(9F) Exergy Analysis of R1234ze (Z) As MGN Temperature Heat Pump Woeking Fluid With Multi-Stage Compression
(9F) Exergy Analysis of R1234ze (Z) As MGN Temperature Heat Pump Woeking Fluid With Multi-Stage Compression
(9F) Exergy Analysis of R1234ze (Z) As MGN Temperature Heat Pump Woeking Fluid With Multi-Stage Compression
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Abstract In this paper, the simulation approach and better prospects in industrial applications for its high
exergy analysis of multi-stage compression high tempera- efficiency and high temperature output. Survey results of
ture heat pump (HTHP) systems with R1234ze(Z) working temperature range requirements in some industries
fluid are conducted. Both the single-stage and multi-stage revealed that most of the temperature requirements in
compression cycles are analyzed to compare the system industry are above 60°C, for example, wood drying, food
performance with 120°C pressurized hot water supply and beverage production, dyeing process, district heating
based upon waste heat recovery. The exergy destruction and crude oil heating [2,3]. Watanabe [4] summarized the
ratios of each component for different stage compression temperatures of heat demand in different types of industrial
systems are compared. The results show that the exergy processes and divided them into air, water and steam
loss ratios of the compressor are bigger than that of the applications. In most industrial fields, coal-fired boilers,
evaporator and the condenser for the single-stage compres- gas-fired boilers, oil-fired boilers and electric boilers are
sion system. The multi-stage compression system has often used for hot water supply and process heating.
better energy and exergy efficiencies with the increase of However, these heating equipment waste more primary
compression stage number. Compared with the single- energy and cause environmental pollution problems
stage compression system, the coefficient of performance because of their low efficiencies and combustion emis-
(COP) improvements of the two-stage and three-stage sions. Meanwhile, large amounts of low grade energy can
compression system are 9.1% and 14.6%, respectively. be recovered to satisfy the requirements of production and
When the waste heat source temperature is 60°C, the living for useful purposes. High temperature heat pumps
exergy efficiencies increase about 6.9% and 11.8% for the (HTHP) offer a most practical solution to those problems.
two-stage and three-stage compression system respec- They recover the heat from industrial waste and produce
tively. high temperature hot water. The most important of all, high
temperature heat pumps have proven to be an effective way
Keywords multi-stage compression, high temperature to reduce greenhouse gases emission.
heat pump, heat recovery, exergy destruction, Li et al. [5] studied the system performance of a water-
R1234ze(Z) working fluid to-water HTHP unit with the R22/R141b mixture to
provide hot water with a temperature of 80°C. The highest
hot water temperature could reach 85°C. Liu et al. [6]
1 Introduction developed a water-to-water heat pump system with the
HTR01 refrigerant to recover waste heat with temperatures
Water-source heat pump (WSHP) technologies such as of 30°C–60°C and provide moderately high-temperature
geothermal water-source heat pumps and seawater water- hot water with temperatures of 70°C–90°C. Brown et al.
source heat pumps are energy-saving methods that have [7] proposed fluorinated olefin R-1234ze(Z) as a possible
been used in commercial and residential heating applica- high-temperature refrigerant for HTHP and estimated the
tions [1]. Besides, the WSHP with waste heat recovery has refrigerant thermal properties and potential system perfor-
mances. Wang et al. [8] developed a heat pump system
Received Jul. 5, 2017; accepted Oct. 16, 2017; online Nov. 14, 2017 with heat recovery in building heating and experimentally
studied the system performance. The hot water temperature
Bin HU, Di WU, L.W. WANG, R.Z. WANG ( ) ✉ is reported to be 85°C in most of the test conditions. Pan
Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, Shanghai Jiao Tong
University, Shanghai 200240, China
et al. [9] evaluated several moderately high-temperature
E-mail: [email protected] refrigerants and found that a zeotropic mixture refrigerant
494 Front. Energy 2017, 11(4): 493–502
HC600/HFC245fa was a good option for the HTHP. The paper, multi-stage compression heat pump systems with
system achieved a COP of 3.83 at an evaporating R1234ze(Z) refrigerant are investigated to improve the
temperature of 55°C and condensation temperature of thermal performance and system exergy efficiency. The
100°C. Chamoun et al. [10] developed a dynamic model thermodynamic simulation approach of multi-stage com-
for an industrial heat pump using water as refrigerant and pression heat pumps is built to evaluate the system
the reported temperature range is around 120°C–130°C. To performance. Based on exergy analysis, the energy
achieve a large temperature lift with a higher temperature destruction at each separated component is developed to
output, the exergy loss in the compression and expansion get the better performance and improvement potential of
process for the single-stage compression system is very the proposed systems. The thermodynamic analysis is
high, which lowers the compression efficiency and conducted based on the variation of waste heat source
degrades the system performance. As a result, a multi- temperature. The power consumption, system COP, and
stage compression design, for example, multi-stage heat exergy efficiency under different working conditions are
pump system is developed to overcome those problems. analyzed. The exergy destruction ratio of each process is
Compared to a single-stage compression heat pump compared and validated with reference results.
system, the temperature lift of a multi-stage heat pump
system is larger and the compression efficiency is higher.
