Front.

Energy 2017, 11(4): 493–502

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-017-0510-6

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Bin HU, Di WU, L.W. WANG, R.Z. WANG

Exergy analysis of R1234ze(Z) as high temperature heat

pump working fluid with multi-stage compression

© Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2017

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

Fig. 1 Description of two-stage compression heat pump system

(a) Schematic diagram; (b) diagrams of p-h and T–s

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

Fig. 2 Description of three-stage compression heat pump system

(a) Schematic diagram; (b) diagrams of p-h and T–s

Table 1 Properties of selected refrigerants for HTHP

Refrigerants Molecular mass NBP/°C Tcrit/°C Pcrit/MPa Safety group GWP100
R134a 102.03 –26.1 101.1 4.06 A1 1430
R245fa 134.0 15.14 154.01 3.651 B2 950
R600a 58.12 –11.7 134.7 3.64 A3 20
R717 17.03 –33.3 132.3 11.34 B2 <1
R744 44.01 –78.4 31.1 7.38 A1 1
R1234yf 114.0 –28 103.25 3.92 A2L 4
R1234ze(E) 114.0 –19 119.45 3.64 A2L 6
R1234ze(Z) 114.0 9.8 150.1 3.53 A2L 2.2

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

¼ mR1234ze ½ðhR1234ze;in – hR1234ze;out Þ The system performances of multi-stage compression heat

pump systems are evaluated under the operating conditions
for 120°C pressurized hot water supply. The waste heat
– T0 ðsR1234ze;in – sR1234ze;out Þ recovered in the evaporator is supposed as a constant of
420 kW.
þmww ½ðhww;in – hww;out Þ – T0 ðsww;in – sww;out Þ:
(7) 4.1 Variation of system performance

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

þmhw ½ðhhw;in – hhw;out Þ – T0 ðshw;in – shw;out Þ:

(8)
For expansion process:
Iexp ¼ mR1234ze ðψ in – ψ out Þ ¼ mR1234ze T0 ðsout – sin Þ

½Throttling,hexp;in ¼ hexp;out : (9)

Total exergy destruction,
Fig. 4 Variation of total power consumption with waste heat
Itotal ¼ Icomp þ Icond þ Ievap þ Iexp þ Isub : (10) source temperature
 Bin HU et al. Exergy analysis of multi-stage compression heat pump with R1234ze(Z) refrigerant 499

single-stage compression system. For the two-stage and

three-stage compression system, the total power consump-
tion decrease from 170 kW to 68.4 kW and from 163 kW to
65.7 kW, respectively. This was mainly due to the decrease
of the compression ratio caused by the evaporating
temperature rising. It also can be seen that the three-stage
compression system always has the smallest compressor
power consumption. With the waste heat source tempera-
ture increasing, the power saving of multi-stage compres-
sion became less and less significant.
Based on the simulation results of total power
consumption and heating capacity, the variation of system
COP with waste heat source temperature is analyzed in
Fig. 5. It can be seen that system COP increased with the
waste heat source temperature rising. As the waste heat Fig. 6 Variation of exergy efficiency with waste heat source
temperature
source temperature increased from 50°C to 90°C, the
system COP increased from 3.1 to 6.7 for the single-stage
compression system and from 3.5 to 6.98 for the two-stage efficiencies decreased by 20.2% when the waste heat
compression system, respectively. The system COP of the source temperature increased from 50°C to 90°C. With the
three-stage compression system was 3.74 for 50°C waste evaporating temperature increasing, the exergy destruction
heat source temperature and 7.14 for 90°C waste heat of compression process and expansion process became less
source temperature. Under the same waste heat source and less serious. The total exergy destruction of the system
temperature condition, the COP improvement of the multi- is decreased while the exergy loss of condensation and
stage compression system was significant. Compared with evaporation process remains a constant because of the
the single-stage compression system, the COP improve- fixed heat transfer approach temperature. Taking all of the
ments of the two-stage compression system are 12.2% and above factors into consideration, the relatively irreversible
6.3% for 50°C and 80°C waste heat source temperature, loss increased with the waste heat source temperature
respectively. The COP improvements of the three-stage rising. So the exergy efficiencies of all the single-stage and
compression system are 19.8% for 50°C waste heat source multi-stage compression systems decreased. For the waste
temperature and 9.4% for 80°C waste heat source heat source temperature of 60°C, the improvements of the
temperature. exergy efficiency were 6.9% and 11.8% for the two-stage
and three-stage compression systems when compared with
the single-stage compression system.
Table 2 lists the simulation results of R1234ze (Z) heat
pumps evaluated under the 60°C waste heat source
temperature condition. As the stage number is increased,
the compressor work is reduced and heating capacity is
increased, which results in the increase of COP. Table 2
also lists the mass flow rate and pressure of each stage in

