Heating load and COP optimization of a double resonance energy selective electron (ESE) heat pump

Abstract

A model of a double resonance energy selective electron (ESE) heat pump in one-dimensional system with two idealized energy filters is established in this paper. The analytical expressions of heating load and coefficient of performance (COP) for the ESE heat pump are derived. The optimum heating load and COP performances of the double resonance ESE heat pump are analyzed by using the theory of finite time thermodynamics. The effective regions of central energy level and heating load are obtained. The influences of energy space as well as resonance width of the two resonances on the performance of the ESE heat pump are discussed by detailed numerical examples. The values of some important performance parameters are also obtained by numerical calculations. The performance of the double resonance device is compared with that of the single resonance device. It is found that the maximum heating load decreases with the increase of energy space or the decrease of resonance width, while the maximum COP decreases with the increase of energy space or resonance width. By reasonable choices of the first resonance energy level, the energy space and the resonance width, the heat pump can be controlled to operate under the maximum COP condition. The results obtained herein can provide some theoretical guidelines for the design of practical multi-barrier nanostructured devices.