Therefore, it is possible to achieve a higher COP. Some 2 Multi-stage compression heat pump
researchers have already carried out both theoretical and systems
experimental studies of the thermodynamic performance of
multi-stage compression heat pump systems. Redón et al. Figure 1(a) shows the schematic diagrams of the two-stage
[11] analyzed the influence of design parameters and vapor compression heat pump system. The working
injection conditions for two different configurations of two principle is as follows. The refrigerant vapor is compressed
stage cycles. The results show that the two stage systems to an intermediate temperature and pressure gas first, after
could reach improvements of 30% in terms of COP. being mixed with the intermediate pressure vapor from the
Kondou and Koyama [12] presented an exploratory flash tank. The mixed vapor is compressed by the higher-
assessment of multiple-stage heat pump systems with stage compressor to high temperature and pressure gas. It
heat recovery using environmentally friendly refrigerants. exchanges heat with the water in the condenser and
The results indicate that a multiple-stage “extraction” cycle becomes liquid refrigerant. Then, the saturated liquid
drastically reduces the throttling loss and exergy loss in the refrigerant is further cooled down in the subccoler. The
condensers, resulting in the highest COP among four kinds high pressure refrigerant from the subcooler is throttled by
of proposed cycle configurations. It is also demonstrated the upper-stage expansion valve and becomes a liquid-gas
the potential use of multiple-stage high-temperature heat mixture of intermediate pressure. The refrigerant mixture is
pumps is a promising way to reduce the primary energy then separated into liquid phase and vapor phase in the
consumption for industrial applications. Lee et al. [13] flash tank with intermediate pressure. The vapor refrigerant
proposed a saturation cycle consisting of saturation of intermediate pressure is mixed with the discharge gas
compression and saturation expansion in order to improve from the lower-stage compression. The liquid refrigerant is
system performance by reducing the thermodynamic loss further throttled by the lower-stage expansion valve and
associated with single phase gas compression and becomes a liquid-gas mixture of low pressure and low
isenthalpic expansion. The simulation results indicate temperature. The low pressure refrigerant mixture flows
that it is more beneficial if the multi-stage cycle is used back to the evaporator where it absorbs heat from waste
for the cycle at a higher pressure ratio. When the four-stage water and vaporizes for the next cycle.
cycle is applied, the COP improvements of D2Y60 From Fig. 1(b) it can be seen that due to the two-phase
(mixture of R32 and R1234yf), CO2 and propane are separation in the flash tank, the liquid entering the
46.9%, 43.2% and 38.2%, respectively under an extreme evaporator has a lower enthalpy compared to that of a
heating condition. Arpagaus et al. [14] investigated and single-stage cycle. Thus the enthalpy difference across the
evaluated eight kinds of heat pump cycles based on the first evaporator is greater than that of a single-stage cycle. The
and second law efficiency. Thermodynamic simulations saturated vapor from the flash tank also has a lower
reveal that multi-stage compressor cycles have the highest temperature than that of the vapor in the compressor, which
COPs and second law efficiencies, followed by cascade, helps to reduce the compressor discharge temperature. The
ejector, and expansion valve cycles. reduced compressor power consumption leads to a higher
Although there are some investigations on multi-stage system COP.
compression heat pump systems, there is still a lack of Figure 2 shows the schematic and diagrams of the three-
studies on waste heat recovery industrial heat pumps with a stage compression heat pump system. The working
high temperature lift, especially with low GWP refriger- principle is as follows. The refrigerant from the evaporator
ants. The system performance and heat recovery efficiency is compressed in the first-stage and then mixed with the
for industrial heat pumps can be further improved. In this vapor refrigerant of the first-stage pressure. The mixed
Bin HU et al. Exergy analysis of multi-stage compression heat pump with R1234ze(Z) refrigerant 495
vapor enters the compressor for the second-stage compres- the temperature difference of evaporating and condensing
sion. After mixing with the vapor refrigerant of the second- can be even larger based on the increase of the
stage pressure, the mixed refrigerant is further compressed compression stage. For the low grade industrial waste
in the third-stage. Then, the refrigerant is cooled down in heat, it is a promising approach to develop high-
the condenser and flows through the third-stage expansion temperature heat pumps with 120°C pressurized hot
valve. The refrigerant is separated into liquid phase and water supply.
