 150 mm for
both a higher COP and higher critical condensing pressure. Kang
[146] found that the entrainment ratio of a steam ejector driven
by marine waste heat reached a maximum value when the length
of constant section was from 25 mm to 75 mm for the best perfor-
mance. He et al. [147] investigated how cooling temperature of sea
water affected the performance of an ejector refrigerator. A quan-
titative evaluation on the cooling capacity of the ejector refrigera-
tor at different cooling temperatures was carried out. It was found
that the condensing pressure was increased by 10% when the tem-
perature of cooling water was increased by 1 °C, and the suction
capability of the ejector and the pressure ratio of diffuser would
be decreased at the same time, leading to a reduced cooling
capacity.
When compared to the applications of both adsorption and
absorption refrigeration systems to fishing vessels, the application
of an ejector refrigeration system to fishing vessels is still not pop-
ular. More future research effort should be put on the application
of such a simple and relatively stable system to fishing vessels.
5. Hybrid refrigeration system
5.1. Related research works
Apart from the optimization of the system structure or refriger-
ant flow cycle for each type of heat driven on-board refrigeration
systems, integration of various type heat driven refrigeration sys-
tems [148–150], or working with a vapor compression refrigera-
tion system [151–155] or a power generator [156–158] to
establish a hybrid heat driven on-board refrigeration system is
possible.
Generally, there are two ways to establish a hybrid heat driven
refrigeration system. One is to integrate different kinds of heat dri-
ven cycle into one. Hong et al. [148] presented a novel integrated
ejector-adsorption refrigeration cycle, as shown in Fig. 13, to
improve energy utilization efficiency for high temperature heat
source. The basic structure of this novel cycle is a parallel flow
double-effect adsorption cycle. When the temperature of the heat
source is not high enough to drive a double-effect cycle but still
much higher than that required for driving a conventional single-
effect cycle, the ejector was used to reduce the energy requirement
for the low pressure generator, allowing the system to run at a
double-effect mode. Simulation results showed that the COP of
the novel cycle could be as much as 30% higher than that of the
conventional single-effect absorption refrigeration cycle. The other
is to create a cascade system, where two cycles normally have sep-
arated circulating loops for working fluid but exchange heat
through a shared heat exchanger. Yang et al. [149] proposed a
cascade refrigeration process that integrated a LiBr absorption
Fig. 13. Schematic diagram of a new ejector-absorption combined refrigeration
cycle [148].
 X. Xu et al. / Applied Energy 203 (2017) 657–676 667

Fig. 14. Flow diagram of the cascade refrigeration technology [150].

