A new ideal evaporative freezing cycle

Abstract

A new ideal evaporative freezing cycle for freezing of water is proposed and analyzed by using the conservation of energy and the conservation of mass principles. The proposed cycle utilizes low temperature heat sources such as solar energy, geothermal energy, and waste heat, and consists of a freezing chamber, an air-to-air heat exchanger, a desiccant chamber, an air-to-water heat exchanger, and a fan through which air circulates at atmospheric pressure. The operating principles of the cycle is based on the fact that as dry air picks up moisture from water, the water vapor absorbs heat primarily from the remaining body of the water, and thus the water is cooled and frozen. It is shown that the proposed system can produce 28.4 g ice/kg dry air circulated at most and have a thermal coefficient of performance up to 0.47. The proposed evaporative freezing cycle offers a viable alternative to the conventional refrigeration methods and provides refrigeration by using the inexpensive source of thermal energy source. Also, various aspects of the cycle proposed is discussed.