vapor phase in the flash tank П. The vapor refrigerant of Table 1 presents a comparison of the characteristics and
the second-stage pressure is mixed with the discharge gas properties of selected refrigerants for industrial high
from the second-stage compression. The liquid refrigerant temperature heat pumps. R600a, R717, and R744 are the
is further cooled down in the subccoler and enters the conventional refrigerants. As a refrigerant, R600a has an
second-stage expansion valve. The refrigerant is separated explosion risk in addition to the hazards associated with
again in the flash tank І. The vapor refrigerant of the first- non-flammable CFC refrigerants. The use of R600a as a
stage pressure is mixed with the discharge gas from the refrigerant in industrial high temperature heat pumps is
first-stage compression. The liquid refrigerant enters the potentially dangerous. The natural refrigerant R717, i.e.,
first-stage expansion valve and then is heated by the waste ammonia, exhibits excellent thermodynamic properties, as
heat in the evaporator. mentioned by many forerunners, but it also exhibits quite
From Fig. 1(b) and Fig. 2(b) it can be seen that the strong toxicity. The critical temperature of R744 is low and
pressure difference of each compression stage and the corresponding operating pressure is much higher than
expansion process become small for the multi-stage other refrigerants. Therefore, it is only considered for
compression heat pump. The irreversible loss can be transcritical refrigeration cycle in this paper. Beside, these
greatly reduced to improve the exergy efficiency. Taking low GWP refrigerants, R134a and R245fa are also
into account the pressure ratio and discharge temperature, compared as the reference, which are used for a high-
496 Front. Energy 2017, 11(4): 493–502
temperature heat pump or organic Rankine cycle (ORC) vigorously investigated in this decade as alternatives to
recently. Because they both have a high-GWP value, R134a and R245fa.
hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs) such as R1234yf, R1234ze(E),
R1234ze(Z), and R1233zd(E) were introduced.
R1234ze(E) and R1234ze(Z) are the newly recognized 3 Simulation approach and exergy analysis
substances as refrigerants. They have the similar thermal
properties and features for high temperature heat pump 3.1 Simulation approach
applications. Specifically, the low-GWP refrigerant
R1234ze(E) and the isomer R1234ze(Z) have been Multi-stage compression heat pump systems with
Bin HU et al. Exergy analysis of multi-stage compression heat pump with R1234ze(Z) refrigerant 497
R1234ze(Z) working fluid are modeled by using Engineer- the guessed value of intermediate pressures. The injected
ing Equation Solver (EES) (Software, F-chart, 2012). The mass flow rate of each stage is decided to achieve the
multi-stage compression (two-stage and three-stage) is designed degree of superheat.
compared with the single-stage compression cycle. The
expansion process is assumed to be an isenthalpic process, 3.2 Exergy analysis
and the pressure drops through the heat exchangers are
neglected. Moreover, the degrees of superheating and In a vapor compression heat pump system, there are
subcooling are assumed to be constant. The waste heat usually four major processes: evaporation, compression,
source temperature is assumed to be between 50°C and condensation, and expansion. External energy (power) is
90°C in the simulation. R1234ze(Z) is selected as supplied to the compressor and outside heat is added to the
candidate working fluid. The refrigerant-side is assumed system by evaporator, whereas in the condenser heat
as follows: rejection is occurred for the system. For different
Degree of subcooling (SC): 20°C; refrigerants, the system cooling capacity and heating
Degree of superheating (SH): 5°C; capacity are not the same, which cause a change in energy
Isentropic efficiency is calculated as a function of the efficiency for the systems. Exergy losses in various
pressure ratio; (his = 0.8014–0.0484(Pd/Ps)) [15]. components of the system are not the same. For the
Condensing temperature (Tc) is 5°C higher than the hot multi-stage compression heat pump, the heat transfer
water outlet temperature; process also exists in the subcooler. Exergy is consumed or
Evaporating temperature is 10°C lower than the waste destroyed due to the entropy created depending on the
water inlet temperature (Tww); associated processes. To specify the exergy losses or
The water mass flow rate of waste heat source is set as 20 destructions of the multi-stage compression heat pump,
kg/s, and the temperature difference between waste water exergy analysis is necessary.