refrigeration with a NH3 absorption refrigeration for applications using R245fa as working fluid. Fig. 15 shows its schematic diagram
to a coal-to-SNG plant. As shown in Fig. 14 [150], LiBr producer [156]. As it can be seen, compared to the structure of a conven-
was heated by the waste heat from the NH3 producer and gener- tional ejector refrigeration cycle, a turbine was installed between
ated water stream, which finally became chilled water (low-
grade cold energy) and cooled NH3 stream in an NH3 condenser.
The liquid NH3 was then fed into the Rectisol and evaporated into
NH3 gas to produce cold energy. In this way, low-grade waste heat
was recovered to produce high-grade cold energy. It was evaluated
that the operational cost of this cascade system was only 14% of
that of a conventional compression refrigeration.
Integrating a compressor into a heat driven refrigeration system
could change its operational condition and improve its perfor-
mance. Fukuta et al. [151] evaluated the performance of an
absorption-compression hybrid system. The compressor was
located between the evaporator and the absorber to adjust the
adsorption pressure, thus the working temperature range of the
waste heat could be extended and COP theatrically improved.
However, the experimental results from its prototype did not show
an improvement in COP, suggesting the necessity for carefully
designing the absorber and selecting an appropriate compressor. Fig. 15. Schematic diagram of a combined power and ejector refrigeration cycle
[156].
To analyze the energy saving performance of an absorption-
compression hybrid refrigeration cycle with a working pair of
R134a and DMF, Meng et al. [152] proposed two criteria, i.e., the
heat powered coefficient of performance and electricity saving
rate. Based on the two criteria, the behavior of the sub-cycles in
the hybrid system could be evaluated.
Zhao et al. [154] carried out a thermodynamic investigation into
a booster-assisted ejector refrigeration system, where a booster
was added prior to an ejector to increase secondary flow pressure.
Its system performance was compared with that of a conventional
ejector refrigeration system and vapor compression refrigeration
system. Results showed that the effect of booster on system COP
depended on its outlet pressure. An exergy destruction analysis
indicated that about a half of the exergy destruction occurred in
the ejector. Zhu and Jiang [155] developed a refrigeration system
which combined a basic vapor compression refrigeration cycle
with an ejector cooling cycle. The ejector cycle was used to recover
the waste heat from the condenser of the basic vapor compression
refrigeration cycle, i.e., taking its condenser as a generator and pro-
viding additional cooling capacity. With a refrigerant of high dis-
charge temperature, the ejector cycle would be more effective in
improving the overall COP comparing with that of a traditional
compression refrigeration system.
Zheng and Weng [156] developed a novel cycle combining an
organic Rankine power cycle with an ejector refrigeration cycle Fig. 16. Schematic diagram of a combined power and refrigeration cycle [157].
668 X. Xu et al. / Applied Energy 203 (2017) 657–676
a generator and an ejector. To simultaneously produce power in
the power sub-cycle 1-2-3-40 -40 -50 -5-1 and cooling capacity in
the refrigeration sub-cycle 1-6-7-50 -5-1, the heat input to the
vapor generator should be able to generate vapor at a higher pres-
sure than that of a conventional ejector refrigeration system. This
cycle’s performance was numerically analyzed. Simulation results
showed a thermal efficiency of 34.1%, an effective efficiency of
18.7% and an exergy efficiency of 56.8% could be obtained. Habib-
zadeh et al. [157] also proposed a similar combination of a power
cycle and an ejector refrigeration cycle for utilizing low tempera-
ture heat, but with different working fluids. As shown in Fig. 16,
instead of using the fully expanded stream leaving the turbine at
state 6, the partially expanded extracted vapor at state 5 at a
higher pressure was used to drive the ejector. Several working flu-
ids (R141b, R123, R245fa, R600a and R601a) were considered in
this study based on their performance in both ORC cycle and ejec-
tor refrigeration cycle, and their environmental impacts. By vary-
ing the pressures of working fluid at the turbine and pump inlet
through numerical simulation, their optimum values were
obtained to minimize the total system thermal conductance.
Fig. 17. Schematic diagram of a triple effect refrigeration cycle [159].
A hybrid system could even be a combination of three different
kinds of cycles. As shown in Fig. 17, to produce different amount of
refrigeration capacity simultaneously at different temperature, a
triple cycle which combined a low temperature N2O refrigerant
based vapor compression cycle with an absorption refrigeration
cycle and an ejector refrigeration cycle was presented by Agrawal
and Karimi [159]. System performance and exergy destruction
were evaluated using the parametric, energetic and exergetic anal-
ysis methods. It was concluded that the triple cycle’s thermal effi-
ciency and refrigeration outputs were significantly affected by the
temperature of exhaust gases, inlet pressure and outlet pressure of
turbine, temperature of ejector evaporator and discharge pressure
of compressor. Although the triple cycle may be structurally com-
plex for real application, the performance and exergy destruction
analysis carried out provided a reference for optimizing a hybrid
refrigeration system. A similar triple cycle combining a power sys-
tem, a LiBr/H2O absorption refrigeration system and an R141b ejec-
tor refrigeration system, was also investigated by Khaliq et al.
[160] using the first and second laws to identify causes of energy
loss throughout the cycle for achieving the optimization.
 X. Xu et al. / Applied Energy 203 (2017) 657–676
Fig. 18. Schematic diagram of a cascade absorption/vapor compression cycle [161].
5.2. Applications of hybrid refrigeration systems to fishing vessels
For naval ships, a novel application of a cascaded absorption
and vapor-compression cycle was proposed by Garimella et al.,
through theoretical simulation and analysis [161]. Fig. 18 [161]
shows the schematic diagram of the cascade absorption/vapor
compression cycle, which integrated a single-effect absorption
cycle using LiBr/H2O as work pair with a subcritical CO2 vapor-
compression cycle. The absorption cycle not only generated
medium-temperature refrigerant (5 °C) at a relatively low heat flux
for air conditioning but also served as heat sink for the subcritical
CO2 vapor compression system for electronics cooling applications
with high heat flux by providing low-temperature refrigerant at
40 °C. In addition, the heat rejected from condenser and absorber,
together with combustion waste heat, could also be used for water
heating and running a desiccant system. A thermodynamic model
was developed, where the absorption cycle was powered by the
exhaust heat from the turbine on board, and parametric analyses
were conducted to estimate the performance of the system over
a range of operating conditions. Through comparison, this novel
cycle proved to have higher COPs and reduce up to 31% electricity
demand compared to an equivalent two stage vapor compression
system over a wide range of operating conditions. Furthermore,
refrigerants used in this cycle were environmentally friendly and
such a system could also be extended to using other exhaust heat
recovery. However, field test was still required to validate the fea-
sibility of this hybrid system when used under ocean wave
conditions.
There were two further investigations [94,96], related to the
application of hybrid refrigeration systems to fishing vessels, as
previously mentioned. In addition to the simulation and experi-
mental investigation of an adsorption system, Mao [94] also simu-
lated the performance of a combined absorption and compression
refrigeration system driven by marine diesel engine exhaust gas,
using TFE/TEGDME as working pair. According to Mao [94], by
669
adding a compressor between evaporator and absorber, both
COP and the availability of primary energy could be promoted,
and by adding a compressor between condenser and generator,
generation pressure and temperature could be reduced. In 2016,
Cao et al. [96] proposed a cascade absorption and compression
configuration to provide air-conditioning and refrigeration simul-
taneously for container ships. A TRANSYS model was carefully
designed to minimize duct and pipe work. By integrating these
refrigeration systems together, not only fuel consumption but also
CO2 emission may be reduced.
Fewer researches were conducted on the application of hybrid
refrigeration systems to fishing vessels. All the researches men-
tioned above were recently carried out, i.e., [161] was published
in 2011, [94] in 2013 and [96] in 2016, suggesting that it was a
newly emerged research area and much more future efforts are
required.
6. Discussions and conclusions
Due to its low energy efficiency for fishing vessels engines,
recovering the exhaust heat from the engines provided an effective
way for energy saving in fishing vessels, making the application of
refrigeration systems powered by exhaust heat from engines for
ice making, refrigeration and air conditioning on fishing vessels a
promising technology. However, the serve operating condition that
heat driven refrigeration systems have to face on ocean would cre-
ate new challenges for their real applications.
Table 1 summarizes and compares the features of adsorption
refrigeration systems, absorption refrigeration systems and ejec-
tion refrigeration systems used in fishing vessels. It should be
noted that each study summarized in Table 1 included series of
experiments or simulations, which are impossible to be compre-
hensively listed. Only operational working conditions, which were
typical or could lead to maximum COP, are selected and shown in
Table 1

