Performance Analysis of an Ejector Based CO2 Transcritical

Refrigeration System with Integrated Mechanical

Subcooling For Dairy Application
Vaishak S1, a), Prosenjit Singha1, b), Mani Sankar Dasgupta1, Armin Hafner2, Souvik
Bhattacharyya1
1
Birla Institute of Technology and Science, 333031-Pilani, India
2
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7034 Trondheim, Norway
Corresponding author: a) [email protected]
b)
[email protected]

Abstract. Refrigeration system plays a crucial role in the dairy sector to preserve quality and prevent spoilage of milk.
This sector also have enormous heating requirement for various processes such as pasteurization and heating of water for
cleaning. The carbon dioxide (CO2) based refrigeration system is perceived to be an excellent choice for dairy application
since it can simultaneously meet the heating and cooling demand. A novel CO2 transcritical refrigeration system with
integrated mechanical subcooling (IMS) and ejector is suggested for dairy applications in this study. Since the heat removed
for subcooling can also be rejected into the heat recovery unit with IMS, the refrigeration system's heating capacity is also
increased. The proposed system chills milk to 4 °C and simultaneously supply heat to water that can support various heating
requirements. A parametric analysis is also carried out and the results are analysed to comprehend the effect of ambient
temperature, effectiveness of the heat recovery heat exchanger, gas cooler pressure and degree of subcooling on various
performance parameters. It was found that the proposed system could heat water up to 80 °C and achieve an overall
coefficient of performance of 4.15 at an ambient temperature of 40 °C. The study concludes that the proposed system is an
energy efficient and clean alternative to conventional refrigeration and heating systems.