inlet and outlet (DTe) is 5°C; According to the second law of thermodynamics, a
The initial intermediate pressures (Pin,i) are selected to practical process is always irreversible. In a heat pump
result in equal pressure ratios across the compression system, irreversible losses are caused by different factors,
stages to minimize the compressor power. such as no-isentropic compression and temperature
The vapor refrigerant is injected to the next compression difference of heat transfer. According to the second law
process, and the injection amount is controlled to maintain of thermodynamics, exergy analysis equations are
the discharge temperature after compression. expressed as
Figure 3 demonstrates the flowchart of multi-stage
compression heat pump modeling with R1234ze(Z) Eheat;in þ Emass;in þ Ework ¼ Eheat;out þ Emass;out þ Irr , (1)
refrigerant. The total mass flow rate is determined with
Ψ ¼ ðh – h0 Þ – T0 ðs – s0 Þ, (2)
where Irr is irreversible loss; Eheat, Emass and Ework are
exergies during heat transfer, mass transfer, and the
working process; Y is specific exergy in any state; T0 is
the surrounding temperature; h0 and s0 are the enthalpy and
entropy of working fluid at the temperature of T0 and
pressure of 0.1 MPa. There is no mass transfer between
hybrid source heat pump and the surrounding environ-
ment, hence Emass = 0.
Theoretical exergy losses in different components are
calculated according to Refs. [16–18].
For the compression process:
Compressor work,
Wc ¼ mðhout – hin Þ: (3)
Power consumption,
Wel ¼ Wc =ηm $ηe : (4)
So, the exergy loss,
Icomp ¼ mðψ in – ψ out Þ þ Wel
Fig. 3 Flowchart of multi-stage compression heat pump model- ¼ m½ðhin – hout Þ – T0 ðsin – sout Þ þ Wel , (5)
ing
498 Front. Energy 2017, 11(4): 493–502
where Icomp is the theoretical exergy destruction of the Compared to the conventional energy analysis, exergy
compressor, m is the mass flow rate of working fluid, sin analysis can quantitatively characterize the thermodynamic
and sout are specific entropy of working fluid at inlet and imperfection of the heat transfer process and the possibility
outlet of the compressor, hm is the mechanical efficiency of of thermodynamic development for the heat pump system.
the compressor, and he is the electrical efficiency of the Exergy efficiency is defined as the ratio of the total exergy
motor. With reference to Ref. [15], it is assumed that increasement to the total power consumption of the multi-
mechanical efficiency of the compressor is 95% and the stage compression heat pump.
electrical efficiency of the motor is 98%.
For condensation process: ηx ¼ ðEhw,out – Eww,in Þ=Wel , (11)
Icond ¼ mR1234ze ðψ R1234ze;in – ψ R1234ze;out Þ where the total exergy output Ehw,out and the exergy input
Eww,in of the multi-stage compression heat pump can be
þ mhw ðψ hw;in – ψ hw;out Þ given by
Ehw;out ¼ mhw ðψ hw;out – ψ hw;in Þ
¼ mR1234ze ½ðhR1234ze;in – hR1234ze;out Þ
¼ mhw ½ðhhw;out – hhw;in Þ – T0 ðshw;out – shw;in Þ, (12)
– T0 ðsR1234ze;in – sR1234ze;out Þ
Eww;in ¼ mww ðψ ww;in – ψ ww;out Þ
þmhw ½ðhhw;in – hhw;out Þ – T0 ðshw;in – shw;out Þ:
(6) ¼ mww ½ðhww;in – hww;out Þ – T0 ðsww;in – sww;out Þ:
(13)
For evaporation process:
Ievap ¼ mR1234ze ðψ R1234ze;in – ψ R1234ze;out Þ
4 Results and discussion
þ mww ðψ ww;in – ψ ww;out Þ
For subcooling process: The variation of total power consumption with waste heat
source temperature for different stage compressions is
Isub ¼ mR1234ze ðψ R1234ze;in – ψ R1234ze;out Þ
depicted in Fig. 4. As the waste heat source temperature
þ mhw ðψ hw;in – ψ hw;out Þ increased from 50°C to 90°C, the total power consumption
was found to decrease from 180 kW to 70.5 kW for the
¼ mR1234ze ½ðhR1234ze;in – hR1234ze;out Þ
– T0 ðsR1234ze;in – sR1234ze;out Þ
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