670
Features of adsorption refrigeration systems, absorption refrigeration systems and ejection refrigeration systems on fishing vessels.

System type Literature Year Research Working fluids Operational conditions Max. COP System/component Ice production SCP (W/kg
method size rate (kg/h) or adsorbent)
Generating Condensing Evaporating
cooling
temperature temperature temperature
capacity (kW)
(°C) (°C) (°C)
Tg Tc Te
Adsorption Ice-maker Wang et al. 2003 Experiment Activated carbon-methanol (single 105–120 22 7 0.071 Adsorber – 11
system [54] bed) (experiment): net
Activated carbon-methanol (two 0.1831 volume is 0.116 m3 18–20 kg/h at 30
bed) (when Te Adsorber 7 °C
reached (prototype): 0.148
1 °C) m3
Wang et al. 2004 Experiment Activated carbon–methanol (two – 27 11 0.1253 Prototype: length of 15.43 kg/h 36.5
[55] bed) (environmental) 2.5 m width of
1.5 m height of 2 m
CaCl2–NH3 (two bed) 140 (Max.) 25 15 – Adsorber: 0.288 m3 14.72 kW 247
Composite adsorbent (made by – Adsorber: 0.288 m3 20.32 kW –
CaCl2 and activated carbon)-NH3
(two bed)
Wang et al. 2004 Experiment Solidified compound adsorbent 140 25 15 – Adsorber: about 40 kg/h at –