INTRODUCTION
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is identified as a potential replacement for conventional refrigerants having significant
Global Warming Potential (GWP) in various applications. CO2 is non-toxic, non-flammable, inexpensive and possess
extremely low GWP and zero ozone depleting potential (ODP). It also possess excellent thermo-physical properties,
especially at low temperature. Furthermore, the system is more compact due to the great volumetric efficiency of CO 2.
However, when the ambient temperature hits 30 °C, the CO2 based refrigeration systems operate in transcritical mode
because of their comparatively low critical temperature. Under transcritical mode of operation, the coefficient of
performance (COP) of conventional systems suffers reduction due to large throttling loss in the expansion process. In
addition, heat rejected is also significantly high in transcritical mode. Many researchers investigated the use of
expanders, ejectors, etc. to decrease the energy loss in the expansion process and to improve the COP of the system.
Among them, the ejectors turn out to be a promising solution because of its simplicity and reliability [1-3]. The ejector
draws a flow through the suction port to the intermediate receiver by utilizing the motive flow's potential energy. As
a result, the compressor suction pressure increases. As a result, the compressor uses less energy and the system is
more energy-efficient. Further, in transcritical CO2 cycles, the heat is rejected non-isothermally and for various heating
application, the temperature profile of the refrigerant matches with that of the fluid which is being heated [4]. Because
of this characteristic, CO2 transcritical systems are a great choice for heat pump applications and are therefore thought
to be ideal for the dairy industry, where simultaneous cooling and heating are crucially needed.
A transcritical CO2 heat pump was suggested by Sarkar et al.[5] for use in dairy applications where simultaneous
heating at 73 °C and cooling at 4 °C are necessary. An evaporator, a suction line separator, an internal heat exchanger
(IHX) for the suction line, an expansion device, a gas cooler and a compressor make up the suggested configuration.
A theoretical analysis of the proposed system led to the conclusion that the inlet temperature of the water to be heated
in the gas cooler, coolant inlet temperature to the evaporator, compressor discharge pressure and compressor speed
are all important factors in determining the best COP. For a medium-scale ammonia (NH3)-based milk refrigeration
plant, Singh and Dasgupta [6] designed a transcritical CO2 heat pump with IHX in another study. When the condenser
of the ammonia-based refrigeration system was connected to the evaporator of the planned heat pump, boiler feed
water could be delivered at a temperature of 70 °C. According to their analysis, CO2 emissions were reduced by 45.7%
and total energy costs were decreased by 33.8%. Ahammed et al. [7] also examines the effectiveness of CO 2 based
refrigeration systems for chilling and pasteurising milk simultaneously. Three different configurations with ejector
was proposed and it was concluded that up to 13% improvement in performance can be achieved compared to a
transcritical CO2 refrigeration system that is typically used. The study also shows that the position of the IHX in the
configuration was also crucial for achieving better performance. More recently, Dasi et al. [8] investigated the
effectiveness of a transcritical CO2 refrigeration system based on ejectors that was suggested for use in an Indian dairy
business to provide simultaneous heating and cooling. The configuration was based on parallel compression
technology and was having two evaporators i.e. a low temperature (LT) evaporator at -10 °C and a medium
temperature (MT) evaporator at 0 °C. The configuration was equipped with a high pressure lift ejectors and a suction
line accumulator. After comparing the system's performance with and without IHX, it was found that the IHX could
raise the proposed system's COP by 6.4% and increase its maximum energy efficiency to 38.4%. They came to the
conclusion that an ejector-based transcritical CO2 refrigeration system with IHX is the best option for the Indian dairy
industry to concurrently meet its cooling and heating needs. The most recent advancement in this field combines a
number of subcooling strategies to improve the effectiveness of ejector-based transcritical CO2 refrigeration systems
even more. Liu et al. [9] combined thermoelectric subcooling with an ejector-based transcritical CO2 refrigeration
system was one such study that made this suggestion. In comparison to the conventional transcritical CO2 refrigeration
system, it was found that the proposed could improve the COP up to 39%. However, Fu et al. [10] concluded that for
an ejector-based transcritical CO2 refrigeration systems, a dedicated mechanical subcooling (DMS) is more energy
efficient that thermoelectric subcooling. More recently, Liu et al. [11] also concluded that DMS integrated ejector-
based transcritical CO2 refrigeration system could achieve 61% higher COP than simple booster systems.
In addition to the thermoelectric subcooling and DMS, integrated mechanical subcooling (IMS) is also identified
as an effective subcooling technique for transcritical CO2 refrigeration systems [12-14]. IMS works similarly to an
economizer because the same fluid is used for subcooling, in contrast to the DMS technique, which uses a separate
vapour compression system at the gas cooler's outlet. The CO2 stream is split into two streams at the gas cooler outlet,
with the smaller stream being throttled and used to subcool the larger stream in the subcooling heat exchanger. An
auxiliary compressor then compresses this stream before reinjecting it into the main circuit. The transcritical CO2
refrigeration system using IMS techniques will have comparatively larger heating capacity since the subcooling stream
is reinjected into the main circuit. To the best of author’s knowledge integration of IMS with an ejector-based
transcritical CO2 refrigeration system has not been studied to date for heating and cooling. An ejector-based
transcritical CO2 refrigeration system with IMS is proposed in the current study for a dairy application where it can
be used to support various heating applications while also chilling milk. In order to understand the impact of ambient
temperature, the efficiency of the heat recovery heat exchanger, gas cooler pressure and the degree of subcooling, a
parametric analysis of the proposed system is performed, and the results are analysed.
 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
The Fig. 1 depicts the design of the suggested system for dairy sector applications requiring simultaneous heating
and cooling. The proposed configuration is based on low pressure lift ejectors. All the refrigerant from the MT
evaporator is lifted by the ejector to the pressure of the intermediate receiver using the motive stream. The ejector
additionally regulates the high side pressure in addition to the foregoing. The liquid and vapour are separated in the
receiver, where the liquid is given to the MT evaporator and the vapour is taken directly by the main compressor.
Additionally, the integrated mechanical subcooling (IMS) system in the proposed configuration subcools the
refrigerant at the gas cooler outlet. IMS approach involves splitting the refrigerant into two streams at the subcooling
heat exchanger exit, then expanding the smaller stream to subcool the larger stream. This occurs in the gas cooler's
adjacent subcooling heat exchanger. Before being reinjected into the main stream, the enlarged stream is first
compressed by a subcooling compressor. The combined stream is then passes through the heat recovery unit. The
heat recovery unit is installed at the discharge of the compressor and the recovered heat can be utilized to support
either pasteurization or for heating water for CIP.

