Crystallization Analysis and Control of Ammonia-Based Air Source Absorption Heat Pump in Cold Regions

Abstract

Energy consumption of heating and domestic hot water is very high and will keep increasing. Air source absorption heat pump (ASAHP) was proposed to overcome the problems of low energy efficiency and high air pollution existing in boiler systems, as well as the problem of bad performance under low ambient temperatures for electrical heat pumps. In order to investigate the crystallization possibility of ammonia-salt ASAHP, crystallization margin (evaluated by solution mass concentration) at generating temperature ranging from 100 to 150°C, evaporating temperature from −30 to 10°C, and condensing temperature from 30 to 65°C are analyzed. To prevent the NH3–NaSCN solution from crystallizing, ASAHP integrated with pressure booster located between the evaporator and absorber is simulated. Analysis and comparisons show that NH3–NaSCN is easy to crystallize at relatively high generating temperature, low evaporating temperature, and low condensing temperature. But crystallization margin of NH3–LiNO3 can always stay above 5% for most conditions, keeping away from crystallization. Pressure booster can effectively avoid the crystallization problem that will take place in the NH3–NaSCN ASAHP system.