X. Xu et al. / Applied Energy 203 (2017) 657–676

[56] (made by CaCl2 and activated 0.0773 m3 10 °C 5.2 kW
carbon)-NH3 (two bed)
Wang et al. 2005 Simulation Compound adsorbent (made by 130 25 15 – – 17.1–17.8 kW –
[57] and CaCl2 and activated carbon)-NH3
experiment (two bed with heat pipe)
Wang et al. 2006 Experiment Activated carbon–methanol (two 80–100 30 15 0.141 Each adsorber 20 kg/h
[59] bed) (environmental) contains 48 kg
Simulation 110 25 (cooling 10 Around active carbon 25 kg/h 35
water) 0.281
Wang et al. 2006 Simulation Pure CaCl2 powder-NH3 (single bed) 150 40 10 0.421 Absorbent volume Assuming 140
[58] of 0.023 m3 40 kg/h at
1
Simple composite adsorbent-NH3 0.44 – 5 °C 180
(single bed)
1
Consolidated composite adsorbent- 0.41 Absorbent volume 640
NH3 (single bed) of 0.0154 m3
Wang et al. 2006 Experiment Consolidated composite adsorbent 130 25–30 12 0.061 – 97.4 W 62.8
[70] (made by CaCl2 and activated
carbon)-NH3 (heat pipe type1)
Consolidated composite adsorbent – 28 (cooling 15 0.411 Test unit: width of 1.37 kW 728.7
(made by CaCl2 and activated water) 0.6 m length of
carbon)-NH3 (heat pipe type2) 1.2 m height of
1.9 m
– – 15 0.31 Ice-maker width of 24 kg/h 3 kW 458.5
1.3 m length of 1 m
height of 1.6 m
Lu et al. 2007 Experiment Compound adsorbent (made by 126 22 (cooling 7.5 0.3 Tube diameter of 17.6 kg/h 494.5
[67] CaCl2 and activated carbon)- NH3 water) 25 mm
(two bed with heat pipe and three-
dimensional fins)
Chen et al. 2007 Experiment Solidified compound adsorbent 140 (Max.) 15 (cooling 19 0.172 Adsorbent and the 0.58 kW 308.5
[68] (made by CaCl2 and activated water) expansion space of
carbon)- NH3 (spilt heat pipe filled 4.37103 m3
with acetone)
Solidified compound adsorbent- 140 (Max.) 17 (cooling 17 0.352 1.19 kW 633
NH3 (spilt heat pipe filled with water)
water)
Table 1 (continued)

System type Literature Year Research Working fluids Operational conditions Max. COP System/component Ice production SCP (W/kg
method size rate (kg/h) or adsorbent)
Generating Condensing Evaporating
cooling
temperature temperature temperature
capacity (kW)
(°C) (°C) (°C)
Tg Tc Te
Wang et al. 2008 Experiment Compound adsorbent (made by – 23–27 (cooling 15 0.411 Boiler of 7.5103 1.37 kW 731
[69] CaCl2 and activated carbon)-NH3 water) m3
(spilt heat pipe with mass recovery)
Li et al. 2008 Experiment Compound adsorbent (made by 145 10 (cooling 18.9 0.273 – 24.81 kg/h 486.5
[66] CaCl2 and activated carbon)-NH3 water)
(single bed)
Refrigerator Zhu et al. 1990 Experiment Zeolite 13X-H2O (single bed) 200 About 20 <2 – Zeolite bed 92 kJ per cycle –
[48] thickness of 12 mm (1 cycle of 3 h)
Zhou [73] 2005 Design CaCl2–NH3 120–450 38 15 – Two adsorber beds 23.33 kW /
(exhaust of 98.4 m2 totally
gas)
Experiment Compound adsorbent (made by 133–332 25–30 (cooling 15 – 9–12 kW
CaCl2, SrCl2 and activated carbon)- (exhaust water)
NH3 (two-bed) gas)
Field test – 24 (cooling – – Practically