FIGURE 1. Schematic of the proposed ejector based CO2 transcritical refrigeration system

MATHEMATICAL MODELLING
The following assumptions form the foundation of the mathematical model of the suggested systems.
 Pressure drop in the refrigeration lines and various component are neglected
 Heat losses to the ambient is neglected except in the gas cooler
 System is assumed to be in steady state operation
The equations and the basic evaluation parameters used to study the performance of the proposed system are given
below. The state points mentioned in the following equations correspond to that given in Fig. 2.
The cooling capacity (𝑄𝑜 ) is computed using Eq. (1):
Qo  mr ,suction  h2  h1  (1)
where, 𝑚𝑟,𝑠𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 is the suction mass flow rate of the ejector or the refrigerant mass flow rate via the evaporator
The main compressor work input (𝑊𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝 ) is given by Eq. (2):

Wmain comp  mr ,motive  h4  h3  (2)

where, 𝑚𝑟,𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 is the motive mass flow rate of the ejector or the refrigerant mass flow rate through the main
compressor.

FIGURE 2. Pressure-Enthalpy (p-H) plot of the proposed configuration

The auxiliary/subcooling compressor work input (𝑊𝑠𝑢𝑏 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝 ) is given by Eq. (3):

Wsub comp  mr ,sub  h6  h5  (3)

where, 𝑚𝑟,𝑠𝑢𝑏 is the subcooling system's mass flow rate of refrigerant.
Coefficient of performance for cooling (𝐶𝑂𝑃𝑐𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 ) is given by Eq. (4):

Qo
COPcooling  (4)
Wmain comp  Wsub comp
Heat recovered (𝑄𝐻𝑅 ) is given by Eq. (5):

QHR  (mr ,motive  mr ,sub )  h7  h8  (5)

Overall Coefficient of performance of the system ( COPoverall ) is given by Eq. (6):

Qo  QHR
COPoverall  (6)
Wmain comp  Wsub comp
The optimum receiver pressure (𝑃𝑟 ) is calculated as a function of the evaporator temperature (Te ), temperature of
the motive fluid (T𝑚 ), degree of subcooling (T𝑠𝑢𝑏 ) & degree of superheat of the suction fluid (T𝑠𝑢𝑝 ) and is given by
the Eq. (7):
Pr  33.93   0.87Te    0.17Tm    0.41Tsub    0.06Tsup  (7)
The above empirical equation was developed for the low-pressure lift ejector based on the data available in the
Coolselector®2 of Danfoss.
The ejector’s entrainment ratio (𝐸𝑅) is given by Eq. (8):
mr , suction
ER  (8)
mr ,motive
 The heat recovery unit’s energy balance is given by the Eq. (9):

mwater Cp Two  Twi   (mr ,motive  mr ,sub )  h7  h8  (9)

where, 𝑚𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 is the heat recovery unit's mass water flow rate, 𝐶𝑝 is the specific heat of water and 𝑇𝑤𝑜 and 𝑇𝑤𝑖
are the outlet and inlet temperature of water respectively.
The system's overall energy balance is given by Eq. (10):

Qo  Wmain comp  Wsub comp  (mr ,motive  mr ,sub )  h7  h9  (10)

Table.1 provides the values of the fundamental operating parameters taken into account while assessing the
system's performance.
TABLE 1. Input parameters to the numerical model

Parameter Value/Description
Cooling Capacity 10 kW
Evaporator Temperature, 𝑇𝑒 0 °C
Evaporator superheat 5K
Gas cooler approach 5K
Gas cooler pressure (2.778  0.0157Te )Tm  (0.381Te )  9.34
Superheat of IMS compressor 10 K
Isentropic efficiency of CO2 compressors
(0.00476Rp2 )  (0.09238Rp )  0.89810
(𝑅𝑝 is the pressure ratio)
Evaporating temperature in the IMS 20 °C
Inlet temperature of water to the heat recovery unit 𝑇𝑎𝑚𝑏𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡 -5°C
Outlet temperature of water from the heat recovery 𝑇𝐷𝑖𝑠 -7°C
unit (𝑇𝐷𝑖𝑠 is the compressor discharge temperature)

