Performance simulation study of multi-stage compression-throttle water working medium high-temperature heat pump system

Abstract

In order to meet the demands of industrial high temperature heat and waste heat recovery in an economical and low-carbon manner, there has been a growing interest in the high-temperature heat pump using water as working medium. The study aims to address the issue of higher exhaust temperature in water working medium heat pumps resulting from a substantial increase in temperature, especially for the large temperature difference system which needs to adopt multi-stage compression. This will be accomplished by proposing a new and energy-efficient high-temperature heat pump system that utilizes water as the working medium. The optimized system combining with self-circulating water spraying and multi-stage compression, which can significantly reduce exhaust superheat and steadily improve system performance. A thermodynamic analysis was conducted on both two-stage and three-stage high-temperature heat pumps, taking into account the improved structure. The results indicate that the three-stage compression-throttle type can achieve the highest maximum water spraying ratio and the lowest exergy loss. This can effectively decrease the superheat of the compressor exhaust and enhance the overall system performance. Furthermore, in the three-stage compression-throttle system, when the evaporation temperature is set at 100 °C with a temperature increase of 40 °C, a mere 0.01 % augmentation in the water spraying ratio results in approximately a 0.0776 uplift in the COP of the water working medium system. This notable observation suggests that the implementation of self-circulating water spraying considerably enhances the system’s overall performance. Subsequently, an analysis of the corresponding design and operating parameters was conducted. It is important to note that the temperature of the waste heat source and the rotational speed of the compressor are the two key parameters that significantly impact the operation of the system. By this study, it provides some theoretical guidance for practical engineering applications.