X. Xu et al. / Applied Energy 203 (2017) 657–676

water) 18.57 kW
1
Wang et al. 2008 Simulation Compound adsorbent (made by –550 25 (cooling Lower than 0.38 – 5.1 kW /
[71] CaCl2 and activated carbon)-NH3 (exhaust water) 15.6
(double heat pipe of spilt type and gas)
thermosiphon)
Absorption Ice-maker Ni et al. 2011 Simulation NH3/H2O (steady) 398 (exhaust 35 15 0.3411 – 93.1 kg/h –
system [98] and NH3/H2O (mild horizontal shake) gas) 0.3121 85.2 kg/h
experiment NH3/H2O (mild vertical shake) 0.3461 94.5 kg/h
NH3/H2O (mild horizontal and 0.3391 95.3 kg/h
vertical shake)
Air- Cao et al. 2015 Simulation H2O/LiBr 250–350 Using sea water Lower than 0.642 – –
conditioner [95] (exhaust for cooling 6.7
gas)
Refrigerator Fernández- 1998 Design NH3/H2O 140 – 10 0.53 Detailed structure 8.33 kW /
Seara et al. (Design was described at (Design
[90] Parameter) Tables 2 and 3 of Parameter)
[85]
Ahmed 2013 Simulation NH3/H2O (with100% solution heat 90 25 5 0.69372 – –
and Youcef exchanger effectiveness)
[91] NH3/H2O (with80% solution heat 60–120 25 10 Around
exchanger effectiveness) 0.752
0 Around
0.652
80–120 10 Around
0.62
Mao [94] 2013 Design TFE/TEGDME 110 32 (cooling 5 0.3752 Generator of 0.5 kW
water) £159 mm with
Experiment 104 26.5 (cooling 5 0.1732 liquid height of 90.2 W
water) 0.163 m

(continued on next page)

671
 672
Table 1 (continued)

System type Literature Year Research Working fluids Operational conditions Max. COP System/component Ice production SCP (W/kg
method size rate (kg/h) or adsorbent)
Generating Condensing Evaporating
cooling
temperature temperature temperature
capacity (kW)
(°C) (°C) (°C)
Tg Tc Te
Táboas 2014 Simulation NH3/H2O 85 25 15/10/5 Around – –
et al. [93] 0.38/0.45/
0.493
NH3/LiNO3 Around
0.47/0.51/
0.533
NH3/(LiNO3 + H2O) Around
0.46/0.51/
0.523
Lu et al. 2016 Experiment NH3/H2O (with four-step heat Around160 Around 20 16 0.71 – 15.4 kW/m3
[74] recovery processes) (exhaust
gas:415)
Salmi et al. 2017 Simulation NH3/H2O – 30 (sea water 10 0.51 – 330 kW
[97] H2O/LiBr 78 temperature in 2 0.791 519 kW
H2O/LiBr 73 ISO condition) 5 0.811 530 kW

