ME22 / E02

Engineering Utilities 2
Module 2 Assessment 2

A Comparative Study of CO2 Refrigeration Systems: A

Synthesis

TUMANGAN, Ma. Estela Leonor Angela P.

2019152008
CE_3
September 28, 2022

Engr. Marc Allan V. Magbitang, M.E.

Instructor
 The refrigeration systems with CO2 seem to be attractive choices for the design of
refrigeration systems with small environmental impact. The last years, the use of CO2 as
refrigerant is a revisited idea in order to avoid the use of harmful working fluids. Especially,
after the EU F-Gas Regulation 517/2014. In this study, the usual refrigerants are
substituted with natural refrigerants such as CO2, propane and NH3. However, the CO2
seems to be the most attractive choice due to the high flammability of the propane and
the high toxicity of the NH3.
I believe that the study greatly contributes to the environment as the ‘old’ F-gases
are quite harmful and they have a much higher warming potential than CO2. Apart from
that, the study discovered a better system than the typical system that we use. The
objective of this work is the comparison of different trans-critical CO2 refrigeration
systems and the determination of the most promising configurations. A typical system
(evaporator, compressor, gas cooler, expansion valve) is the reference system and it is
compared with a system with internal heat exchanger, a parallel compression system, a
two-stage compression system and a system with mechanical subcooling after the gas
collector. The examined systems produce refrigeration at one temperature level, and they
are examined for various operation scenarios. More specifically, the refrigeration
temperature is examined from −35 °C to +5 °C, while the condenser temperature (or the
gas cooler outlet temperature) from 35 °C to 50 °C. The analysis is conducted with
developed models in Engineering Equation Solver (EES). According to the results, all the
examined systems are more efficient than the reference system for all the examined
scenarios. The system with the mechanical subcooling and the two-stage compression
system are found to be the most efficient choices with a mean coefficient of performance
enhancement at 75.8% and 49.8% respectively.
The first (theory) examined system is the reference case of the simple vapor
compression system which is the initial one. The system is investigated for different
evaporator and heat rejection temperatures. The second examined system is the one with
an internal heat exchanger for subcooling the CO2 after the gas cooler. A critical
parameter in this analysis is the heat exchanger efficiency and the value of 75% is
considered to be a typical one. The next system is a two-stage mechanical compression
system. This system includes two optimization parameters: the high-pressure ratio and
the medium pressure ratio. The next system is the use of a parallel compression system.
This system has similarities with the two-stage compression system, but it is a different
configuration. Then the last system is the one with an extra mechanical subcooling after
the gas cooler. The extra system operates with R134a and it consumes electricity in order
to perform the proper subcooling. The references system is a simple vapor-compression
cycle, and it is compared with four other enhanced cycles (with internal heat exchanger,
a two-stage compression cycle, parallel compression cycle and with mechanical
subcooling). The analysis is conducted with a developed model in EES which is validated
with literature experimental data.
 In conclusion, All the examined systems (HEX), (2-ST), (PC) and (M-SC) are found
to be more efficient than the reference system for all the examined operating scenarios.
The coefficient of performance (COP) enhancements is more intense in the cases with
lower evaporator temperature and higher gas cooler outer temperature. The mean COP
enhancements, considering all the operating scenarios, are 8.88%, 36.79%, 47.98% and
75.80% or the systems (HEX), (PC), (2-ST) and (M-SC) respectively. The maximum COP
enhancements are found for the case (Tc = 50 °C and Te = −35 °C) and they are 19.38%,
75.33%, 121.76% and 16.90% for the systems (HEX), (PC), (2-ST) and (M-SC)
respectively. Lastly, the optimum high pressure is found to be decreased compared to the
reference system. The decrease is relatively low except the system of mechanical
subcooling where it can be up to 40%. Therefore, according to these results, the typical
system that we use is not as efficient and environmentally friendly as we had hoped to
be. The enhanced systems are much better.
More importantly, I would not have any criticism or clarifications nor scrutiny about
the work if I were the reviewer prior to its publication. My only comment is that it was well
written, and the researcher did a good job in researching about the work. The execution
of the experiment was perfectly controlled and there was no conflict of interest in the
study. The paper also provided a brief explanation as to how the equations used in the
experiment came to be which is much appreciated by the readers.