The simulation is carried out in Engineering Equation Solver (EES) along with the property data available in EES.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The effect of ambient temperature, the effectiveness of the recovery heat exchanger, the pressure of the gas cooler,
and the degree of subcooling are investigated through a parametric analysis. Table 2 provides the base value and the
range of each variable for which the analysis was conducted.
TABLE 2. Set of base conditions and range of each variable for the parametric analysis

Parameter Base Conditions Range

Ambient Temperature 40 °C 35 °C – 45 °C
Effectiveness of the recovery heat exchanger 0.7 0.4 – 0.8
Gas cooler pressure 107.3 bar (Optimum value) 105 bar – 115 bar
Degree of subcooling 3K 3K–7K

The Fig. 3 illustrates how the proposed system's performance characteristics are affected by ambient temperature.
As expected the COPcooling and COPoverall have a reverse trend with ambient temperature. When the ambient
temperature increases from 35 °C to 45 °C, both COP cooling and COPOverall decrease from 2.43 to 1.56 and 5.05 to 3.50
respectively. This is explained by the fact that compressor work increases as ambient temperature rises. Additionally,
as ambient temperature rises, the optimum compressor discharge pressure also rises. As a result, heat recovery rose
by 15% and the temperature of water at the outlet increased by 36%. The temperature of the water at the exit is only
67 °C when the ambient temperature is 35 °C. This temperature is not sufficient for pasteurization or for CIP
application. In such cases provision for substantial extension of further heating needs to be made. This can have other
implications like additional investment on infrastructure, additional fuel expense, increased carbon emission etc.
Alternatively, the outlet temperature of water can be increased by increasing the suction temperature or discharge
pressure of the compressor by sacrificing the COP to some extent.

FIGURE 3. Effect of ambient temperature on various performance parameters

FIGURE 4. Effect of gas cooler pressure on various performance parameters

The fluid's pressure in a supercritical condition is temperature independent. There is an optimum pressure in the
case of a transcritical CO2 refrigeration cycle at which the COP is greatest for a particular gas cooler outlet temperature.
For the aforementioned reason, it is essential to control the high side pressure, and in the current investigation, the
ideal gas cooler pressure for the baseline condition was discovered to be around 107 bar. However, for certain
conditions it is required to operate with a high side pressure that is different from the optimum pressure. The Fig. 4
depicts how the proposed system's various performance metrics are affected by the gas cooler pressure. when the
pressure is increased from 105 bar to 115 bar, the COP cooling and COPoverall are observed to have an increasing trend
initially and then a decrease. For the simulated condition, the COP cooling varies between 1.91 and 1.93 while the
COPoverall varies between 4.10 and 4.15. Furthermore, the outlet temperature of water increases but heat recovery
decreases with rise in pressure of the gas cooler. For the simulated state, the outlet temperature of water was found to
be increased from 78 °C to 88 °C whereas the heat recovery decreased modestly from 11.64 kW to 11.48 kW. In the
heat recovery unit, the mass flow rate of the water reduced from 0.065 kg/s to 0.052 kg/s at the same time. The large
decrease in refrigerant mass flow rate in the subcooling system is to blame for the low heating potential at greater gas
cooler pressure. The mass flow rate of refrigerant needed in the subcooling system to accomplish the desired degree
of subcooling decreases by 43% when the gas cooler pressure rises from 105 bar to 115 bar.
The Fig. 5 illustrates how the recovery heat exchanger's effectiveness affects key performance characteristics of
the suggested system. The recovery heat exchanger's effectiveness has no impact on the compressor's cooling capacity
or discharge temperature. The COPcooling and water exit temperature are unaffected by changes in the recovery heat
exchanger's effectiveness due to the aforementioned reason. However, as the effectiveness increases, the heat recovery
and thereby the COPoverall increases. The heat recovery improved from 4.76 kW to 14.94 kW and the COPoverall
increased from 2.85 to 4.81 for the simulated condition as the effectiveness climbed from 0.4 to 0.8.