Table 2 Simulation results of R1234ze(Z) heat pumps

Items Single-stage Two-stage three-stage
Wcom/kW 146.1 141.8 137.2
Qcon/kW 524.6 545.7 561.8
Qeva/kW 420 420 420
Fig. 5 Variation of COP with waste heat source temperature COP 3.59 3.93 4.18
mtotal/(kg$s–1) 2.96 3.11 3.25
Figure 6 reveals the variation of exergy efficiency with –1
min,1/(kg$s ) 0.496 0.276
waste heat source temperature for different stage compres- –1
min,2/(kg$s ) 0.322
sion systems. As the waste heat source temperature
increased, the exergy efficiency decreased gradually. For Psuc/bar 3.91 3.91 3.91
the single-stage and two-stage compression systems, the Pin,1/bar 8.92 6.76
exergy efficiencies decreased by 18.3% and 19.2% when Pin,2/bar 11.72
the waste heat source temperature increased from 50°C to Pdis/bar 20.29 20.29 20.29
90°C. For the three-stage compression system, the exergy
500 Front. Energy 2017, 11(4): 493–502

the compression process. The reduced pressure ratio results

in a reduction of the compressor work consumption, and
finally results in a COP improvement. When the three-
stage compression heat pump is applied, the COP is
improved by 16.4% under the 60°C waste heat source
temperature condition.

4.2 Variation of exergy destruction ratio

The exergy destruction ratio reflects the percentage of

exergy loss for each process in heat pump systems.
Figure 7 shows the variation of exergy destruction ratio of
the compression process with waste heat source tempera-
ture. It can be seen that the exergy destruction ratio of the
compression process decreased with the waste heat source Fig. 8 Exergy destruction ratio of condensation processes
temperature rising. As the waste heat source temperature
increased from 50°C to 90°C, the exergy destruction ratio temperature. As the waste heat source temperature
of the compression process was found to decrease from increased from 50°C to 90°C, the exergy destruction
44% to 36% for the single-stage compression system. For ratio of the expansion process was found to decrease from
the two-stage and three-stage compression system, the 21.4% to 12.3% for the single-stage compression system.
destruction ratio decreased from 42% to 31% and from For the two-stage and three-stage compression systems, the
40% to 28%, respectively. The main reason for this was destruction ratio decreased from 17.3% to 10.1% and from
that the exergy destruction in the compressors decreased 14% to 9%, respectively. The reason for this is that the
with the rise of evaporating pressure. increase of waste heat source temperature can effectively
reduce the pressure difference between evaporating and
condensing, and then reduce the exergy loss of the
expansion process.
Figure 10 shows the variation of the exergy destruction
ratio of the evaporation processes with waste heat source
temperature. It can be seen that the exergy destruction ratio
of the evaporation processes increased by 5.2% and 3.7%
for the two-stage and three-stage compression system,
respectively. With the waste heat source temperature
increasing from 50°C to 90°C, the exergy destruction
ratio of the evaporation processes increased from 8.4% to
15% for the single-stage compression system. The main
reason for evaporation processes was similar to that for the
condensation process. The decrease of the total exergy
destruction may take an important part in the rise of the
Fig. 7 Exergy destruction ratio of compression processes exergy destruction ratio for the evaporation processes.

Figure 8 displays the variation of the exergy destruction

ratio of the condensation processes with waste heat source
temperature. As the waste heat source temperature
increased from 50°C to 90°C, the exergy destruction
ratio of the condensation processes increased from 29% to
43% for the two-stage compression system and from 32%
to 45% for the three-stage compression system. For the
single-stage compression system, the exergy destruction
ratio of the condensation processes had the same increment
(about 14%) with the multi-stage compression system.
This is mainly due to the decrease of the total exergy
destruction and the constant exergy loss of condensation
with waste heat source temperature increasing.
Figure 9 reveals the variation of the exergy destruction
ratio of the expansion process with waste heat source Fig. 9 Exergy destruction ratio of expansion processes
 Bin HU et al. Exergy analysis of multi-stage compression heat pump with R1234ze(Z) refrigerant 501

high-temperature of 120°C. Simulation approach is

conducted to analyze the performance of multi-stage
compression heat pump systems under different waste
heat source temperature conditions. Besides, exergy
analysis is also conducted to investigate the exergy
destruction and exergy loss ratio. The main conclusions
are as follows.
The waste heat source temperature has a great influence
on the total power consumption and system COP of the
multi-stage compression heat pumps. As the waste heat
source temperature increases from 50°C to 90°C, system
COP increases from 3.5 to 6.98 for the two-stage
compression system and from 3.74 to 7.14 for the two-
stage compression system, respectively. As the stage
Fig. 10 Exergy destruction ratio of evaporation processes number increases for the same waste heat recovered, the
multi-stage compression heat pump has less power
4.3 Comparison with reference results consumption.
The multi-stage compression heat pump significantly
The exergy destruction ratio of the single-stage compres- improves the system COP and exergy efficiency. When the
sion heat pump is compared to the calculated results of three-stage compression heat pump is applied, the COP is
Fukuda et al. [19]. The comparison is performed assuming improved by 16.4% under the 60°C waste heat source
the R1234ze(Z) condensing temperature of 125°C is temperature conditions. The exergy efficiency is improved
maintained. For different heat pump process, the exergy by 6.9% and 11.8% for the two-stage and three-stage
destruction ratio of the simulation and reference results are compression systems when compared with the single-stage
compared in Fig. 11. It can be seen that the exergy compression system.
destruction ratios of the compression and condensation The exergy destruction ratio of each process is
processes take up a large proportion. While those of the investigated for multi-stage compression heat pumps.
expansion and evaporation processes account for 13% and With the waste heat source temperature increasing, the
12%, respectively. The relative deviation of the simulation exergy destruction ratio of the compression and expansion
and reference results is less than 5%. This reveals that the processes decreases, while that of the condensation and
simulation method is able to reflect the system perfor- evaporation processes increases. Under the same operating
mance and predict the exergy destruction for different heat conditions, the three-stage compression heat pump has the
pump process. minimum exergy destruction of the compression and
expansion process. The results indicate that the three-stage
compression heat pump system has obvious advantage of
exergy efficiency with heat recovery.