X. Xu et al. / Applied Energy 203 (2017) 657–676

H2O/LiBr 65.5 10 0.851 557 kW
Ejector Air- Dong et al. 2011 Simulation H2O 120 35 15 0.1163 – 48.72 kW
system conditioner [142]
1
Refrigerator Shao [143] 2012 Design R600a 100 35 5 1.55 Area of Designed 5 kW /
condenser:0.46m2
Area of
evaporator:0.04m2
Tian [144] 2013 Simulation R600a 75 38 5 0.1651 – – /
(latent heat R123 0.91
recovery) R134a 0.91
Hua [145] 2014 Experiment H2O 100 20.3 critical Tc 5 0.41 – –
21.1 critical Tc 10 0.651
21.7 critical Tc 15 1.121
Kang [146] 2016 Experiment H2O 40 14 critical Tc 10 0.811 – –
70 32 critical Tc 10 0.091
60 27.5 critical Tc 25 1.01
70 34 critical Tc 25 0.591
He et al. 2007 Simulation H2O – 34.2 7.0 – – 348.9 kW
[147]
1
The power consumption was not taken into account when calculating the COP.
2
The power consumption was taken into account when calculating the COP.
3
The calculating method of COP was not indicated in the published paper.
 X. Xu et al. / Applied Energy 203 (2017) 657–676
Table 1. Furthermore, energy efficiency ratio (EER) is more accu-
rate/meaningful to evaluate the energy performance of heat driven
refrigeration systems since it takes not only the heat energy input
to a generator but also the power consumption of pumps into
account. However, there are different definitions for COP among
literatures cited in current paper. Some COPs included the power
consumption of pumps, making themselves similar to EER, while
some other did not. This is clearly indicated by symbols at the col-
umn of COP in Table 1. It is recommended that in the future the
evaluation method of system energy performance should be care-
fully selected and clearly indicated.
As it can be seen, the application of adsorption systems to fish-
ing vessel currently attracts the most attention due to its stable
operational performance under shaky conditions by using solid
adsorbent. However, their COPs were relatively low, especially
for those single bed systems. By optimizing the system structure
and enhancing the heat transfer between adsorbent and refriger-
ant, such as using a two-bed system or a heat pipe type adsorber,
the COP of an adsorption system could reach 0.4. The application of
heat pipe to an adsorption systems is also a good solution for pre-
venting erosion caused by sea water. For the application to fishing
vessels where the space is limited, a viable refrigeration system
must be compact, requiring an adsorbent bed with high cooling
power per volume [69]. Therefore, Table 1 also includes columns
for System/Component size and SCP, although in many published
paper, detailed information about system dimension is not avail-
able. As pointed out by Choudhury et al. [162], recent application
of nanotechnology in adsorbent material development is a very
promising for increasing the specific cooling power of an adsorp-
tion system.
Absorption systems generally have a higher COP, which could
reach 0.7 in experiment [74] and 0.8 in simulation [97]. However,
absorption systems require a stable free liquid surface in both gen-
erator and absorber, therefore being sensitive to boats’ swing. It is
necessary to utilize small channel heat exchangers as well as baf-
fles to minimize the impact of sloshing motion on the performance
of absorption refrigeration systems. However, reducing channel
size or installing additional baffles may also deteriorate the heat
transfer performance, and this should be further investigated by
both experiments and field tests.
An ejector refrigeration system has simple structure. An ejector
has no moving parts and would not be impacted by vibration.
However, an ejector system still has a generator which could not
endure severe vibration. There were not too much research being
conducted on the application of ejector systems to fishing vessels.
This is partially due to the complexity of choked flow inside an
ejector. According to Table 1, ejector systems are capable of utiliz-
ing low temperature heat source (as low as 40 °C) and its COP
could theoretically reach 1.0 or even higher. However, its critical
condensing temperature, which is a unique characteristics of an
ejector system, reduces with the generating temperature. When
the real condensing temperature is higher than the critical con-
densing temperature, the COP of an ejector system would dramat-
ically reduce to approach zero. According to Table 1, in most cases,
condensing temperatures were restricted at 20–40 °C by sea water
temperature, and this also limited the utilization of low tempera-
ture heat source. Furthermore, ejector systems worked better at
an evaporating temperature above 0 °C, and they are suitable for
air-conditioning or refrigerating but not ice-making.
The stability of refrigeration systems powered by exhaust heat
from fishing vessels would be influenced not only by the vibration
of the fishing vessels, but also the continuity and quantity of the
heat of exhaust gas from the engines, which depended on the
engine load [26,72]. Due to the fundamental characteristics of
internal combustion engines, its maximum system efficiency can
only reach 45–50% [163,164]. In addition to the exhaust gas from
673
engine, the jacket water, scavenge air and lubricant oil also pos-
sessed a large amount of energy and could act as a heat source
for a heat driven refrigeration system. Commonly the temperature
of exhaust gas is at 180 °C [145] to 550 °C [71], but no lower than
120 °C [73]. The jacket water temperature ranged from 70 °C to
120 °C [91,93,95,97,145]. Utilizing multiple heat sources is an
effective way to reduce the impact of the variation in engine load.
This however required the ability of adapting deferent generating
temperatures. Furthermore, there may exit time mismatch
between the generation of waste heat and its recovery demand.
Thermal energy storage (TES) is a technology, which can solve
the existing mismatch by recovering the waste heat and storing
it for a later use [165]. Future researches should be conducted to
explore more alternatives of applying various hybrid systems to
meet different requirements. More field tests are also required to
ensure the real performance of these heat driven refrigeration sys-
tems on ocean.
Acknowledgement
The authors thank the National Key Research and Development
Program of China (Grand No. 2016YFB0901404), the Fundamental
Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grand No.
2015QNA4012) and Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Founda-
tion of China (Grant No. Y17E060002) for financially supporting
the work reported in this paper.
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