FIGURE 5. Effect of effectiveness of the recovery heat exchanger on various performance parameters

The effect of degree of subcooling on various performance parameters of the proposed system is exhibited in Fig.
6. The subcooling/auxiliary compressor must put in more work as the level of subcooling increases. The work input
to the subcooling/auxiliary compressor dramatically rose from 0.46 kW to 1.88 kW for the simulated scenario when
the subcooling degree was raised from 3 K to 7 K, and as a result, the COPcooling decreased from 1.93 to 1.73. The
operation of the subcooling heat exchanger shifts close to the pseudocritical temperature as the level of subcooling
increases, where the specific heat at constant pressure dramatically rises. In these conditions, the IMS system's mass
flow rate must be much higher in order to achieve the necessary subcooling. For the simulated situation, the mass
flow rate of refrigerant increased from 0.015 kg/s to 0.076 kg/s as the level of subcooling is increased. However, the
COPoverall is found to be marginally improved initially and then decreased with increase in degree of subcooling.
Additionally, the compressor's optimum discharge pressure decreases as the level of subcooling increases. As the
degree of subcooling is raised, this lowers the water's output temperature, which for the simulated situation decreased
from 80 °C to 66 °C. But it was discovered that the heat recovery has increased from 11.52 kW to 13.97 kW.

FIGURE 6. Effect of degree of subcooling on various performance parameters

A conventional R134a refrigeration system used for dairy applications in an ambient temperature range of 35 - 45
°C will generally have higher cooling COP compared to a CO 2 transcritical refrigeration system operating at that
temperature. However, under the simulated conditions, a normal R134a refrigeration system will not be able to
generate hot water at 80 °C. If both cooling and heating are taken into consideration, then a CO 2 transcritical
refrigeration system will have an inherent advantage and can be considered as a more suitable choice for dairy
applications. The comparatively high heating capability of the CO 2 transcritical refrigeration system will reduce the
load on the main heating system and in some cases the main heating system may not even be necessary. This will
reduce additional fuel cost, indirect carbon emission etc. and lower capital expenditure as well.

CONCLUSION
For simultaneous heating and cooling in dairy applications, a novel ejector-based CO2 transcritical refrigeration
system with integrated mechanical subcooling is proposed in this work. The proposed system can chill milk to 4 °C
and simultaneously produce hot water that can support various heating requirements in a dairy processing plant. A
parametric analysis was carried out and the following conclusions were drawn:

 The cooling and overall COP of the system reduces as ambient temperature rises. However, it is discovered
that as ambient temperature rises, the temperature of water and the heat recovery also rises.
 The cooling and overall COP of the system will suffer if the gas cooler pressure is changed from its ideal
value. However, raising the gas cooler pressure above its ideal level will raise the water's exit temperature.
When the output temperature of water at the optimum gas cooler pressure is insufficient to meet the heating
need, this tactic can be used.
 Increasing effectiveness of the recovery heat exchanger increases the overall COP and heat recovery.
  With increase in degree of subcooling, cooling and overall COP and outlet temperature of water decreases.
However, the heat recovery increases with increase in degree of subcooling.
When compared to a conventional refrigeration systems, the COP cooling of the system is low for a given ambient
temperature. However, this disadvantage of the CO2 transcritical refrigeration system can be offset by its heating
ability. The proposed system has the ability to deliver high temperature hot water (80 °C) that can support various
heating and pasteurizing requirements in dairy application.
In the proposed system, the outlet temperature of the water can be further increased by introduction a suction line
internal heat exchanger (IHX). This IHX can boost superheat levels at the compressor's suction while also subcooling
the motive stream going to the ejector. However, too much superheat at suction may lead to compressor failure due to
overheating. Hence, either a modulating valve across IHX or a liquid injection technique should be adopted to keep
the suction superheat in control. Further, in the present system a separate compressor is used for subcooling
application. However, the additional subcooling compressor could be part of the main compressor, either as a
dedicated cylinder in a piston compressor or as an economizer port in screw compressor. The above mentioned aspects
are identified as scope of further study.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors acknowledge the support received from the ongoing Indo-Norwegian project 'Future Refrigeration
India: INDEE+' (IND-15/0023) funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, coordinated by NTNU Norway.

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