Acknowledgements This research was supported by the National Key

R&D program of China (Grant No. 2016YFB0601200).

References
1. Nishimura T. “Heat pumps—status and trends” in Asia and the
Pacific. International Journal of Refrigeration, 2002, 25(4): 405–
413
2. He Y N, Cao F, Jin L, Xing Z W. Development and field test of a
high-temperature heat pump used in crude oil heating. Proceedings
Fig. 11 Comparison of simulation and reference results of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part E: Journal of
Process Mechanical Engineering, 2017, 231(3): 392–404
5 Conclusions 3. Wu X K, Xing Z W, He Z L, Wang X, Chen W. Performance
evaluation of a capacity-regulated high temperature heat pump for
Multi-stage compression heat pump systems with waste heat recovery in dyeing industry. Applied Thermal Engineer-
R1234ze(Z) refrigerant are investigated to recover the ing, 2016, 93: 1193–1201
waste heat in industrial processes. The pressurized water is 4. Watanabe C. Pioneering industrial heat pump technology in Japan.
gradually heated by the subcooler and the condenser to a In: 3rd Conference of AHPNW, HUST, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2013
502 Front. Energy 2017, 11(4): 493–502

5. Li T X, Guo K H, Wang R Z. High temperature hot water heat pump heat recovery. International Journal of Refrigeration, 2015, 53: 126–
with non-azeotropic refrigerant mixture HCFC-22/HCFC-141b. 141
Energy Conversion & Management, 2002, 43(15): 2033–2040 13. Lee H, Hwang Y, Radermacher R, Chun H H. Performance
6. Liu N X, Shi L, Han L Z, Zhu M. Moderately high temperature investigation of multi-stage saturation cycle with natural working
water source heat pumps using a near azeotropic refrigerant mixture. fluids and low GWP working fluids. International Journal of
Applied Energy, 2005, 80(4): 435–447 Refrigeration, 2015, 51: 103–111
7. Brown S J, Zilio C, Gavallini A. The fluorinated olefin R-1234ze(Z) 14. Arpagaus C, Bless F, Schiffmann J, Bertsch S S. Multi-temperature
as a high temperature heat pumping refrigerant. International heat pumps: a literature review. International Journal of Refrigera-
Journal of Refrigeration, 2009, 32(6): 1412–1422 tion, 2016, 69: 437–465
8. Wang K, Cao F, Wang S G, Xing X. Investigation of the 15. Hu B, Li Y, Cao F, Xing Z. Extremum seeking control of COP
performance of a high temperature heat pump using parallel cycles optimization for air-source transcritical CO2 heat pump water heater
with serial heating on the water side. International Journal of system. Applied Energy, 2015, 147: 361–372
Refrigeration, 2010, 33(6): 1142–1151 16. Arora A, Kaushik S C. Theoretical analysis of a vapor compression
9. Pan L, Wang H, Chen Q C, Chen C. Theoretical and experimental refrigeration system with R502, R404A and R507A. International
study on several refrigerants of moderately high temperature heat Journal of Refrigeration, 2008, 31(6): 998–1005
pump. Applied Thermal Engineering, 2011, 31(11–12): 1886–1893 17. Bayrakci H C, Ozgur A E. Energy and exergy analysis of vapor
10. Chamoun M, Rulliere R, Haberschill P, BerailJ F. Dynamic model compression refrigeration systems using pure hydrocarbon refrig-
of an industrial heat pump using water as refrigerant. International erants. International Journal of Energy Research, 2009, 33(12):
Journal of Refrigeration, 2012, 35(4): 1080–1091 1070–1075
11. Redón A, Navarro-Peris E, Pitarch M, Gonzálvez-Macia J, Corberán 18. Ahamed J U, Saidur R, Masjuki H H. A review on exergy analysis of
J M. Analysis and optimization of subcritical two-stage vapor vapor compression refrigeration system. Renewable & Sustainable
injection heat pump systems. Applied Energy, 2014, 124(7): 231– Energy Reviews, 2011, 15(3): 1593–1600
240 19. Fukuda S, Kondou C, Takata N, Koyama S. Low GWP refrigerants
12. Kondou C, Koyama S. Thermodynamic assessment of high- R1234ze(E) and R1234ze(Z) for high temperature heat pumps.
temperature heat pumps using Low-GWP HFO refrigerants for International Journal of Refrigeration, 2014, 40(3): 161–173